MOBILE HOME PARK FOR SALE

The MHP Brokers Tips and Tricks Closing Cocktail Podcast, Eric Wanck Two Deals Interview

July 24, 2023 by Maxwell Baker

In this episode of The MHP Broker’s Tips and Tricks Closing Cocktail podcast, Maxwell Baker, president of The Mobile Home Park Broker, interviewed top broker Eric Wanck about two of his recent transaction successes.

This and every Tips and Tricks podcast episode 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. Ask Max for details.

Here Are the Show Highlights:

  • Top-performing broker Eric Wanck was interviewed by Max on Eric’s success closing two recent deals, one in South Atlanta and the other near Lake Oconee in central Georgia. (Max, 0:22)
  • Eric had made contact with the then-owner of Fernwood Mobile Home Park in South Atlanta five or six years ago, but nothing happened at that time. More recently, the property came up as an estate sale by inheritors who wanted to unload it. The park was a serious challenge in that it had more than 100 pads but only about 19 tenants in a challenging location, making the transaction “a big heavy lift,” in Eric’s words. Nonetheless, he had a local buyer in mind, and made a deal come together in a relatively smooth transaction. (Eric, 1:37)
  • A potential deal-killer was the fact that the park had an on-site sewage treatment plant (which can be considered an issue/obstacle by some prospective buyers). (Max, 2:33)
  • However, the buyer conducted due diligence on the condition of the plant and found it to by well maintained and in good working order, and not an obstacle to the transaction. (Eric, 2:36)
  • Yet another challenge was that Eric was working against another buyer not represented by The MHP Broker, but Eric’s buyer offered more and closed the deal. (Max, 2:57)
  • Eric’s second deal, Eagle View, on exclusive Lake Oconee, was far from a typical mobile home park.
  • The very desirable park consists of 25 luxury double-wide tenant-owned mobile homes, each on half an acre of land right on the shore of this exclusive lake. (Eric, 4:06)
  • Eric had several interested backup buyers lined up, but an investor from California jumped in with a bid over the property’s list price. He was great to work with, and the appraisal and financing went off without a hitch. The buyer was highly motivated to leave California and eager to resettle in the more conservative and landlord-friendly southeast. (Eric, 4:42)
  • If you’d like to work with Eric on a deal, call him at The MHP Broker or email him at ewanck@themhpbroker.com.

Want to buy or sell an RV park or mobile home community? Just drop Max Baker a line at info@themhpbroker.com or give him a call at (678) 932-0200. Or email Eric at ewanck@themhpbroker.com.

Power Quotes in This Episode:

(Regarding the Fernwood park in South Atlanta.)So this was over 100 pads, and there’s currently about 19 tenants in the park. So this was a big heavy lift, but we knew the buyer for this, they were local, this is their bread and butter.(Eric, 1:37)

“…all the park owners out there that are listening to this, just know that we do come across sewage treatment plants and they do sell. We do a lot of upfront due diligence on them…” (Max, 2:57)

(Regarding Eagle View) “…they put doublewides, it was all doublewides. Twenty-five homes and they’re sitting on nice halfacre parcels. And I joke with the buyer on this because I said hey, if you didn’t buy it, I was gonna buy it. It’s just that unique of a deal and as Max said, if you can get real estate on Lake Oconee it’s worth buying.’” (Eric, 4:06)

“…everybody’s moving to the South because they are landlordfriendly states, one of the last few states in the nation, before they go out dodo-bird style.” (Max, 5:12)

“The doublewide dream neighborhood community. I would call it doublewide dreams because you sit there and you’re doublewide, looking out at the lake, and just enjoying all the cruisers with a cold cruiser in your hand, y’all.” (Max, 5:34)

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’s your host, Maxwell Baker.

00:22 Maxwell Baker

Hey y’all welcome to a another beautiful 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, especially with our rockstar, top performing broker, Eric Wanck, who took home the company belt, again two years in a row world champion. We actually are very excited that he is hitting these numbers. I mean, these numbers he’s doing are, are killing it. He’s doing well here at the company and Eric just sold another two deals, one on Lake Oconee, and the other one in Atlanta, one being off market and the other one exclusive. So Eric, welcome to the show, man. Thanks for joining us again.

01:15 Eric Wanck 

Absolutely, Max, it’s always good to be on the podcast always, good to be talking about deals, especially when we’re getting them close. So yeah, I like these two deals a lot. So I’m excited about jumping in and talking about some of the highlights and how we got them closed.

 01:29 Maxwell Baker

Yeah, I mean, so let’s start off with the Fernwood deal. How did you find it? Who was the buyer? Give us some details here what you got?

