If you’re looking to learn how to sell a mobile home, it helps to have a clear process. It involves gathering essential paperwork, conducting a thorough inspection and repairing your home, setting a fair price, advertising the property effectively, negotiating offers, and closing the sale.
At MHP Sales Manager, we are mobile home experts focusing on marketing and sales specifically for the mobile home park industry. One of our partners, Rick Bergman, a mobile home park owner, investor, and operator from Buckeye MH Communities, LLC, has shared a few insights from his many years of experience in the field, which we’ve incorporated throughout this article.
1. Gather the Right Paperwork
The first thing you need to do when selling a mobile home is to gather the key documents that support a smooth sale. Essential documents include:
- Home Title: You’ll need the home title and get it notarized. If there’s an existing lien, it must be paid before transferring the title. The title is a document that reflects that you own the property.
- Tax Documentation: Request a tax clearance letter from your county treasurer’s office to show that all taxes on the home have been fully paid.
- Mobile Home Inspection: Buyers often want a professional inspection and a report to verify the home’s condition before moving forward.
- Mobile Home Insurance Records: These records provide a history of any claims and help buyers understand the home’s background. Your insurance provider can supply them upon request.
- Seller’s Disclosure: This outlines the home’s condition and notes any known issues. Full transparency is important, as failing to disclose problems can cause legal trouble later.
- Bill of Sale: This document confirms what is being sold, the purchase price, and any other conditions. It includes items like a description of the mobile home, its make and model, the sale date, and more.
- Fees and Dues List: Include details on ongoing or upcoming costs the buyer must cover, such as lot rent or utility deposits.
- Certificate of Occupancy (CO): This document verifies that the home is suitable for human occupation and that it complies with all the required local regulations.
2. Inspect Your Mobile Home
Before you begin repairs or start marketing the home, take time to thoroughly inspect it.
Why Should You Inspect Your Mobile Home First?
You’ll want a clear picture of its age, current condition, and estimated value both as-is and after potential improvements. This helps you decide whether it makes financial sense to invest in repairs or sell the home in its current state. In many cases, sellers do not recover the full cost of major repairs, so understanding the numbers upfront is important.
A detailed inspection also gives buyers confidence and can support their financing process. Some buyers may even request a professional inspection before committing to a purchase.
Understanding Its Condition
Here’s a mobile home inspection checklist. In general, you want to look for signs of water damage, deterioration, structural problems, and any other issues.
- Undercarriage or bottom board
- Skirting
- Tie-down components
- Stairs
- Heating and cooling systems
- Electrical wiring
- Ducts
- Insulation
- Roof and walls
- Septic system
- Plumbing
- Exterior drainage
- Smoke and CO2 detectors
Understanding its Local Market Value
Take time to review recent sales of comparable manufactured homes in your area to gauge whether fixes and upgrades could improve the final price. If buyers nearby tend to prefer homes that are ready for immediate move-ins, thoughtful renovations may help your home attract more attention and achieve a higher offer.
Determine the Cost of Renovations
Even small projects can add up, so it’s important to understand what your potential fixes and improvements might cost. Every renovation is different, but factors such as material quality, the scope of work, and any required permits or regulatory steps will influence the total expense.
3. Fix, Improve, and Set The Price
Once you’ve reviewed the home’s condition and market value, you should be able to decide whether it makes sense to complete repairs before selling or list the home as-is. With that decision made, you can move forward confidently with either improving the home or proceeding without additional work.
Setting The Right Price
Begin by reviewing what comparable manufactured homes in your area have recently sold for, paying attention to age, size, condition, and whether the land was part of the sale.
One of our partners, Rick Bergman, an experienced MHP investor, owner, and operator, says:
How to Increase Your Home’s Value
Rick also has a couple of tips for park owners who want to increase the value of their homes. While these tips are not necessarily a “quick fix”, they are incredibly useful if you want to develop a more appealing park.
4. List the House
There are many effective places to list your home and get it in front of qualified buyers quickly. Make sure your listing includes clear photos, accurate descriptions, your contact information, and any details that help establish credibility. Here are some options:
- Online Marketplaces: Platforms like Zillow, Trulia, Facebook Marketplace, and Craigslist can help you reach a large audience.
- Social Media and Local Groups: Local Facebook groups and other groups often attract buyers specifically looking for mobile homes in your area.
