The $60,000 Text Message

One text message and one phone call can change the economics of a real estate deal, if you know how to use due diligence and timing. We tell the full story of a small 24-unit mobile home park that sat on the market for over a year, then got locked up on seller financing and turned into a stronger deal after inspections revealed a costly surprise. 

We break down the practical side of mobile home park due diligence: bringing in a plumber to scope lines, getting an electrician to inspect service, and collecting real bids instead of guessing. When the numbers came back at $30,000 for electrical and $30,000 for plumbing, we didn’t argue or posture. We sent a simple retrade text that tied the requested $60,000 discount directly to undisclosed condition, then we waited a full day before making the call. That cooling-off window is a negotiation tool most investors ignore, and it’s often the difference between a dead deal and a signed amendment. 

Then we get into seller financing strategy and deal structure. The seller pushed back with “split it,” and we countered with a trade: a $60,000 price reduction for one extra point of interest. When you understand how principal, interest rate, and payment interact, you can offer terms that feel like a win to the seller while still improving your cash flow and protecting your equity. If you want better results in real estate negotiation, underwriting, and retrades, this is the playbook. 

Subscribe for more real-world mobile home park investing tactics, share this with an investor friend, and leave an honest review so more people can find the show. What’s the biggest surprise you’ve uncovered during due diligence?

Transcript

A Text That Saved $60K

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So the other day I made one text message and one phone call and saved my client $60,000. I'm gonna tell you how. Alright, I've got this one-on-one mobile home park client. And you know, I've been teaching them for about nine weeks. I've been teaching them the whole, you know, A

The Mobile Home Park Deal Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:18

to Z, how to find the parks, talk to sellers, underwrite, all this stuff, right? All right, so I end up finding a park I think would be a good fit for them because I'm constantly doing my calls. And if the parks aren't good fits for me, then I wholesale them. Well, this was a smaller park, a 24 unit, uh, smaller than my buy box, and it had been listed for a year, off and on, expired, listed again, and I ended up reaching out to the owner because I had talked to him last year, and he pretty much said he'd take like a $75,000 discount. Well, based off what he told me, I was like, all right, I'll lock it up. So I got under contract and we've been doing our diligence ever since.

Diligence Finds Major Hidden Repairs

SPEAKER_00 1:02

And when I say we, I'm walking my one-on-one client through it. So I'm like, okay, you hire the plumber, you hire the electrician, you, you know, for the plumber, I want you to, you know, scope the sewer lines, make sure everything's good. If not, you know, see what the cost would be to cure it. That way we can renegotiate later. Same with the plumbing, same with the electric or same with the electrical, same with everything. Anyways, um, there ends up needing to be like $30,000 done on the electrical, $30,000 done on the plumbing. On the electrical, there's broken electric poles, the meters aren't at the service, or the electrical is not at the service. On the plumbing, there's zero cleanouts, they got to be cut in there. Um everything else is pretty