01:37 Eric Wanck 

Yeah, this deal is in South Atlanta, believe it or not, I spoke to the owner probably four or five years ago. And just the way sometimes business is one contact, can you follow up and then knowing the family just a little bit and building that rapport years back, it came full circle. And this ended up being an estate deal that the family reached out to me, and the time was right, now’s the time to sell. So came across a great deal, great area of Atlanta that needed a ton of work, as far as what was there as is and what it could be. So this was over 100 pads, and there’s currently about 19 tenants in the park. So this was a big heavy lift, but we knew the buyer for this, they were local, this is their bread and butter. And a we put the pieces together we’re able to make a relatively smooth transaction out of this.

 02:33 Maxwell Baker

Yeah, and I think it had a sewage treatment plant in it didn’t it?

 02:36 Eric Wanck

It did? Yeah, so definitely a little, little hair on this deal. But you know, of course in their due diligence to get it checked out, talk to the professionals and everything was up and running operational actually was built to service over 100 pads. So it was it was well built, well maintained. And they didn’t have any issues with it.

02:57 Maxwell Baker

Yeah, so if all the park owners out there that are listening to this, just know that we do come across sewage treatment plants and they do sell,  we do a lot of upfront due diligence on them just to make sure that there are white glove, but obviously it’s up to the buyers to do their own due diligence but, but yeah, this one was was an interesting deal. We had to compete with a another buyer that actually was not represented by us. And we ended up winning because we obviously brought in the higher price and closed fairly quickly on the deal. So hey, man, great job on that. Moving on the ship any other comments on it?

03:37 Eric Wanck 

Now that’s good. Let’s move on to Eagle view.

03:38 Maxwell Baker

Yeah, Eagle view is kind of like a land home package portfolio. There individually deeded, mobile home parcels lots over there on Lake Oconee, and had an HOA it was on city water and septic. And like I said anything on Lake Oconee is pretty bougie here in Atlanta. That’s where a lot of money goes here in Atlanta. But yeah, tell us a little bit about the buyer, the seller and kind of how you put the deal together.

04:06 Eric Wanck 

Yeah, this was a very, very interesting deal. Not a mobile home park, not an RV park and is literally a subdivision that went bust back in the day. And they developed custom homes on one side it was like on the other side of the street. They started parceling out these lofts and they put double wides, it was all double wides. 25 homes and they’re sitting on nice half acre parcels. And I joke with the buyer on this because I said hey, if you didn’t buy it, I was gonna buy it. It just that unique of a deal and as Max said, if you can get real estate on Lake Oconee it’s worth buying.

04:42 Eric Wanck

I had backup buyers for this but a gentleman out of California jumped on this and paid over our list price was very competitive on, on the offers that came in, but great guy to work with. Even though we went through the financing, everything went smooth there and appraised And yeah, this was this is gonna be a great deal. He wanted to get out of California not to get political on everybody but He was, he was kind of done with the California politics and wanted to be here in the southeast. So he’s super happy.

05:12 Maxwell Baker 

Yeah, it’s very conservative down here. You know, I’ve had some New York clients, as you know, everybody’s moving to the South because they are landlord friendly states, one of the last few states in the nation, before they all go to the dodo bird style. But yeah, so we’re very excited about this.

05:34 Maxwell Baker 

This was nicknamed I just came up with it just now. The double wide dream neighborhood community, I would call it double wide dreams, because you sit there and you’re double wide, looking out at the lake, and just enjoying all the cruisers with a cold cruiser in your hand, y’all. So anyways, moving on, Eric, appreciate you jumping on with us. They have any closing comments before we sign off here?

05:55 Eric Wanck 

Just if people are out there looking. Obviously they can reach into the office, things do happen off market, of course, we’d like to try to take everything exclusive. We’re constantly moving and working and busy and happy to see if we can sell your park and grow your portfolio for you if you’re looking to buy this year.

06:13 Maxwell Baker 

Yeah, man, or if you’re looking to sell give us a call. We move all the stuff all the other brokers don’t want to mess with and we have always been known to work to secondary, tertiary, from the beautiful parks down to the ugly ones. We do it all. So, give us a call (678) 932-0200 or email Eric at, Eric give them your email.

06:41 Eric Wanck 

Yeah, it’s ewanck@themhpbroker.com

06:49 Maxwell Baker

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 or Eric or Ryan or anybody on our team. We all know how to push the price as high as possible and we have a proven system that works every time. So thanks for listening, y’all. Give us a call. Shoot us an email, send us a smoke signal and let’s keep moving forward.

Avatar photo

Maxwell Baker

Maxwell R. Baker founded The MHP Broker in 2009 as a commercial real estate broker specializing in helping Investors buy and sell mobile home communities throughout the Southeast. His family got started with mobile home parks in 2000 where Max gained experience in management, rehabilitation, and selling mobile home parks. Today, The MHP Broker has grown to a team of several agents with expanded services focused on owner and investor brokerage services, mobile home park audits, and in-depth market research, resulting in the sale of over $500 million worth of mobile home communities.