- Real Estate Agents and Mobile Home Dealers: Working with an agent familiar with manufactured homes or partnering with a dealer can connect you with motivated buyers.
Introducing MHP Sales Manager
We help mobile home park owners and operators sell or lease homes with zero risk. Our business model is simple – You only pay after a successful move-in. Here’s how it works:
- Lead Generation and Qualification: Within a week, we deploy compliant Meta ads, and our trained AI responds instantly to every inquiry and automatically prequalifies prospects on your behalf.
- Manage Showings + Applications: We handle scheduling, confirmations, reminders, and guide leads through park applications and financing.
- Drive to Executed Docs + Keys: Once applicants are approved, we coordinate final paperwork and manage the key handoff.
Learn more about how we can help you generate more mobile home leads.
5. Negotiate
Once interest starts building, you’ll need to review offers and decide how to move forward.
Look closely at each offer that comes in. You can accept it, decline it, or counter with revised terms. Make your decisions based on current market activity, the level of demand in your area, and how quickly you want to sell your home.
Financing Options
Here are four types of buyer financing you can consider:
- FHA Loan: Managed by the Federal Housing Administration, these loans are insured by the FHA and come with very specific requirements.
- Chattel Loan: Similar to an auto loan but designed for property like manufactured homes. Requirements are generally less strict than FHA loans, though an inspection is often needed, and rates may be higher than other traditional options.
- Owner Financing: If the buyer has a down payment but doesn’t qualify for a loan, you can offer financing directly. Make sure to evaluate the buyer carefully before proceeding.
- Cash: This is the simplest option and very common due to the lower cost of manufactured homes. The challenge is that cash buyers often have many choices, which can make negotiations more complicated for sellers.
6. Close the Deal
The closing process includes a final walkthrough to confirm the home’s condition, transferring the title to the new owner, and making sure all documents are complete and signed correctly. You’ll also need to fulfill any state-specific legal requirements, hand over the keys, and help ensure the buyer experiences a smooth transition after the sale.
Expert Tips on How to Sell a Mobile Home Fast
Learning how to sell a mobile home can be daunting, so here are a few extra expert tips that we’ve found can make a difference when you want to sell a property fast.
- Price Competitively With Favorable Terms: A fair price and favorable conditions encourage faster, smoother offers.
- Pick Up The Phone When Prospects Call: Quick communication keeps buyers engaged and prevents missed opportunities.
- Good First Impression: Clean curb appeal, a well-maintained park, and approachable management help buyers feel confident about moving forward.
Common Challenges and How to Handle Them
Over the years, our partner, Rick Bergman, has identified several recurring challenges when it comes to selling a mobile home. Here are some of them and how to address them effectively.
Inconsistent Managers
Having a good team can heavily affect how hard it is to sell a mobile home because some managers fail to handle inquiries properly, causing potential buyers to slip through the cracks. Strong lead handling is essential for maintaining momentum and converting interest into sales.
How to solve: Bring in a professional with a solid track record to ensure prospects are managed consistently and effectively.
Dealing With Lower Credit Scores
Buyers with lower credit scores often have fewer financing options, which can slow down the sales process.
How to solve: Offer multiple purchasing paths, such as third-party lending, rent-to-own arrangements, or competitive cash pricing.
Mobile Home Advertising
Marketing a manufactured home can be extremely time-consuming, and doing it incorrectly can even cost a significant amount of resources.
How to solve: Hire a mobile home marketing expert like MHP Sales Manager. We help you sell your park-owned homes with zero risk through our pay-per-move-in model, automated qualification system, and AI agents operating around the clock.
Personal Property vs Real Estate
A manufactured home sold without the land beneath it is considered personal property, while a home sold with the land is treated as real estate. This distinction affects taxes, required paperwork, and the type of financing a buyer may be able to secure. In a lot-lease community or park, the home sits on land owned by someone else, and the owner of the house needs to pay a monthly fee to the owner of the land.
If you’re a mobile home park owner or manager, you’re usually dealing with the sale of personal property.
Sell Your Park-Owned Homes With MHP Sales Manager
At MHP Sales Manager, we help you sell your park-owned homes with zero risk using our pay-per-move-in model. We cover the initial advertising costs, prequalify leads with our mobile home–trained AI, schedule showings, support leads through applications and financing, and stay involved all the way through closing. We bet on results, not promises.
Book a 15-minute call to get started today.
