When I was starting in the mobile home industry, I had no idea what the process was for a homeowner to sell their mobile home.

Was it a good idea to have the seller try and sell their home themselves? Should the homeowner sell their home directly to the park, or should the seller enlist a mobile home brokerage firm to help sell their home for them? What is the best option for that seller?

I was surprised to learn that, after doing my research on each one of these options, there is one clear-cut way to go about selling a mobile home that will provide the seller with the highest selling price in the least amount of time.

Many mobile homeowners will try and sell their homes themselves. Now, traditionally this is done through the use of For Sale by Owner signs planted in their front yard, hoping someone will come by, see the sign, and make an offer they are willing to accept. I call this the needle-in-the-haystack method. Yes, it certainly can be done, but it does not yield predictable results. There is no telling how long this will take, and for what price their home will finally sell. Each month that this process drags on with the seller waiting for the perfect buyer to emerge, they are paying another month’s lot rent and are that much further away from getting on with their life.

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Sarasota Mobile Home

What is Fore Sale by Owner and what are its Pros and Cons?

For Sale By Owner means itself. A property is being offered to sell by its owner without the help of a third party like an agent or broker.  How convenient can it be to sell a property through an advisor? The first thing one thinks of is the commissions and the money that one could save oneself without it, but if we place all the factors in a balance, it is worth rethinking the situation. We propose a list of 5 advantages and disadvantages that we recommend taking into account when making a decision as important as this.

Advantages of For Sale By Owner

  1. You will have greater profits since the commissions that would correspond to the agent can be saved (without considering the value of your time in the entire sales process)
  2. You can do things in your way, for example: publish your sale announcement wherever you want and whatever you want (but if you do not review it frequently, you will not find out that there are people interested in your property)
  3. You will have the opportunity to work at your pace, without coordinating activities with third parties (anyway, that could make some potential clients lose).
  4. You will be in charge of selling only one property, so you will have more time than an agent who has other properties to sell.
  5. You can establish your own game rule (but not necessarily your rules are accepted by the potential buyer. Probably a professional broker could establish a balance point and get the sale to be made).

Disadvantages of For Sale By Owner

  1. Selling a mobile home demands a lot of time and dedication. In addition to your daily activities, to achieve the sale, you will have to deal with all parts of the sales process.
  2. Licensed mobile home brokers such as The Mobile Home Dealer have multiple tools (contact networks, website, experience, market trajectory, etc.) that will allow you to find potential buyers.
  3. The mobile home agent has sales strategies, useful and necessary to close a sale.
  4. You can also provide advice. Negotiate and write contracts that you do not know.
  5. If something in the operation goes wrong, you will always have a responsible firm to claim and demand a guarantee. If you were scammed by an individual, you would have no one to claim. And the cases of fraud are increasingly numerous. Do not put your mobile home at risk.
  6. If you do not work with an agent, you will have to take care of the cumbersome process of paperwork, fees, payments, etc.

Although the sign method is a good, basic strategy that may have worked in the past, it should not be relied on now or in the future.

With the market changing due to the global pandemic of COVID-19, we are seeing more and more buyers buying mobile homes, sight unseen, through viewing the home solely online. The method for buyers finding homes online varies but it is safe to say that there are considerably fewer people driving around and calling for sale by owner signs right now.

Now, another aspect of selling their home themselves that many sellers do not consider is the fact they will need to show their home themselves, oftentimes to strangers. To set up these showings the seller will be required to answer all phone calls at all hours of the day, which can become quite a task.

Most mobile home parks are not willing or interested in buying mobile homes from owners within the same park. The reason for this is that, for most park owners, their business is in collecting the lot rent, not in owning homes within the park. If the seller looks to sell the park their home and is already paying lot rent, the park has nothing to benefit from in buying the home as their need is already being met in receiving the lot rent each month. More times than not this creates an immediate end to the option of selling that home to the park.

When a seller enlists the help of a licensed mobile home broker, such as The Mobile Home Dealer, who has experience in selling homes similar to theirs, they are immediately released of the time and effort it takes to market and show their own home.

When a seller lists their home with The Mobile Home Dealer, we have our full-time marketing staff market their home through all of our social media campaigns, on our website, and all major listing sites within the industry. We pay for all marketing fees, take all calls from interested buyers, and show the home so that the seller doesn’t have to meet with strangers and have them enter their home.

To start the sales process we shop every home immediately to our qualified cash-buyer list, many times selling the home to these individuals before even listing the home on the market! Our sales approach provides a hands-off selling approach for the seller that leads to a faster sale and more money in the seller’s pocket.

We, at The Mobile Home Dealer, believe we can be your guide throughout the mobile home selling process to help get your home sold for the most money in the shortest time.

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