Here Are The Show Highlights:
• Jeff Dodge closed a 13-lot mobile home park in Tallahassee, Florida, spread across 14 acres and three parcels, including 10 park-owned homes, 2 tenant-owned homes, and 1 RV lot. (Jeff, 00:44)• The property maintained full occupancy and strong demand, with rents around $550 per month, creating a solid turnkey cash-flow opportunity for the buyer. (Jeff, 01:04)• Despite receiving multiple offers, the seller ultimately chose a local buyer with mobile home park experience, prioritizing trust and familiarity with the area. (Jeff, 01:49)• The transaction was financed with a bank loan but faced delays and extensions, stretching the closing timeline to about 4.5–5 months. (Jeff, 02:27)• Max emphasized the importance of brokers communicating directly with lenders to manage expectations and protect clients — a key factor that helped keep this deal moving toward a successful close. (Max, 03:12)
Power Quotes in This Episode:
“It was fully occupied, always had strong demand, and was pretty much a turnkey operation that presented a great cash flow opportunity for the right buyer.” (Jeff, 01:04)“It’s a big part of our job to protect our clients and make sure we have the right people in place to get the deal done.” (Jeff, 02:37)“We have a fiduciary responsibility to protect our clients.” (Max, 03:39)“Anytime buyers won’t let us talk to the lenders, I’m basically blindfolded throwing darts at the board.” (Max, 03:12)“When we’re able to set expectations with the sellers, that increases the probability we’re going to get it across the finish line.” (Max, 04:12)
00:00
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 with another yet again success story. Today, we’ve got Jeff Dodge who just closed a beautiful community down in Tallahassee, Florida. It was a little bit of a challenge, needless to say, had some couple of deals, but Jeff, tell us a little bit about this deal and welcome and congrats on this closing, dude.
00:44 Jeff Dodge
Thanks, Max. Yeah, glad to be here with you. So it was, we had a good seller on this deal. He was really good to work with, had a lot of good conversations with him. Learned a lot about him and his travels as well. He took a couple of trips to Europe during this deal, so, I’m glad he was able to, enjoy his time and now retirement. But, this park had 13 lots on over 14 acres, which was, 3 different parcels, 10 park-owned homes, 2 tenant-owned homes, and 1 RV lot. Obviously, a great location in Tallahassee. It was literally just a few minutes outside of the city, so close to a lot of great retail and, just a great spot for the tenants and, for ownership. It had strong rental rates at $550 a month, very strong rents, being in that area and it was fully occupied, always fully occupied, always had strong demands, and never an issue there and pretty much a turnkey operation that presented a great cash flow opportunity for the right buyer.
01:39 Maxwell Baker
Nice, man. What was the buyer’s profile and how did he take it? He or she take it down? Tell us a little bit about the actual transaction.
01:49 Jeff Dodge
Yeah, we did have multiple offers we were going through at the time, but found a buyer that the seller was really comfortable with. She, she’s actually pretty local to the area and, knew the area well, had a little bit of experience in MH. So, somebody that really the seller ultimately felt comfortable with and she was good to work with overall. We did have some delays. I think you mentioned the challenge. The challenge was there were some delays with the buyer and the lender overall, but I think you recall we worked really closely with the lender and kind of stayed, you know, stayed in touch with them pretty consistently to, to make sure we got that done. It was, it was a bank loan.
02:24 Maxwell Baker
Oh, so we got a bank loan to do it?
02:27 Jeff Dodge
Mh-hmm
02:27 Maxwell Baker
Nice, man.
02:28 Jeff Dodge
Yeah
02:28 Maxwell Baker
And how long did it take to close the deal?
02:30 Jeff Dodge
We had a couple of extensions, so it took; it ended up taking us about, 5 months, I believe it was.
02:35 Maxwell Baker
Oh man, it’s a little longer than normal.
02:37 Jeff Dodge
Yeah, maybe 4.5, but yeah, definitely longer than normal, and that’s; that was; that was the biggest challenge of the deal but, talking to the buyer consistently, she never wavered. She always wanted to get it done and, stay in touch with the lenders. You know, it’s a big part of our job to, you know, protect our clients, to make sure we have the right, people in place to get the deal done.
02:57 Maxwell Baker
Yeah, that was the biggest thing we kind of struggle with sometimes is a lot of buyers won’t let us talk to the lenders, and anytime that happens, I’m kind of just blindfolded, throwing darts at the board, because you really got to understand like what’s happening, where the process is of the debt, understand like how far there is to go, you know, because we try to keep the sellers informed with everything that there can be involved in with the loan and we’re always trying to give them updates on the third parties that are happening, surveys, appraisals, phase ones, because we have to schedule all that with the sellers. So, it’s extremely important that we as the broker, when you do hire us or any other brokerage out there, is that they’re very much in touch with the lender. Luckily we knew who this lender was already. We had a great relationship with them, done several deals with them over the years. We were just keeping in touch with them and they were letting us see what was going on in the background and help us keep a finger on the pulse because a lot of times we got a little frustrated cause sometimes the buyer was like, aloof with updates, so we would just call the lender and the lender would be like, oh yeah, this is what’s going on da da da da da. So it’s, you know, it happens that way sometimes where we have to be a little aggressive on calling the lender, but at the end of the day, we’re trying to protect our client. We have fiduciary responsibility to protect them, and Jeff, you did a great job with that. I know you were on top of it, calling the lender nonstop.
04:28 Jeff Dodge
I appreciate it. I don’t know if you recall, but we even saw them in person at a couple of conferences as well so.
04:30 Maxwell Baker
Oh yeah, that’s right. We did see him at the trade show and he was like, yeah, it’s going to close. We just got this and this and this. So with that, you know, let us do a successful closing because, it helps us set expectations with the sellers and when we’re able to set expectations with the sellers, I mean, that increases the probability that we’re going to get it across the finish line. So, Jeff, do you have any closing comments on this one?
04:58 Jeff Dodge
Yeah, I mean, ultimately, we were able to get it across the finish line. It’s just once again, you learn that regardless of what the issue is or situation is that, you know, we’re able to find a good resolution for our seller, and, I would just say give us the opportunity to work with you and we’ll find the right buyer for your property.
05:13 Maxwell Baker
For sure, man. So, y’all give us a call. Happy to talk with you about any of your deals, whether you’re thinking about selling, whether you’re looking for debt, we make in lender introductions* and if you’ve also got some paper that you’ve been carrying, you want to sell that, we can also source buyers for the paper that you’ve put together on the deal that you sold, and if you’re looking to buy more property, there is an opportunity to leverage that paper that you have in place in order to step up into more property. You can call me or Jeff here at the firm 678-932-020 and we’ll happily show you and explain to you how that step up thing works with the notes that you have but, like I said, we are here, your central source, happy to provide as much value as we can and y’all, let’s keep moving forward!
*DISCLAIMER: We are not acting as a mortgage broker, lender, or loan originator. Our role is limited to introducing potential borrowers to trusted lending partners. All financing terms are negotiated directly between the borrower and the lender. This service is only offered in jurisdictions where such introductions are legally permitted. If you are located in a state where these services require licensure or are restricted, please disregard this message as it is not intended as a solicitation.
