Im having an issue selling new homes . Our lot rents are $400 and were getting 650 per month for our used homes. We priced the New homes 3/2ba at $895 incl lot rent and the phones dont ring, anyone have any ideas on getting new homes sold? Ohio area btw
Where are you advertising?
What are comparable 3/2 mobile and apartment rents?
it sounds like you are under market - to me.
I’m the marketing director in our company - I’d like to see your ad…
I am not perfect, but willing to help if I can.
I’m just curious. How do you come to your conclusion about being under market? I didn’t see any info on the demographics… unemployment, housing glut or shortage? comparable home pricing…
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good point - but if lot rent is $400 and Clint is getting 895 - that leaves 495 for the home — which is below our cost - on a 10 yr term with 4.5% interest.
Yes, it was presumptuous of me.
NEW HOME AVAILABLE NOW!
As low as $995 moves you in!
Offer expires JANUARY 31, 2021!
Hurry in and apply! This home won’t last long!!
This CONTEMPORARY BRAND NEW 2021
3 or can be made into a 4 bed /2 full bath home features an open concept living space.
This home comes complete with all NEW appliances, blinds, Garden Tub.
1 year warranty
The community itself features:
-ON SITE SECURITY
-Located just minutes from US 23/ I 475
-On-site professional management / maintenance
You mentioned in your post 895 but the ad is 995 - which one is it?
Try a different approach - what’s the lowest price you can realistically advertise? You can always do “Homes from $X” that way the phone rings more often.
Try making a few more ads, and see if 100 dollars down makes the phone ring way more. There may be a specific number in your market that triggers consistent response.
Lastly, if internet is not doing well, try aggressive marketing in person, resident letters, banners and signs outside, maybe a mail campaign to apartments or even delivering notices to laundromats or signs outside heavy traffic areas. I get calls very often but walk ins always have the best customers for me.
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@Gonzalo - if the goal is make the phone ring more - make the ad: 16x80 4br 2 ba mobile home all redone, $500 down, $350/mo Owner will finance.
That will get the phone to ring, but not the customer you want. 
@clintncal, there are SOOO many schools of thought on marketing and messages, so to some audience, your ad may work, but it is not, so ABT - Always Be Testing. Let’s test this baby. And remember, this is all just MY opinion and experience.
1st (JMO) is it is a little too selly. If I think of my clients - they are more skeptical of others, they dislike salespeople, etc. Let’s stick to the point in your next ad - and give them what they want.
I am sure you are proud of your community, but again - on site security - reminds me of the time I went into a BBQ restaurant (more than one actually) in Kansas City, KS - there’s an armed, uniformed guard in the foyer and right as you walk in the main dining room. - I’m like WTF is going on here, should I even be in this joint? We’re gonna drop that ‘amenity’ immediately - we’ll save that little feature till after they fall in love with the inside of the house. When they will feel all warm and cuddly, but not upfront.
In marketing we always say WIIFM - What’s in it for me?
Does this ad talk to me personally and hit the buttons of what I want… no.
Next - do I want a wave a calls I can’t get back to - I will get up to 50 inquiries a day - WAY too many to respond to properly - and ZERO potential of follow up with any.
Your goal should be #1 strike up interest, #2 make the appointment to get them in the office - THEN #3 hit them with details of pre-qual. for us that looks like this:
1 - Great ad - text or email comes in “I’m interested” (which btw is usually garbage - especially FB - no one is reading the ad, they are just clicking on the pretty picture and the pre-filled message box “I’m interested” bs). No one is reading the ad - so they have no idea it is not for rent, or you need money up front, etc.
2 - we respond: What is the best number to reach you? I can get us a time to get inside. (keep their balloon full). guessing 70-80% will stop at that point. If I DO follow up, they usually answer something like, “sorry, I just hit it with my finger” or “I didn’t ask about a home”. ok cool — this is clearly a waste of your time - and what we found with 99% of the FB MP ads. I am glad they are out of my life to be honest.
3 - we reply: What is the best number to reach you? I can get us a time to get inside. If they reply with the number, then we call them. If they don’t give the number, we drop it, they aren’t interested.
4 - set the table, get it all pretty = Hi, I saw you called about the blue home - I love that one myself. -the porch ius my favorite! - what are you all looking for? Are you paying cash - or do you need our Lease Purchase program? That has been doing really well - people like it. (oh, wow - other people like it, I’m in). Yes, we just want to see it. OK, no problem - we can show it to you today at 3 or tomorrow at 10, which works best for you. Today is good. Ok, cool - do you have any pets? Yes. Great - we have a 25# limit on our pets.
