The Manufactured Housing Forums

I have my mobile home for sale by owner. There is a Realtor in this park that is in bed with the manager for new listings.
I am advertising on EBAY and every prospective buyer that is calling manager of park is being told that they would not rather not send them an approval application and "prefer" they do not buy from private party but rather a realtor that handles alot of sales in this park in California.
My home is unoccupied.
What is my recourse against this manager? He is violating my right to sell.

I am not familiar with the MH Park rules for California but it sure sounds like you are not being treated correctly. Even so If I was you I think I would limit recourse and stay on task selling the home. Your goal is to sell the home. Do not get into an open struggle with management or try change their unfortunate habits, That could make it even more difficult to sell

If I was you I would visit the manager personally. Dont get into any debates over policy or how he is administering those policies. While the owners do have the right to set resident standards in most states, it is doubtful that you can be required to use a particular agents services. Some community regulations only permit resale's thru management. It is critical for you to know the park's rules

Obtain a copies of the parks published rules and regulations including those that concern who may or may not be a resident and the process for new resident acceptance. Also get copies of the park's resident applications...

Maintain control of your sale.

Give these to your prospects personally. Sit with your prospective buyers and help them complete those forms. This keeps your sale moving forward and you in control of the paper work flow. Then you submit them personally to the manager. This put the manager on notice that you are serious about selling the home yourself and that you intend to see the sale through with a qualified buyer.

If you need to get deeper into the legalities The best sources of information about state regulations would be the state manufactured housing associations here is the contact info for those in California

Golden State Manufactured-Home Owners League
11021 Magnolia Ave.
Garden Grove, CA 92841
1-800-888-1727
(714) 826-4071

California Manufactured
Housing Institute
Mr. Bob West, Exec. Dir.
10630 Town Center Drive
Suite 120
Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730
(909) 987-2599
(909) 989-0434 fax

Western Mobilehome Parkowners Assn.
Mr. David Milton, Executive Director
1007 7th Street
Suite 300
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 448-7002
(916) 448-7085 fax

California Mobilehome Parkowners Alliance
7311 Greenhaven Drive, Suite 100
Sacramento CA, 95831
916-441-1882
714-497-5082
FAX 916-422-1219
E-Mail: [email protected]

I know this response is late but I recently found out selling my unit here would be worse. The park manager makes it very difficult for anyone to get approval to live in the park unless they bought the home through them. The sales office charges 10% commission and do little if anything to make a sale, they don't advertise at all and basically sit around all day waiting for someone to come in. There is one agent that I know of that has had a few listings here and one she did manage to sell after a very very long time. How she did it, I'll never know. The is a home a few doors down from me on the market now since September by the park. I'm not even an agent and I know why it's not sold. It's priced too high for the way it appears at least outside and has a yard covered in weeds, right now it's all yellow from the dandelions. You would think if you had a 10% commission riding on selling that house you would at least tell the owners to clean the place up a bit.

The same thing happened to me when I bought this house the end of Sept. 2007. It needed so much work done, my yard was just dirt and grabcrass, the carpet was original 14 years old and I'm sure was never cleaned and had to be completely replaced. I saw all that then, but due to my back injury and medications and the fact the the house I was selling was going to settlement soon I was under the gun. That being said, I took money left over from the sale of my townhouse and first had all the carpet replaced, then started working on the yard the best I could. It was getting better but then I hired a company to help with the treatments for the past several months and now I have the lushest, greenest most luxurious lawn in the park. I planted over 300 bulbs that are now blooming and it is gorgeous. On top of those two major expenses the place was filthy and took a lot of work to get it clean enough for me to want to live here. None of this made my back better but it help with my spirits.

Now it looks like I might move again due to doctors orders for my back. The weather here in Maryland is too cool and wet and I need something warmer and drier, so I'm looking at Arizona. There are some major deals to be had there in stick built and manufactured. And it looks like it's not as expensive to live there either.

Good luck,
Jen