How to Sell Your Mobile Home Without an Agent

Selling a mobile home can be a bit challenging for a couple of reasons. One of the biggest challenges is figuring out how much your home is worth. Another is selling a mobile home that has to be moved or that’s sited in a park because of the legalities involved.

In this article, we will help guide you through the process of selling your mobile home without an agent even if it’s permanently installed on your own land.

Personal Property Vs Real Property

Mobile and manufactured homes are different from site-built homes in a few ways but the most important difference is how they are classified with the tax assessor’s department.

Site-built homes are always classified as real property because they are attached to the land it sits on. Since factory-built homes aren’t always permanently installed on private land. Many mobile homes sit in parks or property not owned by the homeowner.

Understanding the Current Housing and Construction Market

The pandemic has turned the housing and construction market on its head. We’ve seen lumber prices sore over 240% in the last year. New site-built homes increased more than 20% because there’s far more demand than supply. One article I read stated that 74% of site-built homes are selling within 30 days of being listed.

Naturally, there’s going to be a bit of work involved. You can’t just place an ad on Craigslist or some mobile home listing site and wait for the offers to roll. We’re here to help though.

For Sale By Owner

Selling a home without a Realtor, whether it be a factory-built or site-built home, is known as an FSBO listing, or a for sale by owner listing.

The REALTORS® website states that the most difficult tasks for those selling their own homes are getting the right price, preparing the home, helping buyers with financing and paperwork, and attracting potential buyers.

Step 1: Repair

Getting your mobile home in top shape before you try to sell it is smart.

Appraisals can be done online or in-person but inspections must always be in person.

Step 2: Appraise

One of the first and most important things to do before listing your mobile home is to have it appraised.

Step 2: Find Comparables

Comparables are extremely important when selling a home but what exactly are comparables?

Comparables are other homes

Realtors have programs and algorithms that can automatically pull up several comparables for their clients. It’s not that easy for homeowners trying to sell their own mobile home.

You’ll need to consider your neighborhood’s comparable sales (known as comps) and getting your hands on those are not easy.

Agents price homes based on algorithms that take into account several aspects such as comparable listings, the home’s condition, appraisal, and supply and demand to name only a few. Simply put, pricing a home is an art.

So how do you find the right price? Research!

Check popular real estate sites such as Zillow or Trulia to find homes similar to yours in the same area. Compare the condition, square footage, and location to your home.  Zillow can help you find an estimate here. 

Learn more about pricing your home here. 

One recent survey from REALTORS® stated that sellers sold their homes for 97% of the listing price. It went on to add that 47% of sellers reduced their asking price at least once before they sold the home. Keep in mind that you have to be negotiable.

Inspecting Your Home

Potential buyers want to know as much about the home as possible and feel confident that no hidden problems will come up later, that’s why an inspection is necessary. You can expect to pay between $250 and $400 to have a home inspection done. It’s worth the money since you will be able to correct any issues that may impede the sell.

McGarry and Madsen, a popular mobile home inspection team has a lot of great information about inspections here.

Smart Marketing Tips to Sell a Mobile Home

Marketing and advertising are important aspects of selling a home. You want as many people to know about your home as possible. The more that know about your home, the

Unfortunately, traditional marketing can be expensive so you have to get creative. One agent stated on Trulia that he spends up to $1400 to market a home but you don’t have to spend that much.

Following is an important statistic from the REALTORS® website. It states which type of marketing resources were used by buyers looking for a home for sale.

How Buyers Look for Homes:

• Real estate agent: 89%
• Yard sign: 51%
• Mobile or tablet website or application: 45%
• Open house: 45%
• Mobile or tablet search engine: 42%
• Print newspaper advertisement: 23%

Statistics show that 89% to 93% of all buyers use an agent to help them find a home. Agents help them sort through all the listings and find the homes that are most relevant to their needs so if you are going to sell a home on your own, you need to make it easy for buyers. Here are a few smart marketing tips to help you do that:

Make visually appealing signs, flyers, and brochures.  

There’s a lot of places you can find templates that will help you design attractive and effective signs, flyers, and brochures. Microsoft office has several templates that you can use – just insert your own information and images.

Zillow also has some free templates you can download here.

Place a large ‘For Sale by Owner” sign in your front yard and around your neighborhood, elementary schools, and shopping centers.

Other smart places to post your signs are your local shopping centers, supermarkets, retirement communities, campgrounds, and mobile home parks, especially if the home has to be moved.

List your home with a photo in your local newspaper and weekly trade papers. 

We found our mobile home in a small newspaper published weekly called the ‘Weekly Trader.’ There’s another one in southern WV called the ‘Ole Mountain Trader’  – it’s basically a craigslist in print. Buyers pay .75 cents for the paper and contact the sellers directly via phone.

List your mobile home for sale online in as many places as possible.

The world is connected via the internet so let it work for you. You want to list your home in as many places as possible.

• craigslist.com is another free service that is a very popular website for selling and buying just about anything you can imagine.
• mhbo.com is a free service that allows you to list your home with photos. It has a nice layout and is super easy-to-use. You can view stats on the mobile home you are selling and keep an eye on price changes on similar mobile homes in your area for sale.
• mhvillage.com starts at $59.95 per single listing but it is the nation’s largest and most active websites listing mobile homes for sale by owner. They offer free tools when listing your homes such as seller’s guide and a free NADA Book Value appraisal on your home.
• ebay.com is also a popular online destination for buying and selling real estate of all types.
• Zillow.com is a popular website for real estate listings.
• Trulia.com is another popular website for real estate listings.
• Postlets.com is a website from Zillow that allows you to list your home.

A flat fee listing firm would list your home on all above and some more for a very affordable fee. That’s another option you can consider.

Hold open houses regularly. 

Getting your home seen is paramount to selling it quickly and easily. Set it up for a few hours during the weekend for the best results. Advertise your open house using the same ideas above.

 Tell your friends and family. 

 Don’t be shy! Let your friends, family, co-workers, and acquaintances know that your home is for sale. Let your network work for you!

Staging to Sell a Mobile Home Without an Agent

When you are selling your mobile home yourself, or with an agent, it is essential to staging your home. Staging has been proven to help a home sell at a higher price and at a quicker rate.

There’s a difference between decorating a home and staging a home to sell. Decorating a home is about featuring the owner. The focus is on adding personality to the space so that it reflects the owner’s style.  Staging a home is about featuring the home and creating a setting that allows a buyer to imagine living there.

Staging must appeal to the broadest range of buyers and create a lasting impression. You want them to envision themselves and their belongings in the space to make it easy for them to do so. The idea is to create a focal point in each room along with a setting that best reflects what that room is used for.

The best staging starts with a home that is as empty as possible. From there, set up each home

• Use neutral-colored walls because it appeals to the majority of people. Staging is not about personal taste.
• Limit the amount of furniture and accents in the home to highlight the home’s best feature. Remember, you are not decorating the home, only staging it.
• Plants help soften the hard lines of a room and add texture.
• Use lots of lighting throughout the home. This helps make the home seem bigger and friendlier.

Selling a mobile home yourself can be done. It just takes a bit of planning. Following a few of these suggestions will result in interest of people passing by. It is up to you to encourage this interest. If you fan the flames of mild interest then you may sell your mobile home without having to hire a real estate person and paying that fee.

SFGate – What Documents Are Needed for Selling a Mobile Home

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