MOBILE HOME PARK FOR SALE

The MHP Brokers Tips and Tricks Closing Cocktails interview with Eric Wanck about his Cracker Lake RV Resort deal.

July 25, 2024 by Maxwell Baker

In this episode of The MHP Broker’s Tips and Tricks Closing Cocktails podcast, Maxwell Baker, president of The Mobile Home Park Broker, interviewed MHP broker Eric Wanck about his very unique mobile-home-park-turned-RV-Park deal in Florida.

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:

– Eric had a couple unique challenges in closing on Cracker Lake in Florida. In the first place, the park was totally vacant. And in the second place, it HAD been a mobile home park, but it was being converted to an RV community. The conversion followed a hurricane that completely wiped out the mobile home park which, at the time, had a few smaller mobile homes and some tiny homes. The city refused to let the owner continue operating the community as a mobile home park unless they raised the homes a foot off the ground in the floodplain. However, the city recommended the conversion to non-permanent housing in the form of an RV park. Rhus was born Cracker Lake RV Resort. (Eric, 1:36)

– This follows a trend where the brokers are starting to see a lot of vacant mobile home parks get attention from buyers. (Max. 3:23)

– The sale was to a local buyer who had 1031  funds and only needed a small seller note of less than ten percent for 12 months. Due diligence was done quickly and smoothly, and the buyer and seller worked well together. The park sold at near list price. (Eric, 4:23)

– Eric agreed with Max’s comment about seeing a good market for vacant or near-vacant mobile home parks. (Eric, 4:44)

– If your mobile home park is vacant or near-vacant. No problem. Eric Wanck can find you a motivated buyer. Contact Eric or Max Baker at The Mobile Home Park Broker, (678) 932-0200. You can also drop us a line at info@themhpbroker.com.

Power Quotes in This Episode:

“We were selling essentially vacant land with infrastructure in place.” (Eric, 1:36)

“It was a really nice project for someone to come in, do a little bit of work and capital expenditures, and essentially open the gate” (Eric, 1:36)

“I chuckled because there’s always a little bit of a hiccup with due diligence. But for the most part, it was smooth and very happy all around. Great folks to work with on the sell side and the buy side.” (Eric, 3:42)

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 another beautiful episode of the mobile home bar 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’re exclusively this with us. Give us a call (678) 932-0200. But sidestep here for a second and we are here to celebrate another closing with our rockstar agent, Eric wank. Eric, welcome to the closing cocktail.

00:55 Eric Wanck

Yes, thank you, Max. Always love doing these closing cocktails. That means we’re getting deals done.

01:02 Maxwell Baker

That’s fine, man! We are; We’ve been doing deals. For a long time now. Man, I was just thinking about it. What was that you started with the firm ago?

01:08 Eric Wanck

Yeah. 18. It seems like how time flies?

01:12 Maxwell Baker

Yeah, man. You’ve been you’ve been run through the trials and tribulations for sure here at the firm and I was grateful for you. I’m excited to have you on the podcast about this sell cracker Lake. Yeah, RV park that you had made. So this one was interesting, because it was completely vacant. But he found a really good buyer and, and the seller that was amicable with him. So tell us a little bit about this deal.

01:36 Eric Wanck

Yes, very unique opportunity. We don’t come across a lot. Where one we’re selling essentially vacant land with infrastructure in place. That’s one. Two is this was a mobile home park. And it was a full conversion now to a RV park. This got just blown to pieces with Hurricane II. And I believe it was wiped out the park had some smaller mobile homes in their tiny homes in there as well. And after it got wiped out, the city said, look, to go back and be a mobile home park again, you’re going to have to raise the entire property up one foot above floodplain and be certified to do that and everything. They said, I don’t think we’re going to be doing that anymore. No MH in our futures. But the city was nice enough to say if you do non permanent housing, they considered even the mobile homes as permanent. They said you could do RV. So the kind of change course of the business plan here, but all the infrastructure was there and even had a clubhouse. And it was it was a really a nice project for someone to come in, do a little bit of work and cap x and essentially Open the gate. So this was a very unique Park from the start and just where it was located in Florida, probably an hour and a half, you know from the coast for the golf. And it was just we had I think eight offers on this one Max and two weeks. And we ended up selling it for just about list price. So no, a great little a great little park great experience the city water, sewer, and amazing just how many people were were clamoring to get property like this.

03:23 Maxwell Baker

Yeah, surprisingly, because we’re starting to see more and more of these vacant mobile home communities get a lot of activity. So it’s it’s nice to to see it come to fruition and how did the financing get set up on this one? And who was the buyer like who like the buyers profile? I should say? Yes.

03:42 Eric Wanck

So this was a local buyer. This was a foreigner Park. So a local buyer who actually is doing 1031 He brought 1031 funds in and we did hold a small note just to you know, it wasn’t even a large note on the seller health so we’re able to kind of get it done and good quick fashion. Thankfully, DD was pretty smooth. Relative I chuckled because there’s always a little bit of a hiccup with with DD. But for the most part, it was smooth and very happy all around great folks to work with on the sell side and the buy side.

04:18 Maxwell Baker

Nice. So it was mostly I think they put a big chunk of cash down, right.

04:23 Eric Wanck

Yeah, like I said they held probably less than 10% on a on a seller note. So seller was super happy with that. And it was short term. I think they held it for less than 12 months. Wow.

04:34 Maxwell Baker

Well, great, man. Well, any closing comments before we were actually about to move on to another closing cocktail with Eric? Yeah, right after this one. Yeah. Any other comments?

04:44 Eric Wanck

No, it’s just, it was cool. I wish that we would see more opportunity. And I think that as your comment said, we’re seeing a little bit more now on the MH side. With more vacant mobile home parks. We got one that came across Oh, not too long ago here in the last couple of weeks, you know, 90 some pads and only less than 10% occupied, you know, and there’s certain situations of why that is, but the infrastructure is there in a decent area. And and I think these are going to continue to sell and build our kind of competent database, so to speak for what these parks are traded for, because not a lot of cops are out there right now.

05:24 Maxwell Baker

Yeah, definitely. Well, y’all, I appreciate y’all listening. If you have any vacant mobile home communities, like we said, give us a call. We are still moving that type of product. And we also have lenders for that type of product. We have basically figured out how to sell deals that were next to impossible over the last few years and have been successful at getting them done. So give us a call 67893202006789320200. As for Eric in He will guide you on the path of success, and it’ll get you the most money he can as the market will bear so thanks for listening y’all and be well!

 

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.