The MHP Brokers Tips and Tricks Closing Cocktails Interview with MP Broker Eric Wanck Regarding His 2-Park Portfolio Closing in Talladega

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 Eric Wanck regarding his recent two-park mobile home park sale in Talladega, Alabama.

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 introduced broker Eric Wanck and told how Eric had recently closed on two mobile home parks in Talladega, Alabama with good value-add opportunities. (Max, 00:22)
• With both being small parks, Eric knew he had his work cut out for him. Smaller parks tend not to attract big portfolio owners or Wall Street investors from outside the market, and can take longer to find more localized buyers. Both parks were on city water, which was an advantage. He did get a good all-cash offer for both from a local, but had obstacles that kept the park deals from closing for several months. (Eric, 1:39)
• The delay was caused by the need of the buyer to move money around, selling some properties in order to raise the cash they needed to complete the Talladega deal. (Eric, 3:03)
• The deal was of particular value to the buyer because the lot rents were very much below market at about $175 a month. This would create a strong value-add opportunity to raise rents and increase revenue soon after the purchase. (Eric, 3:17)
• Although the sale took five or six months, it turned out to be a smooth transition and everyone was happy. In fact, the seller was so pleased with the sale that they gave Eric a referral on another park sale. (Eric, 4:30)
• The delayed closing was something Eric hadn’t seen before, but it worked out to the satisfaction of everyone. The lesson here was that every sale is unique, and you just have to stay flexible an deal with it. (Eric, 5:01)

The Mobile Home Park Broker is experienced at brokering parks that have a hiccup or two during the course of the transactions. We can handle it. If you’re thinking of putting your park on the market, call Eric Wanck 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:

“The small parks are always a little bit of a wild card. How are they going to sell? Typically, we always look at it as a smaller buyer pool. These folks are likely going to be local to the park, instead of your bigger national portfolio buyers coming in and buying these 30-pad parks. So they sit on the market, and that’s typical, sometimes a little bit longer than most.” (Eric, 1:39)

“Anytime we see anything under $200 (in lot rents) in the southeast, we know that they’re asking for a rental bump at some point.” (Eric, 3:17)

 “It was a pretty smooth transaction. At the end of the day, the seller was happy and, believe it or not, this seller turned around and gave us a referral on some other parks.” (Eric, 4:30)

“We just essentially needed to kind of hang on for that closing date. So, it worked out nice, man!” (Eric, 5:01)

(Regarding the market for mobile home park sales) “…as rates continue to push down here, this is a prime time to get back out there and start looking to buy parks, sell parks. Movement is happening for the most part. 2024 was probably slower across all asset classes, but things are definitely picking up. Give us a call, we can help get parks moved and find you something if you want to get on the acquisition side.” (Eric, 5:43)

00:02

Hello and welcome to the mobile home park brokers 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 beautiful episode of the Mobile Home Park Brokers Tips and Tricks podcast. As always, this episode is brought to you by the you named it 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 and I’m happy to walk you through it, or our rock star Eric wink, can walk you through it as well on the four-step process to get you that highest price you can today, we are talking about His beautiful closing cocktail on a Friday afternoon. Can’t complain to have a closing cocktail on a Friday afternoon, y’all, it’s old deal out in dega, where they do the circle track and where all the all the shenanigans happened that my buddy from college used to go there and wear cut off shorts and have quite the fun entertainment in the grassy knoll of Talladega. But enough of that. We’re talking about two mobile home parks that took a while to close simply because they were big value add deals and dega is really not the biggest town, but Eric made it happen. Eric, welcome to the show once again. Tell us a little bit about dega.

01:39 Eric Wanck

Yes. Thank you, Max. Good to be on closing cocktail, and especially on a Friday afternoon. Good way to end it here talking about deal closings. Yeah, this one was a little unique in the fact that we had two small parks, both in dega and the small parks are always a little bit of a wild card. How are they going to sell? Typically, we always look at it as a smaller buyer pool. These folks are likely going to be local to the park, instead of your bigger national portfolio buyers coming in and buying these 30 pad parks so they sit on the market, and that’s typical, sometimes a little bit longer than most. But we had two parks that both on city water, one was on septic, and this one did take probably, I think, five months, and lo and behold, just what I thought, that local buyer came in actually through an agent. So yes, sometimes that happens, and yes, we will work with other brokers that bring qualified buyers at the end of the day, I say it’s unique in the sense that this buyer was all cash, and how they wanted to have it arranged was to close on one park, and then we actually did a delayed closing and kept it under contract for a good five, six months on this other park, and we just completed that transaction not too long ago.

