The MHP Brokers Tips and Tricks Closing Cocktails Interview with Broker Jeff Dodge Regarding His New Beginning Mobile Home Park Closing

In this episode of The MHP Broker’s Tips and Tricks Closing Cocktails podcast, Maxwell Baker, president of The Mobile Home Park Broker, interviewed The MHP Broker Jeff Dodge regarding his recent sale of New Beginnings MHP despite losing the first buyer to financing hassles.

As with every Tips and Tricks podcast episode, this one is brought to you by The MHP Broker’s proprietary Community Price Maximizer. Use this four-step system to get the highest price possible for your mobile home park or RV community when you sell it through The MHP Broker. Guaranteed. Call Max for details.

Here Are the Show Highlights:

• Max wanted to start with a heads-up to buddy Steve Massell, who came up with the “Closing Cocktails” concept of quick hit podcast interviews. Then he hailed company broker Jeff Dodge for his success with New Beginnings MHP, a nice community that got multiple offers and a quick, relatively painless close. (Max, 00:22)
• The owner was  selling because they lived out of state and had experienced difficulties in managing the park from afar. New Beginnings had a lot of very appealing features, including city water and sewer direct-billed to tenants, and newer-model park-owned homes. The community was very clean and well maintained. Twenty-nine of the 32 lots had homes and were occupied. So there was some value-add opportunity filling those last three pads. Jeff felt that the location might be the biggest hurdle he’d face in that it was fairly isolated, and not within easy reach of retail establishments or the interstate system. That didn’t seem to faze prospective buyers, though. The property got multiple offers quickly. Their first choice of buyer couldn’t get financing, but Jeff already had a second buyer waiting in the wings. Jeff helped this buyer get financing from a credit union The MHP Brokers have worked with in the past. There were no additional hang-ups from that moment on, and the sale closed in a timely manner. (Jeff,  1:37)
• As an additional buyer incentive, the privately owned roads were paved. (Jeff, 2:58)
• The buyer was an experienced real estate investor, but mostly in other asset classes. He did have some familiarity with mobile home investments. Jeff enjoyed working with him and hopes to do business with him more in the future. (Jeff, 3:11)
• One of the lessons Jeff took home from this deal was the importance of having a backup buyer whenever possible. That’s important because financing today can be tricky, and your first deal might easily fall through. (Jeff, 3:53)l
• Jeff also appreciates how the company was able to list the park with a realistic price point before going on the market. That’s why they were able to get a full-price offer and close the deal so quickly and smoothly. (Jeff, 5:22)

One key seller advantage is The Mobile Home Broker’s network of motivated lenders. Call Jeff Dodge or Max Baker at The MHP Broker, (678) 932-0200 and we’ll help you find–and find financing for–a qualified buyer. Or drop us a line at info@themhpbroker.com.

Power Quotes in This Episode:

(Regarding his buyer on this deal) “It was great working with him, and I look forward to working with him in the future.” (Jeff, 3:11)

“You know, it’s kind of a tricky market with financing out there, but you always want to have your backups ready to go.” (Jeff, 3:53)

“It was a win-win for both parties, because the buyer got a turnkey (deal), but a little upside as well, and then the seller could take that money and invest it in something a little bit closer to home.”  (Jeff, 3:53)

“We can find the right buyer for you. This is a great example, so just give us the opportunity.” (Jeff, 4:26)

“Yeah, we’re able to move stuff, y’all, even though the market right now is a little tricky with the financing, We are still able to get deals done. A lot of our competitors are out there stooping to buying listings, if you want to call it that, where they promise the pie in the sky type of price. In reality, they know that it’s not going to sell for that. They’re just literally trying to look busy. We don’t do that, y’all. We will give you a No BS evaluation on your community.” (Max, 4:31)

“This was priced where we sold it, you know, full asking price. So, it tells you our valuations. We’re right on the money here. So definitely work with us. We’re gonna give you a true market value that’s fair, and we’re gonna get you the most money that you possibly can, for sure. (Jeff, 5:22)

00:00

Hello and welcome to the mobile home park broker’s tips and tricks. This is the podcast where we talk about mobile home park investing, because that’s what we’ve been involved in for the last decade. Let’s dive into today’s episode. Here is your host, Maxwell Baker,

00:22 Maxwell Baker

Hey, y’all, welcome to another epic episode of the mobile home park brokers Tips and Tricks podcast. As always, this episode is brought to you by the Community Price Maximizer. It is our proprietary system that will guarantee you a higher price when you exclusively list with us. Give us a call, (678) 932-0200, and this episode is one of my favorite episodes, because it is labeled the Closing Cocktail and I will give a full shout out to my buddy Steve Massell, who actually introduced the closing cocktail concept to me, I’m sure he would love that I’m giving him a shout out here, but it was Steve Massell, who is the son of Mayor Massell of Atlanta. He is a; definitely a guy that likes to celebrate life, so I want to give him a shout out for that. But anyways, this closing cocktail that we’ve got today is with Jeff Dodge, and he just closed a community called New Beginnings, and got a record price on it. We had multiple offers. So, Jeff, congrats on getting this deal done. You know it was on the market? Well, I’ll let you tell me, like, how long was on the market? Give us a skinny about this deal.

