Mobile Home Park Lawyer is needed

[Kat N.]

Hi,

I am going to purchase Mobile Home Park in TX. I discussed the price with the seller. He would like to get an official offer. Could you please advise me an experienced lawyer who deals with MHP purchases? I would like he/she prepares an offer and closes the purchase. The closest to my MHP counties are Tarrant, Parker, Hood and Johnson.

Thank you for any recommendations.

[Jeffrey H.]

There are very few lawyers who specialize in just MHP's, and even fewer in Texas.  The reason is there are so many aspects of MHP's that no lawyer usually has that breadth AND depth to effectively advise on so many topics.

With that said here is my recommendation if you truly need an attorney:

1. Get a generic real estate attorney to help with a purchase contract, if that provides you comfort.
2. Bring in specialists for help if you have specific issues in a certain area you need help (e.g. zoning, grandfather status).

I have a custom 15 page MHP-specific contract I use for investor-owned MHP's (this contract is mostly padded with seller disclosures and outs for the buyer if materials facts are omitted - everything from utilities, zoning, and financials), and then for small sellers I use a 3 page TAR form.  One scares off small sellers, and the other does not.

There is one particular nugget in an MHP specific offer you should take away: mobile home titles.  Many Sellers will not have the titles to the park owned homes (POH).  They will make this your problem if you don't address it in the contract.  So you do this: put in a clause for a title offset.  

That means for each Mobile Home title they cannot produce by closing, you reduce the purchase price by $2,500 (or whatever your time is worth) for each home.  Some people will give the Seller 30-60 days extra where that is held in escrow - but the truth is that if you are clear and up front with them when presenting the contract, it won't matter and is not necessary.

Finally, the reality is that if you do proper diligence and have a reasonable feasibility period (e.g. 2-3 months is standard for any commercial property) then you will be fine.  If you need guidance on diligence I suggest the MHU Due Diligence Manual as your starting point.

I hope this information is useful for you.