5 - You are going down the Decision Making Branch with them. OK, no pets - good. We sell our homes at a wholesale price, so you’ve got lots of options. you can pay cash, or if your score is over 660, we can get you a traditional loan - or you will need $5,000 up front money to do our Lease Purchase program - which works best for you.
If they say, I just want to see it - then that’s up to you on if you want to waste your time, or say call back when you have the upfront money — and then we can help.
with a good ad, we get the little old lady who has cash and that’s the home run - now will she like the park? THAT’s the time to do the On-site Security, neighbor is retired Police Chief, that guy over there is a Marine, etc. Then close the sale.
We send them an application online, it goes right into our Rent Manager, we send all docs back via e-sign and we’re off to the races.
but the ad is the key - its your message to get the right person you want.
Here’s an ad we use, tweak and re-tweak, but this is the basic one to start with. See how it feels, see what it says – don’t vary from this spirit - and don’t add a bunch of crap in it — it is not to tell your whole life story.
This ads only purpose on this planet is to get the phone to ring:
Brand New 2021 3br 2ba NEW mobile home - to Own.
This home is available to buy or Lease Purchase. Work to own this dream home is just 12 years. Monthly payment includes home payment, lot rent + taxes.
16x76 = 3 Bedrooms | 2 Bathrooms
Minimum Upfront Payment: $4,500
Monthly Payment: $770 total
Discounted Cash Price: $53,890
Good luck - and please let us know how you make out - also, tell us what you did that is working, not working and share. That’s how we all do better.
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Wow!u really under promised and over delivered , great info, ill make the adjustments and look into the E-sign thru RM, great ,great stuff
tks again.Brad!
Try it — ABT. 
Here’s the thing about RM 12 - my wife, who works with me - she actually does it all - but she said, “you don’t understand our residents - we could never do this - some of them, don’t have the education or they are in their 80s with flip phones, no English, etc - all electronic is a joke - with “our” people”.
I told her people are people and that’s it - we’re going to do it.
I hang with a tight group of fellas who have a whole bunch more parks than I do with our measly 5 parks. - and she said to me one night over a glass of wine, “So you mean to tell me that BEN has ALL his people (probably 3000-4000 residents) to pay online - I’m calling BS”.
I texted Ben and he said 100% - took about 3 months.
Well, as usual - Ben is always correct. We rolled up our sleeves in disbelief and it took about 3 months and we are done baby!!! 100%. 2nd grade education, 80s with no phone, flip phones, No english, on and on.
It works - don’t let anyone tell you differently. It is like riding a Magic Carpet to me. LOVE the Electronic Pay.
No more 20-30 trips to the post office every morning. No more opening up hundreds of checks every day of the month. No more filling out endless deposit slips. No more data entering all those people. its just in there automatically.
Just do it.
And let me know about the ads - I’d like to know if things turn around for you.
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@BradSimmons I’d love to know how you got everyone to transfer to doing it automatically online. (Is this via cashpay or via the internet?) - it is the biggest source of stress. This comes from a pissed off owner who just had a Walmart tell my residents “Nah we don’t do cashpay, what the heck is a Paylease?”.
I had this same question a couple years ago. Search my thread “CASH Program and Selling Homes” in the topics. Frank answered this for me. I did like 75% of what he suggested and I sold all my new homes before I could get to the rest of what he said to do. It all boils down to local foot traffic. Word of mouth and drive by customers make up for 75% of the deals you close. I found that to be true and completely stopped advertising on Facebook. The only thing I do online is MHVillage.com and I’ll advertise in the local paper which also gets me an online ad on their website. I’ve sold 12 brand new homes in the last couple years and several used ones, all for cash or 3rd party financing but in almost every case it was from a referral or someone who drove by and saw the banners and For Sale signs.
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@Gonzalo - we just sent them a letter, told them what to do - and guessing 50% needed help. OMG hahaha. Of course, these were the most painful — but we jumped on the phone and we helped them along step by step. And it was challenging.
EVERY Tenant got a laminated card (credit card size). We printed them out, laminated them ourselves to save the PayLease charge (well worth it for us to do that).
Now that all said, there are two different types of folks:
#1 - checking account people, they do ACH - its $1 charge to do that - we eat that. You can choose for the resident to pay that, but its a nice little ‘thank you’ for being a checking account - auto pay resident to us. However, they are saving a stamp and envelope too - just god justification for having them pay it.
#2 - non-checking account people. Walmart charges them $4 to run the money through. Credit or debit cards are 3% billed back to the resident if they choose credit card. I would say maybe 10-15% use Walmart
Those are mainly the Hispanics and people on government assistance
They just walk into a Kroger or Walmart, hand them the instruction card and the cash — and the $4 convenience fee (they pay it). We only pay the $1 for about 100 residents. so fine.
Ahhhhh, magic carpet ride.