In this episode of The MHP Broker’s Tips and Tricks Closing Cocktails podcast, Maxwell Baker, president of The Mobile Home Park Broker, interviewed The MHP Broker Eric Wanck regarding his recent two-park mobile home park sale in Talladega, Alabama.

As with every Tips and Tricks podcast episode, this one is brought to you by The MHP Broker's proprietary Community Price Maximizer. Use this four-step system to get the highest price possible for your mobile home park or RV community when you sell it through The MHP Broker. Guaranteed. Call Max for details.

Here Are the Show Highlights:

• Max introduced broker Eric Wanck and told how Eric had recently closed on two mobile home parks in Talladega, Alabama with good value-add opportunities. (Max, 00:22)
• With both being small parks, Eric knew he had his work cut out for him. Smaller parks tend not to attract big portfolio owners or Wall Street investors from outside the market, and can take longer to find more localized buyers. Both parks were on city water, which was an advantage. He did get a good all-cash offer for both from a local, but had obstacles that kept the park deals from closing for several months. (Eric, 1:39)
• The delay was caused by the need of the buyer to move money around, selling some properties in order to raise the cash they needed to complete the Talladega deal. (Eric, 3:03)
• The deal was of particular value to the buyer because the lot rents were very much below market at about $175 a month. This would create a strong value-add opportunity to raise rents and increase revenue soon after the purchase. (Eric, 3:17)
• Although the sale took five or six months, it turned out to be a smooth transition and everyone was happy. In fact, the seller was so pleased with the sale that they gave Eric a referral on another park sale. (Eric, 4:30)
• The delayed closing was something Eric hadn’t seen before, but it worked out to the satisfaction of everyone. The lesson here was that every sale is unique, and you just have to stay flexible an deal with it. (Eric, 5:01)

The Mobile Home Park Broker is experienced at brokering parks that have a hiccup or two during the course of the transactions. We can handle it. If you’re thinking of putting your park on the market, call Eric Wanck or Max Baker at The MHP Broker, (678) 932-0200 and we’ll help you find–and find financing for–a qualified buyer. Or drop us a line at info@themhpbroker.com.

Power Quotes in This Episode:

“The small parks are always a little bit of a wild card. How are they going to sell? Typically, we always look at it as a smaller buyer pool. These folks are likely going to be local to the park, instead of your bigger national portfolio buyers coming in and buying these 30-pad parks. So they sit on the market, and that's typical, sometimes a little bit longer than most.” (Eric, 1:39)

“Anytime we see anything under $200 (in lot rents) in the southeast, we know that they're asking for a rental bump at some point.” (Eric, 3:17)

“It was a pretty smooth transaction. At the end of the day, the seller was happy and, believe it or not, this seller turned around and gave us a referral on some other parks.” (Eric, 4:30)

“We just essentially needed to kind of hang on for that closing date. So, it worked out nice, man!” (Eric, 5:01)

(Regarding the market for mobile home park sales) “...as rates continue to push down here, this is a prime time to get back out there and start looking to buy parks, sell parks. Movement is happening for the most part. 2024 was probably slower across all asset classes, but things are definitely picking up. Give us a call, we can help get parks moved and find you something if you want to get on the acquisition side.” (Eric, 5:43)

In this episode of The MHP Broker’s Tips and Tricks Closing Cocktails podcast, Maxwell Baker, president of The Mobile Home Park Broker, interviewed The MHP Broker’s Paul Schaaf regarding his recent sale of a storage facility, mobile home park and RV community in Parkersburg, West Virginia.

As with every Tips and Tricks podcast episode, this one is brought to you by The MHP Broker's proprietary Community Price Maximizer. Use this four-step system to get the highest price possible for your mobile home park or RV community when you sell it through The MHP Broker. Guaranteed. Call Max for details.

Here Are the Show Highlights:

• Max introduced broker Paul Schaaf to discuss his sale of Gihon Self Storage Facility and RV Park in Parkersburg, West Virginia. (00:22)
• The owner had acquired the park as part of a bankruptcy settlement, so his heart wasn’t really in it. He was running it from out of state. It had three verticals: a mobile home park, RV community and self-storage facility. He had a good on-site manager taking care of the day-to-daay, but contacted Paul because he was getting unsolicited offers. The self-storage vertical was running pretty well, with 150 units and about 75 percent occupancy. The mobile home vertical was a mess, though. A lot of houses in poor shape that had to be taken out. The offers were generally just for the self-storage business, but the owner wanted to sell everything as a single unit. They put together a nice marketing package and had multiple offers. The seller had a nice financing program, which helped attract qualified buyers. (Paul, 1:12)
• The owners offered self financing on a portion of the loan at about five percent with a three-year balloon payment. (Paul, 3:15)
• The deal went well, even though the buyer was taking on the mobile home vertical that needed a lot of work. The deal closed in about 45 days. (Paul, 3:49)
• The buyer was someone Paul had worked with in the past. They had money from family and friends, and had invested in commercial properties before. They were just getting into buying mobile home parks, and had a few properties. Having worked with him before, Paul trusted that they could close without major issues, and that’s what happened. (Paul, 4:05)
• Paul’s takeaway was that sellers must be patient, especially if they have properties that are challenging to sell. This one, for instance, had problem houses that had to be removed and replaced. But when you have good buyers and sellers, as he did here, the deal can go quickly and smoothly and be a pleasure to work. (Paul, 4:49)

Bring us your most challenging deals. At The Mobile Home Broker, we have years of experience selling mobile home parks, RV communities and all of the other verticals that might be part of the transaction. Call Paul Schaaf or Max Baker at The MHP Broker, (678) 932-0200. Op drop ‘em a line at info@themhpbroker.com.

Power Quotes in This Episode:

“We are good at those deals in the secondary, tertiary markets. Don't get me wrong. We do big deals. I mean, we just closed a nice $9 million deal recently, and have done upwards toward the multi-million dollar deals as well, up in the 30s. So, we do a lot of deals. We do all types.” (Max, 5:23)