Presently brokers have two buyers or more per listings and the brokers are finding it difficult to supply their normal clients with adequate listings so perhaps your call is not real important to them… The fact is there is an over abundance of money looking for any investment over 5% and the pickings are very slim. We have tried like you have and have made offers but the cap rates end up to low. We are not going to buy parks to say we own them they must show a return since ALL INVESTMENTS have risks and the investor needs a nice cushion in case of calamity such as a hurricane, tornado, or government fails, and riots. For example we are ready to close on stable parks–if your ready to sell we can cash you out–give us a message, thanks.
@HighPlainsDrifter , as per your question:
“Brokers, do you get so many inquiries that it is impossible to distinguish the serious ones from the tire-kickers?”
I am a South Carolina Real Estate Broker-In-Charge and Owner of a Real Estate Company.
There is absolutely no excuse for Brokers not to contact you back.
I am sorry that you have run into this.
If you are looking at one specific state for MHPs, I would highly suggest that you get a MHP Buyer’s Real Estate Agent to work on your behalf.
The MHP Buyer’s Real Estate Agent should ONLY get paid at Closing from the Seller (if the MHP is listed on MLS - Multiple Listing Service).
If the MHP Buyer’s Real Estate Agent is worth their salt, they will contact the MHP Seller’s Real Estate Agent until they get satisfactory responses to your questions.
If you are looking at several states for MHPs, find either:
1.) A Broker that is licensed in the multiple states that you are looking in
/OR/
2.) A Broker for each state that you are looking in
Please note that any Offer that a Buyer presents MUST be presented to the Seller. Now the Seller does not have to accept the Offer (unless it is at the listed Sales Price in MLS and has no Contingencies).
However, please do NOT every present an Offer without Contingencies (such as Financing, Appraisal, Due Diligence) to let you out of the Offer (if need be). You never know what Due Diligence will turn up.
What’s worked for me is saying something like " I’m a motivated 1031 buyer as long as the deal makes sense ". You might also offer a redacted copy of a proof of funds. Most of the responses they get are worthless dreamer / tire kickers.
@HighPlainsDrifter HighPlainsDrifter at present there are so many people looking to buy mhps we get a constant barrage of interested buyers, some are qualified and some are not. We spend a large portion of our time trying to secure inventory to feed the buyers needs. When we get listings the first people we will go to are the people that we know have performed in the past in order to get our clients the highest likelihood of the deal reaching the closing table without major retrades or financing issues. That being said we also want to expose the deal to as many potential buyers to get the best offer for our sellers. If you contacted a broker and had a conversation with them, they most likely have stored your information and will contact you when a deal that fits your criteria comes up, but in the meantime it wouldn’t hurt to put together a buyer’s resume to let the broker know deals you’ve closed in the past, available funds etc.
Please feel free to email me your criteria and contact info Casey.Thom@marcusmillichap.com and I will be happy to follow up with you.
There are maybe 100 mobile home park specific brokers in the U.S. There are something like 1,000 parks listed on Mobilehomeparkstore.com and Loopnet. And that does not include all the pocket listings out there.
The problem is that there are not enough mobile home park brokers to handle the supply and demand of parks. In single-family real estate, there seems to be a ratio of literally about one house per broker. But mobile home parks are like maybe ten times the number of parks per broker. So one problem is simply that there are not enough folks who choose to broker parks in favor of apartments and other forms of commercial real estate.
I would also add that the inability of some brokers to meet their demand creates opportunity. The broker that does not call you back also does not call back 100 other people. Keep after that broker, because those other hundred buyers are going to give up on them, and you can get a much better position as their most persistent buyer.
I do probably 10 Quick Deal Reviews per week for Mobile Home Park Boot Camp attendees, and there are plenty of good deals to be found as demonstrated in those reviews. On-line and brokers are two great sources of deals, but some of the best that come across my desk are the result of direct mail and cold calling, as well as “bonding” with sellers who have had their park for sale for a long time and are getting desperate. I did a review on a deal a few days ago that was listed at $1,3 million and was under contract at $680,000, because the seller was finally getting serious about getting it sold.
The greatest virtue as a park buyer is persistence. If the broker does not call you back, call him ten times a day until he answers his or her phone. Push *67 on a few of those dialings. The squeeky wheel gets the grease, and most brokers operate in that manner, but not out of meanness or lack of ability, but simply because they are few and far between in a market that has suddenly become of interest to people.
I had a dinner last week with couple of brokers who have several MHPs listed. They were sharing with me stories of how people who attended F&D bootcamp called his team several times even after the deal was under contract. Frustrating factor was calls were on getting seller finance deals or that the buyers had $15K to buy a park. Unfortunately, all these calls take time away from the brokers’ already busy schedule and they have to make a judgment call on returning the calls.
I brought up to their attention that one of the brokers did not return my call and he was visibly embarrassed. However, we later came to know that the park was under contract by the time I had left him 2 vmails.
I would encourage you to not only call the brokers, but have a lunch/dinner meeting setup with them if they are in your neighborhood or travel to their city and meet with several brokers. Demonstrate some seriousness of buying parks and stand out from myriad others who call them on a daily basis.
@DallasMHP I’m in Dallas frequently, and have listings there. I’d love to grab coffee with you next time to hear what you’re looking for etc. Im always happy to foster buyer relationships. Like you said, putting a face with a name goes a long ways, in the end real estate is about relationships.
Seriously, I sent out dozens of emails and almost always got replies and packages. I think it was because I let them know up front that I was an experienced, motivated buyer with funds. A statement along the line of your first sentence would get their attention, but obviously reworded.