There Are Many Reasons Why You May Need to Sell a Mobile Home Fast – Here’s How to Do It!
By Jeremy and Samera Harvey, of Dayo Properties
We get it! Selling your mobile home on your own can be a scary thing, especially when you’re looking to sell a mobile home fast and for cash. We’ve worked with hundreds of residents to help them sell their mobile home the fast and easy way, and have learned our share of lessons along the way.
We’ve put together our 5 Quick & Easy Tips to Sell Your Mobile Home, which will help guide you through this process and ensure you have the tools needed to help you sell a mobile home fast.
1. Advertise Your Home Online & Offline
This step is the most important! I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been to property inspections with clients who need to sell their mobile home fast but they don’t even have a sign in the window or any other advertisements online to attract mobile home buyers. To make matters worse, some of them have been trying to sell their mobile home for months! Even doing one of these cheap and easy advertisements can attract buyers FAST, and with very little effort. Below are our top tips to get the most visibility for your home:
- Put a Mobile Home “For Sale” sign in the window with your phone number and/or email address. Your neighbors may know someone who is looking to move into the community and this will alert them that your home is for sale.
- Post photographs and a detailed description online to sell your mobile home. MHVillage has been a major key to helping us sell our mobile homes fast online. We love that the buyers we get from this site are usually very serious and ready to buy.
- Post photos and a description of your home on Facebook Marketplace. Beware, you may be overwhelmed by the response, so be sure you have a few qualification questions in mind to sift through the noise. This will help you find serious buyers.
- Inform the park manager that you are selling. Provide flyers with a few pictures of your home, if possible. Many potential mobile home buyers will contact the park office to find out about homes listed in the community. You want to be sure they know your mobile home is for sale.
Read: Comprehensive guide for how to sell a mobile home
2. Have Your Paperwork Ready
When you’re trying to sell a mobile home for cash, the process can be incredibly fast, so you want to be prepared. If you have an eager buyer with cash in hand, the last thing you want is paperwork holding up the closing. To ensure you sell your mobile home quickly without any hiccups be sure that you’re proactive with attaining the documents needed to expedite your sale. You don’t want to lose a buyer because of things you could’ve taken care of ahead of time in just minutes!
- Have A Physical Copy of Your Title In Your Possession. We recommend for security purposes that you wait to notarize the title until you have a buyer in place.
- Ensure All Taxes Have Been Paid. You can request a tax clearance letter from your county treasurer’s office to provide proof of payment to your potential buyer. Read up on our guide “All About Mobile Home Taxes”.
- Provide The Park Management With A Written Notice. Many times park management may want you to complete a few exterior repairs to your home before they’ll allow you to transfer ownership. So, you will want to verify this before you put the home up for sale.
- Have the Mobile Home Bill of Sale, AKA “Mobile Home Sale Contract”. This is very important to ensure you have a record of the sale. When you sell a mobile home fast on contract it helps to protect you and the buyer from legal action.
3. Price Your Home The Right Way
If you need to sell your mobile home fast, pricing your home the right way is key! We’ve seen many beautiful homes sit on the market for months or even years simply because they were priced too high for the community they reside in. Before you set a price, it’s important to do your research and compare mobile home listings in your park and zip code.
Here’s the problem, finding comparables in mobile home parks can be very difficult and time-consuming because each community can have a wide range of sizes, ages, and conditions of homes. This lack of consistency can make it difficult to find a home similar to yours to compare prices. So, just because you have the same year or the same size home as another person in your community, it doesn’t mean that they will be valued the same. Below is our 3 Step Approach to Finding the Market Value of Your Mobile Home:
- Ask the park manager what similar homes are selling for in your community
- Pull the book value report from MHVillage. This is a great tool to help justify your price with potential buyers.
- Check online listing sites like Facebook Marketplace & Craigslist for similar listings in your area. Choose the three most comparable homes and derive a sales price by finding the average valuation or sale price of the comps.
4. Big Five Repairs Are A Must!
One of our most frequently asked questions is “How much can I sell my mobile home for if my home needs repairs?” Regardless of the price you pick, the majority of buyers in the marketplace want to ensure the “Big Five” repair items are taken care of for their safety and security. In fact, many mobile home buyers will purchase your home even though a few cosmetic repairs are still needed as long as you and the buyer are able to come to terms with a reasonable price. To ensure you sell your home fast, be sure to take care of these key mobile home repair issues before putting your home on the market. See our
- Mobile home roofing
- Electrical
- Sub-flooring
- A/C
- Plumbing
5. Bring in the Professionals
Trying to sell a mobile home fast can be overwhelming. This is especially true if you have limited time to prospect potential buyers and schedule showings. Below are professional services available to help you save time while someone else does all of the work required to find your buyer and sell your mobile home.
Mobile Home Broker
Mobile home brokers will not only help you sell your mobile home fast, but will help you sell your home for the highest amount possible by keeping you in the retail market. A broker’s job is simply to be a bridge between you and your potential buyer, ensuring that they market your home and qualify the buyer as fast & efficiently as possible. Although mobile home brokers come with a fee, they can save you a lot of time and energy. Look to spend between $2,000 and $5,000 as a commission fee to the broker, or even more depending on your location.
Mobile Home Dealer
A mobile home dealer is the fastest solution to finding a mobile home buyer as they specialize in quick mobile home sales. But, the dealer typically will look to buy your home themselves at a substantial discount. We recommend using this option only if you need to sell your home in less than 30 days and you don’t mind taking less than market value for your home.
Realtor
A realtor is similar to a mobile home broker in the sense that he or she will help you sell your mobile home fast. That person also will also charge a commission when they help you find a mobile home buyer. Typical realtor commissions are between 2 and 4 percent in a traditional stick built home. However, the commission can be double or triple the rate for an agent in the mobile home market. If you decide to work with a realtor be sure to vet him or her. Your realtor should have some experience selling mobile homes. And you should feel confident after the initial consultation that this person can sell a mobile home fast.
