We are back again for a second installment of, “What is Your Sarasota Mobile Home Worth?”
Last week we discussed the idea of selling your home fully furnished or emptying it before putting your home on the market. We reviewed that, although a mobile home that is being sold fully furnished, may lead to the home being sold faster, it does not always mean that it will sell for any more money. The money that you make, so to speak will be the dollars that are staying in your bank account by you not having to pay them out for the additional months of lot rent.
Today we want to discuss the idea of a new air conditioner, and if it will bring you any more money at the point in time when you go to sell your mobile home. Many times with The Mobile Home Dealer, we will meet with mobile home Sellers to review their homes to come up with an accurate price to bring the home to market.
One of the first things we always look for is to see what type of air conditioning they have as down here in South Florida, any AC system must be properly working due to the heat that this part of the state encounters several months a year.
Most Buyers will look for a home to has central AC as the main cooling system for the home. While window units are fine, and oftentimes more economical to the homeowner, many Buyers prefer the idea of a central AC system.
Before we move to the value of the unit itself, I want to take a brief moment to stress that it is of utmost importance, that whatever air conditioning system you have in your home, needs to be kept up with all the maintenance schedules! If there are any issues with the unit itself, make sure it is taken care of as soon as possible!
The most common question we get with the AC system for Buyers is, what is the service history?
If we are unable to answer that question, we quickly run into an issue!
Central AC systems are not cheap. They are oftentimes one of the most expensive pieces of a mobile home, with most of the units costing between $4,000-$8,000.
Enjoying cool air is the benefit, and to be honest, really the point of having an AC system in the first place.
Expect that the actual cost of the home unit itself will not translate to the same amount of dollars at the closing table. Having a central AC system, especially if it is a newer unit will be a great selling point and yet another way to sell your home quickly. However, this does not mean that you will get what you paid for the unit at the time of closing.
What if the air conditioner is now working, should you fix it?
If your air conditioning system is not working properly and you are looking to get it replaced, do you know if the costs that you spend on a new system will come back to you when you go to sell your mobile home?
This is a question we get asked all the time!
If the seller is looking to sell their home and the air conditioning system is not working properly, should they get it fixed to sell their property fast?
Another question we get asked is if the Seller of the mobile home is looking to sell their property can they reasonably expect to get the same or close to the same amount of money that they spent on their new air system returned to them when they go and sell their mobile home?
Both are great questions.
So let’s go ahead and tackle each one individually to help give you a better understanding of the way you may want to go when you are deciding on if you should go ahead and upgrade your AC system or not or just go ahead and sell your home as is.
Just last week, we were set to close on a property here in Sarasota Florida when the Seller had a blown central AC system. The whole thing was shot and was not working at all. The Seller wanted to sell their home fast and was contacted by a local air conditioning company who said that the replacement unit would cost the Seller between about $5,000 and $6,000 to replace the unit, remove the old unit, and lay a new concrete pad.
That was a chunk of change as they were not expecting to pay that!
We agreed, during our listing appointment, that they would go ahead and list the home competitively to start with but then go ahead and take off that chunk of money from the top of their home because the AC was not working.
By going this route, we immediately priced the home far under any other home that was for sale in that area and it brought the Seller tons of attention doing so. When we put the home up for sale we did our marketing to reflect, that, yes, the new owner was getting a heck of a deal, but the Buyer had to know that the AC unit needed to be replaced.
The home sold in less than a week to a happy Buyer who was going to put in window units and did not care about replacing the AC unit itself.
Everyone was thrilled!
We look forward to continuing our “What Is My Sarasota Mobile Home Worth” series next week so make sure you come back to learn more!
This is Mark Kaiser with The Mobile Home Dealer and we help mobile home Buyers and Sellers get to a better place in life!
See Also:
- What Is My Sarasota Mobile Home Worth? Episode #1
- How To Get Your Sarasota Mobile Home Ready For Sale?
- What Does “The Season” Mean For Sarasota Mobile Homes?
- Do Sarasota Mobile Homes Sell During The Holidays?
- Do Sarasota Mobile Home Buyers Need Seller Financing?