How to Choose a Mobile Home Park Broker in Florida
Hire a broker who has actually sold parks, can explain how park-owned homes, utilities, and Chapter 723 change your value, and can name real buyers and lenders for your type of park. Ask for closed park sales, their pricing method, and the listing term before you sign.
Obvious disclosure first: I am a mobile home park broker in Florida, so I am not neutral on this topic. Read what follows the way you would read a barber explaining haircuts. But I built a park-only brokerage because of what I watched happen to park owners who hired the wrong help, and the test questions below work no matter who you end up hiring, including if it is not me.
Why parks punish generalists
A park is not a residential deal with more doors. Its value lives in things house-side agents never touch: lot rent versus home rent, park-owned homes versus tenant-owned homes, well and septic versus city utilities, private roads, Chapter 723 tenancies, and a buyer pool that mostly does not live in your county. I have seen parks listed on the residential MLS, priced per home like a subdivision, sit for a year, and then sell wrong. The license is the same. The job is not.
The five questions that sort brokers in one phone call
- How many parks have you closed? Parks, specifically. Ask for addresses and years. Closings are recorded; a real answer is checkable, and a vague answer is an answer too.
- How would you value my park? The only right answer starts with income: lot rent, occupancy, real expenses, a cap rate defended with actual Florida park sales. If the answer starts with what similar parks are listed for, the interview is over.
- Who are your buyers? A working park broker can describe their buyer list from memory: which groups are buying in Florida right now, at what size, and what they are paying. That list is most of what you are hiring.
- What happens in due diligence? Park deals die on utilities, on park-owned home paperwork, and on financing, because parks are hard to finance. You want the broker who starts solving those problems before the buyer finds them.
- What are your terms? Length of the listing, the fee, and what it costs to leave if they underperform. Mine are 4 percent paid only at closing on a 90-day, one-page agreement. Whatever a broker's terms are, they should say them this plainly.
The red flags, learned the hard way
Be careful with a broker whose suggested price is meaningfully above everyone else's and who cannot show the math; the flattering number wins your listing, and the market corrects it at your expense six months later. Be careful with long exclusive agreements that make firing them expensive. And ask hard questions any time your broker also represents the buyer; it is legal in Florida with proper disclosure, but you should understand exactly whose side of the table everyone is sitting on before you rely on their advice about price.
You are not hiring a license. Every broker has one of those. You are hiring a buyer list, a pricing method, and a person who has watched fifty park deals almost die and knows which wire to cut.
Whoever you interview, walk in holding your own number. My valuation model below builds it from your park's actual income, and it will tell you within minutes whether the broker across the table is pricing your park or flattering you.
Questions owners ask
What should a mobile home park listing agreement include?
It should state the length of the listing, the fee, and what it costs to leave if the broker underperforms, all in plain words. Mine are 4 percent paid only at closing on a 90-day, one-page agreement. Be careful with long exclusive agreements that make firing a broker expensive, because they protect the broker more than they protect you.
Should I hire the broker who quotes the highest price for my park?
Not unless they can show the math. A suggested price meaningfully above everyone else's often wins the listing, and then the market corrects it at your expense six months later. Ask every broker to walk you through income, expenses and the cap rate behind their number, and walk in holding your own number so you can tell pricing from flattery.
Is it a problem if my broker also represents the buyer?
It is legal in Florida with proper disclosure, but ask hard questions. Before you rely on anyone's advice about price, you should understand exactly whose side of the table everyone is sitting on. A broker who represents both sides should be able to explain plainly how that works and what it means for the advice you get.
Can a residential agent sell a mobile home park?
The license is the same, but the job is not. A park's value depends on lot rent versus home rent, park-owned versus tenant-owned homes, well and septic versus city utilities, private roads, Chapter 723 tenancies, and a buyer pool that mostly does not live in your county. I have seen parks priced per home like a subdivision sit for a year.
How do I check a broker's mobile home park track record?
Ask how many parks, specifically, they have closed, and ask for addresses and years. Closings are recorded, so a real answer is checkable, and a vague answer is an answer too. Then ask who their buyers are. A working park broker can describe from memory which groups are buying in Florida right now, at what size, and what they pay.
I am a Florida mobile home park broker, and the page on what I do and what it costs shows how I answer every question in this post.
