When selling a mobile home, sellers use many different techniques to get a better price for their homes. Attractive photos, in-depth descriptions, and detailed floor plans all help pique buyers’ interest and encourage them to give your listing serious consideration.
However, the time of year when you list your manufactured home for sale is one factor that some say is often relevant. There’s some truth to that—but it’s also not the full story. Let’s take a look at what the facts say about the best time of year to sell your manufactured home, and why MHVillage can make it easier no matter the season.
The Best Times to Sell a Mobile Home
Many real estate experts agree that late spring and summer are the best times of year to sell a house in 2019, or in any year. There are many reasons why—including the end of the school year—that many leases end in the summer, including potential buyers have more time to look at listings and visit homes.
To determine the best time to sell your mobile home, you’ll need to think about some key questions, including:
- Do you want to sell as quickly as possible, or get the most money for your manufactured home that you can possibly get?
- In what season is your real estate market most active? (This will often be affected by the climate where you live.)
- Is your manufactured home in an area that appeals to families with children, is it more geared toward retirees, or neither?
Some studies claim that home sellers get better prices for their homes on certain dates, but it’s rarely worth the trouble to try to game the calendar down to the date. Sellers are better off focusing on the tried-and-true techniques for selling a mobile home.
Is There a Bad Time to Sell a Mobile Home?
December is often considered to be the weakest month for the real estate market, with the period immediately around the Christmas holidays being among the slowest. In general, late fall and winter are thought to be the weakest times for home sales.
On some levels, this makes sense, as many folks are busy with other events during these times. Buyers may believe that they have more leverage since they assume that anyone selling a mobile home during the holidays is desperate to make a deal. For these reasons, many folks will choose to sit on their mobile homes for a few months rather than list them for sale during the winter.
However, there are a few flip sides to think about that may prove to be to your advantage when selling a mobile home in the winter:
- Buyers who are braving the winter anyway are often highly motivated and in need of a place to live.
- Many buyers will have year-end bonuses in their pockets and are prepared to make a larger purchase.
- If you live in a warm climate with many “snowbird” buyers, fall and winter may be the ideal time to sell.
- Corporate relocations often happen at the end of the year to give employees a fresh start in Q1.
Other Factors to Consider
Of course, the major factors affecting your manufactured home resale price have little or nothing to do with the weather. The bigger factors include:
- Home Value: The appraised value of your manufactured home has always been among the biggest factors in what you get for it, so make sure you get an appraisal through a reliable mobile home appraiser such as Datacomp.
- Asking Price: You’ll still need to list your manufactured home at a reasonable price that’s not too far above its appraised mobile home value.
- Location: A manufactured home that’s in a desirable manufactured home community or attractive location will typically sell faster.
- Land: Manufactured homes that come with the land they sit on will often be more attractive to buyers.
A seller’s takeaway here should be that while it can make a difference when you choose to list your home, it’s not as big of a factor as some might tell you—and the time of year shouldn’t prevent you from listing if you want to sell.
In the end, it’s only a bad time to sell your manufactured home if you’re doing it without the help and support that you need. Sellers are always more successful with the right resources and know-how in their pockets, regardless of what time of year it is. That’s why so many sellers choose to list on MHVillage.
When you list your mobile home for sale on MHVillage, you’ll get access to all kinds of resources that will help draw buyers to your listing, including a free market valuation from the mobile home appraisal experts at Datacomp. You can start right now with our Mobile Home Seller’s Guide—a document packed with useful tips and tricks for optimizing your MHVillage listing.
