The Manufactured Housing Forums

Hello everybody,

I am new here. Been reading alot. Anyways we have been trying to sell our older (1979) mobile home for over a year now. We first started off selling it ourselves through craigslist ect. We got alot of people come look. Alot were interested. When nothing panned out a realtor got ahold of me saying he had somebody who is interested but I would need to sign a contract with him before he could bring them over. I signed. That person disappeared. We hung onto him for about 6 months and a bunch of other people came to look at it. A few were interested but had bad credit and a few extremely low offers. We eventually got rid of him when the contract ended. Then we found a guy local to us who specializes in mobile homes. He came and took a look, said he could sell it no problem. Never received any calls for months. Then about a week ago we called him and asked him to come pick up his sign and we would sell it ourselves. A few days later he called and said he had somebody who wanted to come take a look. The people came about an hour early and said they would like to get rid of the "middle man." I said good because he isn't doing much anyways. They really liked it. Said they had great credit and wanted to buy. We settled on a price. $12,500. The original asking price was $17,500.

They then went out looking for financing. They had some money for a down payment or to give us in cash if the bank wouldn't give them that much. They stopped by yesterday and said they got approved for a little over $9000. They said they could get us the rest of the money. We signed a sales agreement and I gave them some paper work that the bank needed to finish up the loan. I thought great! Started planning to move to the west coast which was our original plan. Then today, I get a call from them and they said they now declined them because of the year. I guess the loan person never even looked at the title that I emailed to them days earlier. Wonderful!

Now, I realize mobile homes are "high risk" but the price is LESS than a car! Cars depreciate too! I have put over $20,000 in improvements into this place and now I feel like I'm stuck living here. It makes me sick to think that the only way I will EVER get out of here is if I give the place away or burn it down.

Please help! What are my options? Where should I tell them to get financing for this place? I did a NADA value report on the home and according to the it is worth $26,000. What should I do next? I'd hate to have them kill their credit if there is no chance of them being financed.

Thanks...

First...if you finish this deal with these folks be prepared to pay the manufactured home sales person his agreed commission...Basically you sound like a good honest person..That said I wonder why you and the buyer think it is OK to steal the sales persons rightful commision...A specialist in used manufactured homes would have scores of lenders ready to finance folks like these...Maybe cutting him out is about to cost you thousands...OUCH..

Now something sound a little fishy with your buyers bank...Most lenders who finance manufactured homes go back yo 1976 as the cut off for lendng..That is the year HUD started its certifications. Most lenders have a minimum loan amount and this might be close to it...Of course if this buyer is dishonest enough to try to cut a salesperson out of his rightful money, maybe he is not being totally honest with you about his credit or the banks actions...But if he really wants the home and he has good credit he should visit the lender section..Try the "Financing" link at the top of this page..He can enter the loan request and get offers from various lenders who specialize in manufactured homes...He does not have to enter his SS number and his credit will not be checked until he is ready to proceed...Honesty is necessary when speaking to lenders. They will make him an offer based on the info he supplies. Of course if later they find out the info was not correct the terms could change or the offer withdrawn..

Candidly if I had $1.00 for every person who said their credit was good and later did not qualify, I would be VERY rich right now..Bring your buyer to this web site and GOOD LUCK..

I think I should explain something about this "realtor." We never signed a contract with him. We filled out all the paper work but at the time we were still under contract with the other realtor. I told him I wanted to make sure I was out of contract with him before I sign anything. A few days later I confirmed I was no longer under contract with the previous realtor and this new one never came back with the paperwork. I must also mention that when the people came early, the realtor never showed up at the scheduled time anyways. With that said, I am not obligated to pay him a dime.

I sent them a link to the lender section of the site. I also agree about 1976 being the cutoff. That is what I have been reading. I know when we first purchased this place in 2002, we had a hard time finding anybody to finance it. We ended up only getting a portion of the asking price and paid cash for the rest.

The answer is to "tote the note".... Whatever the bank wont finance and the buyers dont have to put down you can finance yourself. It sounds like you will get a high percentage of your asking price from the seller. Take the rest in monthly payments and enjoy the interest you will earn on the balance.

I agree with Mr. Murray that it is poor business to cut out the agent. Weather he was there or not if he sent you the buyer you do owe him something, because with out him you would not have that buyer.

