Thats the way to do it. Not only does it create urgency on their part, but you don’t waste more than 15 or 20 minutes of your time if no one shows up. I had 5 calls on Weds, told all 5 to come at 5:30 Thurs and 4 showed up and 1 called to reschedule. Boy the looks on faces when someone else pulled into the driveway was priceless… I had one person call me back Friday morning to let me know they had just left the park office to get their approval.
Schedule them all at the same time… its the only way to save your sanity! Best of luck to you! Kris
I am trying to sell a 1994 singlewide, 3/2, 16X76 in a park; the home needs paint, carpet, exterior A/C unit (heat pump) and a couple of other minor things.
I put an ad in the Greensheet offering to sell with $500 down and had a bunch of calls; almost 20 to 30 within a week. And set up appointments to meet with nearly 6-10 people. And only 2 showed up on time! And they are dragging their feet.
This is a nice park. Offering even $250 to the PM does not work, because her associate quoted something like $2500 to handle all the selling, paperwork etc.!!
I have sold one home before and paid the PM nearly $1200 to do it!! It was a different park, I bought the home for $3000 and sold it for $10500, so the hefty fee I paid the PM could be explained.
All you regular Lonnie dealers out there, how did you start finding serious buyers and not uninterested tire kickers?
Also, do you find it better to let your buyers drive up and look at the homes themselves, or do you want to meet them at the property so you can make a sales pitch?
The park gave me 2 months free lot rent that runs out on July 1st; but I am paying 20% interest to my investor. The only way I can think of to move this home fast is to spend another $2K to $3K fixing it up and making it appealing.
B.
I would fix up the home so it could be sold. I find that most people do not want to do fix up, even if they do not have all the money. I would also put a information sheet on the home and for sale signs in the yard. We sell many homes with people driving through the park. As far as the park manager is concerned, I would offer her/him $250 to show the home or send you leads to the home. If they are selling your home, then I see why they are charging you so much. I hope this helps.
You might revisit your sales strategy. When you say you “make a sales pitch” in person, that might be the problem. The house is going to sell itself. The right buyer (someone for whom your pricing, their credit problems and their skills are the perfect match) is going to buy the house. By having it in bad shape you are limiting the buyers that the house will appeal to.
When I have a MH similar to what you describe, I’ll answer the phone cheerfully, tell them about the house “I’ll be honest with you- it needs work, and I’m looking for someone who wants to create equity through some work- do you have an interest in that kind of deal?” and then ask them to drive by, peek in the windows and then call me back.
By having them drive by, then call for an appointment, you are increasing the likelihood that they’ll show up. And do schedule for at least 2 groups of people to show up at the same time, because you’ll still get about 25% no-shows.
Given that you’re in Texas, and this is the summer, if you are selling to low-income or people with bad credit, the lack of A/C is probably a deal-breaker for some of them. I’d probably say “the house comes with new A/C which I’ll have installed after closing”. That way if the A/C gets stolen (I’ve had this happen), it’s their problem because they’re living there. And you won’t let them move in without insurance, right?
Schedule them ALL AT THE SAME TIME - Posted by Blake (ID)
Posted by Blake (ID) on June 17, 2006 at 15:56:51:
When I get a lot of calls on the add i say “i can only show it at 2:00 on saturday”. And if you have 3 people coming generally 1 or 2 will show up. (I did this once with contractors and it was amusing, all 3 showed up)
Re: Lots of calls and lots of no-shows !! - Posted by JeffB (MI)
Posted by JeffB (MI) on June 16, 2006 at 16:37:37:
A few thoughts, and these are based only on my experience, in my market, so the advice may be worth to you only what you’re paying for it:
When people call, I don’t do the hard-sell over the phone. In fact, I play friendly-but-slightly disinterested in selling the home. Say things to make them believe YOU’VE got a hot product and get THEM to make you want to sell it to them. This approach, I’ve found, weeds out the tire kickers. I also make them drive-by the property before showing it to them. I explain this as I want to make sure they really LOVE the community before I drive out to show them the home. After the drive-by, those who call back are usually VERY interested and you can tell, they won’t skip out on the appointment. Still, I make them call me 1 hour before the scheduled appt, especially if it’s a few days off. Then, I know they’re coming. If you play this whole thing right, you may turn off some people but it will only be those who were never serious in the first place. Careful to still be friendly and not to come off as cocky/arrogant. I aim for at least a 50% showing-to-sale conversion ratio. If I drop down to 25% or so I know that I’m not screening people out appropriately.
You mentioned Greensheet, I use this too… but also flyers at Laundromats, grocery stores, and MOST importantly in my market, SIGNS IN THE WINDOWS of the homes! I get about 50% of my calls this way. The nice part about these people is that they have most likely already done the drive-by, and in my experience are inclined to be slightly more motivated to buy than someone sitting at home on Sunday morning skimming through the classified section.
I personally have had VERY little luck selling fixer-type homes “as-is”. I think it depends on your market. For me, I almost always end up doing a full rehab. My top items are paint, carpet, and new $4 mini-blinds throughout.
So money does not motivate your PM, at least not the amount that you can reasonably afford to pay her. Try finding another way to motivate her, or at least, really get her to understand that your presence in her park is a benefit to HER.
Again all this is just what works for me. I think the personality of the seller has a lot to do with what works and what doesn’t, along with your local market conditions. There are quite a few Texas Lonnie Dealers on here, you might try posting your location and seek out the advice of those who really know what works in your market.
I have done group showings before. Maybe 50% of those who say they will show do. Usually calls tend to trickle in or people call from the sign on the house (you do have one up I hope). I have better luck putting a lockbox on the door. When people call, I give them the code to look through it. I ask that they call me when they are finished looking so I know it is locked back up. We then talk further if they want to pass or play. It saves me tons of time running out for a showing and not have people show. I have not had any problems with people abusing knowing the code.
On a side note, I am not clear what the associate manager was referring to when she was talking aabout $2500 to process paperwork. You are doing all the paperwork for the home. They need to do it for the lot rent, but that is their JOB. Geez, some people.