The MHP Brokers Tips and Tricks Podcast Interview with MHP Broker Eric Wanck Regarding His 5-Park North Carolina Portfolio Closing

In this episode of The MHP Broker’s  Tips and Tricks podcast, Maxwell Baker, president of The Mobile Home Park Broker, interviewed The MHP Broker Eric Wanck regarding his very challenging closing of a portfolio of five mobile home parks in North Carolina.

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:

• Max introduced broker Eric Wanck and explained how Eric and his business partner had recently closed on a five-park portfolio in the Tar Heel State that came with plenty of challenges. That included a buyer who initially fell out of contract but then came back months later for round two. (Max, 00:22)
• The prospective buyer initially came to the deal with a funding package he was trying to put together from among several investors. As what tends to happen when you have too many moving parts in a deal, the whole thing fell apart. The buyer’s due diligence was also challenging, since there were something like 123 park-owned homes to look at, spread on some 172 pds scattered over five parks. (Eric, 1:58)
• The prospective buyer failed to get financing, killing the deal the first time around. The deal looked deader’n a doornail.  (Eric, 2:40)
• The park went off the market for three or four months. But then the original prospective buyer came back with another deal. One advantage of doing business with those folks again was that they had already inspected he parks and had completed the bulk of their due diligence. However, Eric was naturally skeptical–and cautious–since that group had already brought them a soured deal. (Eric, 3:07)
• Eric and the sellers proceeded cautiously, shortening timelines for due diligence and inspections since a lot of that work had already been done the first time around. It was still a slow grind, taking about 90 days to close, even with the buyers presenting an all–cash deal. (Eric, 3:47)
• The availability of all of the park-owned homes also complicated the deal. They were hard to price. Twenty-eight of them were nearly new, having been bought new and installed in 2020. The final tally was that the homes sold to the park buyer at an average cost of about $22,000 each…a good price for the buyers. (Eric, 5:06)
• With lots renting at close to $1,000 a month, the buyer was going to generate impressive cash flow and get back the purchase price in good time. The sellers had made over a million dollars in capital improvements to the homes, increasing the value of the entire portfolio. (Max, 6:06)
• That included new HVAC units throughout the park, greatly increasing the portfolio worth. (Eric, 6:27)
• The sellers’ well-organized and complete books and records also helped make the deal possible. The seller also had the benefit of being able to get the best purchase price based on competitive rates and other pertinent data collected and provided by Max and his team. (Max, 7:00)
• The bottom line is that, the more comprehensive the due diligence and financial information, the more the seller can get in the sale. Make the process easier for all parties, and you’ll end up with more at closing. (Eric, 7:40)

The Mobile Home Park Broker has tons of experience putting seller-friendly deals together–and saving deals when they fall through or feel at risk. If you’re thinking of putting your park on the market, call Eric Wanck or Max Baker at The MHP Broker, [phone] and we’ll help you find a qualified buyer and an optimal sale price.You can also drop us a line at [email protected].

Power Quotes in This Episode:

• “Whenever you get more people involved (in a deal), you typically might run into more issues. (Eric, 1:58)
• (On a first deal falling through.) “Hey, just because you don’t make it go once doesn’t mean you can’t try to do it again.” (Eric, 2:40)
• (After the first deal failed and the parks went off the market for an extended time) “We just kept a good relationship with the owner.” (Eric, 3:07)
• “When you drive around a mobile home park and you see a bunch of brand-new Trane HVAC units, literally on every single home, you're dealing with ownership that takes pride and wants to have a nice home for tenants.” (Eric, 6:27)
• “So it's very important to organize your books and records, because whenever we go to sell your community…it only adds more zeros to the bottom line. You know, simply because you're eliminating risk, and the less risky your asset is to an incoming operator, the higher the price naturally is what's going to happen.” (Max, 7:00)
• “The more comprehensive your due diligence and financial information is, the more money we can get for you. …It makes the process so much easier, both on your side and the buy side and getting to the closing table.” (Eric 7:40)