Posted by John on April 12, 2009 at 18:48:35:
Thanks for the advice! I went back and searched and found a lot of great material on this and many other interesting subjects that I probably wouldn’t have thought about.
Getting to know the managers - Posted by John
Posted by John on April 08, 2009 at 15:57:59:
So I just read DOW and I am really excited to jump into this and start trying my hand at Lonnie deals. The only thing that kind of concerns me is the first talk you have with the park owners or managers. I assume you do not want to go into their office and just say “Hi, I want to buy low and sell high. Can I?” How do you tactfully bring up that you want to do these deals and ask if they are on board with you doing them? Do you tell them that you are a wholesaler and would like to offer financing to people that would not normally qualify? How long do you usually chat with them on average and do you talk about things other than business? Am I over thinking this? This would benefit them as well by keeping their lots full, so I assume that they would like for these deals to happen. Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks for reading.
Re: Getting to know the managers - Posted by Todd(AZ)
Posted by Todd(AZ) on April 09, 2009 at 11:14:43:
Hi John,
I’ve never had a problem with just walking in nicely and asking if there is a list of homes for sale in the park. I do NOT immediately blurt out anything about being a company, financing homes, etc. I start it out very nicely, ask for a list, THEN slowly bring out what I’m trying to accomplish after going through a few pleasant moments with the manager. Personally, I don’t like the “company” line but that may work for others or other areas of the country. I’ve used the “nice young couple” line and have not had much, if any resistance. I let them know this is my business, I finance, and put it all up front to see if there would be an issues with buying in their park and reselling. About the only thing that comes up would be the “we don’t rent here” at which time I say I fully understand and I don’t rent either. These will be sold, title in owners name. No problem. Good luck, Todd
Re: Getting to know the managers - Posted by Tony Colella
Posted by Tony Colella on April 09, 2009 at 06:41:53:
Like many, I had to adapt my approach to park managers to do Lonnie deals. Lonnie’s abiilty to “help a young couple” did not work for me at the time because I wasn’t much more than that myself.
I simply explained that “my company” had noticed how hard it was for people to find financing on used mobile homes. I would ask the park if they have seen problem tenants they would love to get rid of but because these folks can’t sell, they stay and cause problems.
As the park owner, were they concerned about the homes being abandoned, losing lot rent and eventually having to try and do something with the house?
What my company did was buy these homes from these people, get rid of the parks headaches and then help new buyers (only after they have been approved by the park to rent the lot) buy the homes by providing financing. We work closely with the park and buyers to make sure all goes smoothly at the sale and throughout the time we are financing the loan.
If a problem develops or the buyer does not pay rent on time to the park, we will work side by side with the park to address the problem and if necessary get rid of this buyer and find a new one.
You don’t need to blurt all this out right away. This is the bulk of an entire conversation. Many have posted here about how they make their intro to the park managers. I know back in 1999 or so I wrote about it quite a bit here (under Tony-VA).
See if you can find more posts by others about this topic under the archive search button. There is some great stuff in there, its just not always easy to find.
Good luck!
Tony