Consumers Union also has point of view different than yours on appreciation .... see www.consumersunion.org/pdf/mh/Appreciation.pdf. They tell us that "average appreciation rates of manufactured homes packaged with owned land are statistically in line with the site built market, and there are few inherent reasons that a home built in a factory should perform differently than one built on site"

In the case of a home on rented land in a park... the value will follow the desirability of that particular park. Last year a home older than yours sold for over a million. It was located on an ocean front lot in a park in Florida. When you invest in a home on a leased lot you have to expect that the location, management and dozens of other factors will have an effect on the resale value

"The appreciation in value of manufactured homes comes back to the old real estate axiom -- location, location, location. When properly sited and maintained, manufactured homes will appreciate at the same rate as other homes in surrounding neighborhoods" (www.mhao.org/myths.asp)

Sorry I was so strong..but I have been a commision person all of my life...I have had many buyers try to cut me out, also I have had many cash bribes to lower the price and steal from my employer..

A written contract is not necessary, oral agreements are just as important. You should have refused when he called and said he had a potential buyer..If you finuish this deal it would be only right that you pay him at least a referral fee..Traditionally $ 500 is common..

You will soon find out if this buyer who wanted to snooker the sales person has been honest with you...Good Luck

I will try and call him again but like I said earlier, he never returns my calls. We called him about an hour after the time he should have been here to show the property and he didn't answer or call back.

I must mention another thing. The reason we called him in the first place was because the letter we got in the mail said "We sell your home for free." Now, does he jack up the price to give himself commission? I don't know. I do know we listed it with him for $17,500 and when they came they said they told them the price was $14,500. When it came down to talking numbers they threw out the $12,500 and I accepted that since that is pretty much all I originally wanted.

This realtor does not use the internet for some reason. He does not have an email address. He does not have a MLS listing like ALL other realtors out there. What he does is he sends out letters to the inner city folks telling them that he has mobile homes for sale that are cheaper than rent and in a safer location. I have actually seen 3 of these letters from friends of mine that live in the city. The contract he wrote up was for only 3 months. That was back in the beginning of October. I figured he would call or something to have us sign a new contract but he never did. His sign is still sitting outside.

What would I be paying him for if I do call him and say they bought the home? Maybe I'm missing something but I thought a realtor was supposed to "work" for you? None of those letters had our home on them. They are just advertisements for his business. I heard from the office at the park that he has signs out in the other 6 parks in the area. I just can't justify the $500. That's all I'm saying. For all I know, he's not even a registered or trained realtor because I cannot find ANY info about him.

Sounds shady to me....Sorry I was sooooo strong...This fella sounds as deceiving as the first one you had...Actually if the home in a rental park, most states would NOT require a Real Estate license...Even then most states require anyone selling 1 or more manufactured homes to have a manufactured home dealers license. A few states have rules that might allow licenses to individuals for resale... Obviously his service is worth as much as his advertised price....

I would take his sign down...Good Luck

It's okay. I just wanted to let everybody know the full story. If I fealt he was due money, I would be more than happy to pay him. I just cannot justify anything since he really hasn't done anything.

rmurray Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Actually if the home in a
> rental park, most states would NOT require a Real
> Estate license...Even then most states require
> anyone selling 1 or more manufactured homes to
> have a manufactured home dealers license. A few
> states have rules that might allow licenses to
> individuals for resale...
>
> I would take his sign down...Good Luck

If it helps at all, I am in PA. I looked through this http://www.pacode.com/secure/data/049/c ... pEtoc.html and couldn't find anything that said anything different for mobile homes.

I called him BEFORE these people came to look and told him to pick up his sign and he has not. What should I do with it? Throw it away?

I looked at parts of pacode also...

The agency that regulates HUD code in PA is

Mark Conte, Chief
Housing Standards Division
Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development
Commonwealth Keystone Building
400 North Street, 4th Floor
Harrisburg, PA 17120-0225
PH: (717) 720-7416
FAX: (717) 783-4663

They may or may not have licensing authority but if not they will know who does...

You could always check with PA Manufactured Housing Association..This would also be another place to find good lenders..Lenders who are members of the Associations almost alway specialize in the product...You can find them here;

http://www.pmha.org/

Thank you sir. You've been a great help.