03:00 Maxwell Baker

What was the delayed closing for? Remind me?

03:03 Eric Wanck

It was really just a matter of moving money around. They had some other property that I believe they were selling off. That was just a matter of getting their ducks in a row so they could close on this one.

03:14 Maxwell Baker

So, they just had to exchange out of the old property.

03:17 Eric Wanck

Yeah, yeah but, most of it was 10 and own homes out of the 30 pads, 19 of them were tenant owned. Little bit of value add, of course, on the lot, rents super, super cheap at like 175 as is. So, yeah, that’s pretty low. Anytime we see anything under 200 in the southeast, um, we know that they’re asking for a rental bump at some point. So, it’s a market that continues to see more activity, where we actually got some other listings out there right now in that market.

03:46 Maxwell Baker

That’s right, we do. Yeah, if you want to go down the party at dega, then we got another opportunity for you. Party time and dega NASCAR, you know, all that, all that kind of good stuff.

03:59 Eric Wanck

Hey, if you’re a race fan, that’s the place to be.

04:02 Maxwell Baker

It’s a nice round track. Beers and cut off shorts.

04:07 Eric Wanck 

Well, you may have more stories on that one than I do jean shorts.

04:12 Maxwell Baker 

Eric, did you have to wear a pair of jean shorts when you went to go do the showing?

04:16 Eric Wanck

I didn’t. You didn’t. You didn’t tell me about this tip.

04:21 Maxwell Baker

Probably, we had a big old 24 pack of bloodline, some Daisy Duke guys jean shorts with a little bit of the fringe on the bottom. Man, that’s everybody in Diego wears those. That’s kind of the thing.

04:30 Eric Wanck

See, I knew I could have sold this thing quicker, yeah, yeah. But hey, overall, can’t complain. It was a pretty smooth transaction. At the end of the day, the seller was happy and believe it or not, this seller turned around and gave us referral on some other parks. So, always, always happy to see that and continued business with people that we have done business with. So yeah, just a win-win here!

04:55 Maxwell Baker

Yeah, man, any, major things you learn from this deal, any kind of “training moments”?

05:01 Eric Wanck

This one probably didn’t have a whole lot of like, wow this was unusual, never seen this before. The delayed closing was very unique. I’ll say, granted, it didn’t provide any headaches for us. We are always about trying to get to the closing table, finish line it, so to speak, as quick as possible, on both sides, especially representing our clients for typically, the sellers. You know, we don’t like having things hang out 90 plus days, but all contingencies were waived. We just essentially needed to kind of hang on for that closing date. So, it worked out nice man!

05:38 Maxwell Baker

Well, congrats again. Any closing comments here we wrap before we wrap it up?

05:43 Eric Wanck

Hey, I think, granted, I know when these things get posted at different times of the year, but we are in the cycle, I believe, in the real estate market, especially with MH, as rates continue to push down here, this is a prime time to get back out there and start looking to buy parks, sell parks. 20 that’s happening. Yeah, movement is happening for the most part. 2024, was probably slower cost across all asset classes, but things are definitely picking up and give us a call, we can help get parks moved and find you something if you want to get on the acquisition side.

06:21 Maxwell Baker

Yes, sir. Well, thank you for joining us here at the closing cocktail on a beautiful Friday afternoon in Hotlanta. Actually, today, it’s not too bad. It’s kind of nice overcast. Anyways, Eric, thanks again. Congrats on the closing and as always, this episode is brought to you by your Community Price Maximizer is our proprietary system now guarantee you a higher price when you exclusively list with us, feel like the micro machine man, how fast I just said that but anyways, give us a call. (678) 932-0200, or email us at info@themhpbroker.com thanks for listening, and let’s keep moving forward!