01:37 Jeff Dodge

Okay, yeah, sure. Thanks for having me. Max. Great to be here with you. Yeah. So new beginnings. It was a nice park. This little background, it was, it’s a nice park. The seller was actually looking to sell because he lived out of state, so he had some issues managing from afar, but had some nice qualities about it, city water, sewer, direct build, utilities, newer model, Park on homes. Park was very clean and well maintained. So, it was really nice driving through. It just had a nice look to it also had a little bit of opportunity for add value, because room to increase the rents. Had three vacant lots, so 29 of the 32 homes were actually occupied three vacant lots, which you could add some value. The biggest challenge it felt like was maybe the location. It was somewhat isolated, away from retail and interstates, so we’re a little concerned about that when we going out to market. But ultimately, we received multiple offers. We did go with one buyer initially, but there was an issue with that buyer’s financing. We had another buyer ready to go in the wings. We went with him, full asking price. Got his financing. No problem through the credit union, no real hiccups from there on and close in a timely manner.

02:44 Maxwell Baker

Yeah, man, it sounds like it was a pretty good deal for the guy coming in or girl coming in, just simply because of the direct billed city water, sewer and did it have dedicated what kind of roads did it have?

02:56 Jeff Dodge

Yeah, all paved roads.

02:56 Maxwell Baker

Were they owned by the city? or were they private roads?

02:58 Jeff Dodge

All paved, private roads, but paved.

03:02 Maxwell Baker

Yeah. So, this was a pretty nice deal, and did pretty well with it, and Jeff hit it out of the ballpark. What kind of buyer can you describe with the buyer profile?

03:11 Jeff Dodge

Yeah, he was, he was an experienced buyer. He’s, he’s working with some other asset classes, but has some familiarity with mobile home parks as well. I mean, he was experienced, and that’s one thing that I think really helped in the process. You know, didn’t need maybe as much as maybe some buyers, but it was great to work with, and I look forward to working with in the future.

03:30 Maxwell Baker

Nice and you said, credit union financed it. Were we able to help them with the appraisal, or anything, I think we did. Did we provide any data for that, or did they figure it out on our own?

03:40 Jeff Dodge

He had somebody ready to go as soon as we got him signed up. So got approved pretty quickly and so, yeah, worked out great.

03:50 Maxwell Baker

What was the biggest thing that you learned from this deal?

03:53 Jeff Dodge

Well, I mean, just just having little patience with that first buyer, not the only financing. You know, it’s kind of a tricky market with financing out there, but you always want to have your your backups ready to go. We want to represent the sellers, make sure they’re well represented, and we want the buyers to see value as well when they’re working with us. But we were able to get to the finish line. It was a win-win for both parties, because the buyer got a turnkey but a little upside as well, and then the seller could take that money invest in something a little bit closer to home.

04:22 Maxwell Baker

Yeah, definitely. Well, any closing comments, Jeff, before we wrap this call up?

04:26 Jeff Dodge

Just saying we can find the right buyer for you. This is a great example, so just give us the opportunity.

04:31 Maxwell Baker

Yeah, we’re able to move stuff y’all even though the market right now is a little tricky with the financing, we are still able to get deals done. A lot of our competitors are out there are stooping to buying listings, if you want to call it that, where they promise the pie in the sky type of price in reality, they know that it’s not going to sell for that. They’re just literally trying to look busy. We don’t do that y’all. We will give you a No BS evaluation on your community. So, if you’re ever out there and you see a deal that you’re looking at and you buy it, and you’re like, you know what, this one is not for me. It’s too far. I don’t have time to turn it around. Like we just listed a community for somebody that doesn’t have time to finish it up and it’s a great upside deal. So, another man’s trash is another pens gold. So, Jeff, it looks like you want to say something.

05:22 Jeff Dodge

Yeah, I was gonna say something, real quick to your point, as far as our valuations. I mean, this was, this was priced where we sold it, you know, full asking price. So, it tells you, our valuations. We’re right on the money here. So definitely work with us. We’re gonna give you a true market value that’s fair, and we’re gonna get you the most money that you possibly can.

05:39 Maxwell Baker

For sure y’all, well, Jeff, congrats again, man, I appreciate you coming on the podcast with us, and as always, y’all, this episode will always and forever be brought to you by the Community Price Maximizer. You probably have gotten a postcard from me. It looks like a government pink slip that talks about the Community Price Maximizer. So, give us a call. Happy to talk about it with you. Four step process, (678) 932-0200 and we’ll go into detail with you about how we can guarantee you the highest price when you exclusively list with us. Thanks for listening y’all be well, and let’s keep moving forward!