Too many homes for sale?

mobile home university
1

I suddenly have what feels like a glut of homes for sale in one of my parks

it is a 72 unit park (we reserve one lot for the office)

During our glory days, we would have one or two lots kept open for new home sales, but in the last 10 years the vacancy rate was about 10 %, still not too bad considering there are no sales lots around here.

Late this summer I brought in three 1990’s homes to rehab two of which are done but 1 is more work than we originally planned

But it left me with only 4 vacant lots…and immediately made the park look better

but then I had two 1970 model homes abandoned

and in the last thirty days an unprecedented exodus LOL:

I had a tenant give me her late 1990’s home as a rehab…(more work than expected on this one due to massively deferred maintenance)

Then I had another late 90’s home given as title in lieu of rent…again lots of work to rehab that one, but it now nearly done

a 1970’s home given to me upon death of the tenant

Then a 1970’s home given to me as the owner went into an assisted living home…mediocre shape inside, but siding roofover outside

now another 1990’s home in lieu of rent needs a little work

and now it looks like I’m at least one more 1970 home in lieu of rent…ok on the outside with newer roof, siding and skirting but lots of cosmetic inside and heat problems

and I have one tenant in a 1970’s home that I need to evict for non payment…so I’ll probably get that one too

so now I still have the 4 lots to fill, and the 2 abandoned homes and the reserved lot (office)

but on top of that I have 6 1990’s homes and at least two (probably 4) 1970’s homes on the market

that’s more than we have had for sale since the park was first built, and this is in a small town to boot! If I put them all 10 on the market, this would make more homes for sale in our park than in the entire town.

…and this is traditionally a terrible time for us to sell, with the holidays, we don’t see homes move until Feb or March when income tax refunds come

it’s making my head spin, so I’m thinking of mothballing the home that is too much work, and as much as I hate rentals, just taking the homes that I have the least tied up in and lease them out for a year for the cash flow while I try to sell the refurbished homes.

Once the refurbished homes are sold, I’d tackle the rentals and either convert them to contracts or end the lease and refurb to sell.

I think it looks fishy to buyers when they see a lot of for sale signs

or should I just put everything on the market at once and hope for the best? I still want to fill those 4 empty lots too. plus there’s the abandoned homes to deal with

how do you handle these “opportunities”?

take into context that I am getting ready to list this park this spring

2

Having several homes available at the same time does lend itself to advertising, bigger sales promotions and customer incentives. These events allow you to try different things to find out what sells quick and what gets stale…It is a streaky business. Get em ready and get em sold.

3

it’s just a lot of homes for such a small area… our average tenant stays nearly 10 years andwe usually turn over about 5 a year. I admit that I’m uncomfortable with having so many non producing lots right now entering into the soft winter season as well.

never really had a problem with it before, but as I said, I’m planning on listing the park this spring so it’s not a good time to have decreased lot rentals

4

Dawn -

I think it irrelevant how many homes the town has for sale, or how many you have. We’ve had up to 5 available at one time. If anything, it seems to excite prospective tenants because they know they have a lot from which to choose.

So prioritize your homes not based on what you have in them, but on what it will take from this point forward to get them rentable. Figure out which ones will give you the greatest bang for your buck, and start with them. But get as many ready as possible. January/February is a very strong time of year, and it’s not that far off.

We do rent homes as well. We’ve run the numbers, and in our market, charging an extra $100/month is our point of indifference between a renter and someone purchasing on a rent-credit basis. (Renters do somewhat more damage, but the real ‘cost’ with renters is a hidden one - the lack of income when they turnover. They turnover more rapidly that buyers. Your mileage may vary - but run your numbers and figure out how much more renters really cost you in your market, and price the homes accordingly.)

With multiple homes available, you’ll have scale economies in your advertising, and maybe in some of your repairs.

Good luck,

-jl-

5

We recently had 5 homes abailable all at one time. We had them priced at different levels from 90’s 3 bed totally remodeled to 70’s 2bed needing some paint and carpet. We sold them all in one month. We were able to fit just about every interested parties needs. Also, were coming up onto a very slow selling season but just around the corner is the best selling season, tax refund time. So its not a bad thing to have some homes in inventory when people start receiving their tax refunds.