There are several ways to do this when you start searching to buy mobile home parks.
I would suggest trying each of them as they will give you a different perspective and comparable assessment.
Then you will know when you find the park that seems to fit and be able to move quickly.
If you wait too long, you will most likely find it in contact.
Therefore, it is best to be prepared when the time is ripe.
When you are looking for a mobile home park that can be purchased, it is often the park or transaction with the least advertising that may represent the best deal.
Here are some potential ways to find a property: 1.
MobileHomeParkStore: on average, we add more than 80 new properties to the site every month.
Of these new listings, I estimate that about 20% of them are reasonably priced and are selling very quickly.
About 30% of the listings are marginal and may stay on the site for a few months, but will be sold for 6 months to a year.
Due to bad local market or other factors, the price of other 50% items is too high and/or not feasible at the moment.
This is the first 20% most of you will be looking.
The best way to keep the new property updated for sale is to join our early investor list.
48 hours before the site goes live, you will receive all the new listings by email.
As soon as I receive the listing, I will send it to this investor list immediately.
There are two benefits to joining this list: One is that you receive an email from all the lists, you start to see which parks are listed, and you can usually tell you which parks are worth following up quickly.
Another benefit is that you will see these lists 48 hours in front of the public and be able to have a conversation with the seller on site before they are overwhelmed by all these calls. 2.
Other sites: Loopnet. com, CIMLS.
Real estate company website, commercial brokerage website and many other similar websites: I purchased a mobile home park in 2006, the park is listed on a commercial sale site that has been there for 6 months.
I know that if it was on the mobilehomeparkstore or loopnet, it would have been sold long ago.
It\'s worth checking out some other sites that don\'t have the attention of large mobile home park investors. 3.
Google web search: We \'ve been doing these searches, looking for new parks to sell to promote the mobilehomarkstore.
Every once in a while, there will be a good potential deal in the search results listed for sale of about 20 or 30 pages. 4.
Contact real estate agents who specialize in selling mobile home parks: these are professionals who try to get the park to market for sale every day, and they usually have pocket lists or lists that they can\'t advertise.
I will contact any broker who does business in the field you are looking for and be very specific about what you are looking.
It\'s good to keep in touch with them regularly, so when they get a new list, they will consider you if it meets your criteria. 5.
Contact other Realtors you are looking for property: surprisingly, how many brokers who don\'t know how to evaluate the park list mobile home parks and how to sell them, and where to find buyers for the park.
If you are looking for a mobile home park for sale in a state or city, I will find all the brokers in these areas and send them an email, ask if they have any mobile home parks for sale or if they know.
Those who respond to you and take the initiative to follow you will be the ones you will follow up on a regular basis. 6.
Direct mail: I have been using this method in various forms over the years and have purchased many parks in this way.
When setting up a direct mail activity, you\'ll want to distinguish yourself from other companies and individuals who send a lot of mail to the park owner/manager.
Here are a few ideas I have used in the past: a.
Make your mail stand out from other competitors. b.
Think of yourself as a real person, not a limited liability company without identity. c.
Include useful information in the message so that the owner keeps it.
I continue to receive emails from the owner who kept my postcard a few years ago. d.
May include magnets, notepad, or other useful gadgets with your phone number on them that appear in front of the owner when they decide to sell.
Also, any direct mail activity should include multiple contacts for each recipient.
From 3-
In order for you and your company to stay ahead of potential sellers, 5 contacts should be made every year.
I like to switch it by changing the mail, including different letters, postcards, etc, so it\'s not the same every time.
Another important part of the direct mail process is that you have to get a good mailing list to your potential customers.
The best way to do this is to buy an existing list, such as a list on our website, or a list service such as infousa.
Then try to build it to meet your needs. 7.
Cold call: Basically you can go to our website MHPS, go to the park catalog and start calling the park in the area you are looking.
I found it better to position myself as someone who wants to buy a mobile home park in the area and wonder if the park is for sale or if they know it is for sale.
You will be hanged.
Ups, sometimes even get yelled at, but in most cases people are sociable.
Many times these owners/managers will know about other parks sold in the area.
It\'s usually good to get in touch with anyone who seems to be a potential future prospect by mail. 8.
Major newspapers and household goods magazines: Just like listing on the mobilehomepark store, you need to stay on top of these classified ads to make sure you don\'t miss out on potential deals that other investors will take away.
Many of the larger newspapers have an online service that allows you to register an email list that meets a specific standard. 9.
An indirect way to find mobile home park deals is to look for mobile homes to sell and visit them.
By talking to the owners of mobile homes for sale, you can often learn about the community and who owns the community, what the rent is, how big it is, how many vacancies there are and the like
If it seems to suit what you are looking for, then you have another potential customer and you can start contacting the owner on a regular basis. 10.
Drive through potential parks: If you see a park that looks interesting, drive through, write down the phone numbers of some houses for sale, stop and talk to the owner/manager, leave your cards, follow up regularly if it looks appropriate.
Although you often upset managers and bosses and they won\'t be willing to talk to you, don\'t bother residents. 11.
Visit the industrial home trade show, investment seminars in mobile home park and other industry events.
You will have many great contacts with other investors and industry professionals and will start to develop a network to help you search and manage your mobile home park investments. 12.
Subscribe to RSS feeds or Google Alerts to get news at the mobile home park in the news.
You will be looking for parks and park owners in trouble.
Many times the owners do not comply with the regulations, default on the bills, or are doing something to stir up the commotion of the residents.
This is a great way to find motivated sellers, especially if you have a solution to their problem.
Make sure you have a great way to solve the problem so that you are not on the same boat as the seller. 13.
County tax records: most counties have a list of floating home parks in the county, as well as some information about the owners.
By searching for national records, you can also see where the park was last sold, currently by the county (
This is usually quite low)
And whether the tax has been paid.
If taxes are not paid, this may indicate the enthusiasm of the seller. 14.
Contact appraisers, banks, property companies, friends, relatives to let them know what you\'re looking for and keep their eyes open.
If they find what you finally purchased, please provide them with the finder fee.
I had a friend who knew I bought mobile home park and he introduced me to an awesome deal in Texas.
He did some specific work for the owner who told him it was for sale.
He told me about it and I bought it about a month later.
A few months later, I sold it for more than $100 in profit and wrote a $25,000 check to my friend.
He kept his eyes wide open since then.
In another example, I changed oil at Wal-Mart in Nebraska.
The service staff asked me what I was doing in Colorado.
One thing led to another and he told me that he lived in a mobile family park for sale.
I went straight to the park and talked to the owner and bought it a few months later.
It is a park of about 45 units but is poorly managed and reasonably priced.
About 6 months later, I sold the park for more than $75,000.
I think this is the best oil change activity ever! 15.
Another good place to buy a park.
They usually want cash instead of a mobile home park. 16.
Proactive: in the past, I collected some information about certain mobile home parks, the number of spaces, the rent of lots, the occupancy rate, who paid, the sewer, then insert it into a basic valuation formula and generate a quote.
I will prepare a buy and sell contract with all the standard terms and mail them to the owner for the price I am willing to pay.
By doing so, I received a much higher response rate than any other type of direct mail.
However, I received calls or replies from many angry hosts asking me if I was taking drugs or going crazy because their park was much more valuable than what I provided.
On the other hand, I had several owners sign the contract and sent it back.
I bought about 5 parks with this strategy.