The Discount Ask And The Call

SPEAKER_00 1:47

good, though. So I sent the owner a text message, and I was saying, and I just said, hey, you know, um, this is what happened, and I'm gonna need a $60,000 discount because we found $30 on electrical, $30 on plumbing. When we originally spoke, I told you this price and terms were based off the condition of what you told me, and this wasn't disclosed, you know, and I left it at that. I didn't say anything else, right? He didn't respond to my text. I waited 24 hours and I called him and I said, Hey, what'd you think about my text? Oh, we we shot the crap for a minute. I was like, Hey, what's up, man? He's like, Oh, I've been at the gym and all this stuff, right? He's an old man, so I thought that was cool. And I was talking about my bodybuilding competition. I was like, hey, I'm competing this weekend, all this stuff. So we we shot the crap for a minute, and then um, you know, I I was like, All right, what'd you think about my text? He's like, I didn't like it, right? And I'm like, Well, tell me about it. And he was like, Well, we agreed on a price. I said, Yeah, but you know, we didn't know all this stuff. He's like, That's fair. He's like, Well, you split it with me, so automatically I have a $30,000 discount. I'm like, well, thank you for that, right? But I can't split it with you because if I do, then I'm out thirty thousand dollars, and that wasn't our deal, right? Our deal wasn't, hey, give me pri these prices, these terms, and thirty thousand dollars. It was like, you know, so I'd lose the thirty thousand, right? So, anyways, he understood that. I was like, but I understand that I've got to give something if you're gonna give something, right? So, understood. So I want sixty thousand dollars. What do you want? He said, give me an extra point of interest. Done. Right? Because I want to break this down. Is I get a sixty thousand dollar reduction. Well, this is a seller finance deal, which means the price goes down sixty thousand dollars, which means the payment goes down sixty thousand dollars. You know, not sixty thousand, but the payment goes down because of the sixty thousand dollar reduction. So if he wants an extra point interest or real quick in my head, I'm winning, right? My payments actually lower even with the higher interest rate. All right, so I don't even need to do the math. Like, yeah, automatically.

Let Emotions Cool Before Negotiating

SPEAKER_00 3:58

He's like, Cool, well, let me talk to a family member, make sure you know there's they think what I do. And he calls right back. He's like, Let's do it, Travis. You know, cool, no problem. So we do the amendment. Now, here's something that I breezed over because I wanted you to hear the story. And usually when you hear a story and then you get taught something, it sticks better, at least for me, right? You hear the story and you're like, Why'd you do that? All right, so you know the story. All right, so the reason I played it that way is we've been under diligence, it's been weeks, right? And he knows I'm I told him up front we're putting the rubber gloves on, so that's what we do. He already knows, and stuff comes back, and nobody, nobody, you, me, them, nobody wants to get less than what they're asking for what they want, right? And I know this, and what happens is everybody turns emotional at this point in the conversation. You, me, everybody. We have emotions, right? We have wants, needs, and when we're told that we're not gonna get what we want, it doesn't feel good. So my preference was to send it in a text message and leave it be. If he responded back, no, whatever, I still don't care. I'm still gonna give him the 24 hours to cool, the cool off. Because, like we as humans, in my experience, don't um make our best decisions sometimes when we're full of emotion. I let it cool off. Most people will say no to a retrade, and and a lot of investors will just walk. Not me. I know that's part of human nature, right? So I'm gonna let him chill, and that's what I did. All right. So I don't want to breeze over that. I want you to understand that you might get told no, hell no, get the hell out of here. Nine times out of ten, that's okay. Just know that that reaction is emotional, it's based purely on emotional. All right, so let the numbers sink in, let the situation sink in. If you have a valid case for your retrade, your renegotiation, whatever you want to call it, you've got a good shot. Okay. Especially if there's motivation, like there is here. They've listed it several times, it's expired. They obviously

Seller Finance Tradeoffs That Work

SPEAKER_00 6:20

want to sell. Now it's how can they sell it? How can we come to terms? All right. And I already had one previous renegotiation with this guy, right? I stretched the amortization out, which I talked about in a different podcast, I believe, but I stretched it out to make the payment lower because he's financing it. And and not only that, it's a 20% down deal. And now that the you know, the 60,000 off makes a 20% less. Now, don't get me wrong, that stuff needs to be cured, meaning it needs to be fixed. So my 101 client that is buying it is still gonna have to pay the 60 grand to fix it, right? But if he did not get that discount, he would have lost 60 grand, but instead retains the equity from the from you know the deal that we made. You know, the payment, you know, gets the same payment, gets a better part. There's no problems, right? And that's what you want. Like when you buy these things, you don't want to buy something that's trashed and run it trashed. Yes, buy things that are trashed, make them better, and then you have something good. I see so many people maybe get a good deal, but they leave it in the state it was in when they got it. And the reason they got a good deal is because it was probably in a poor state or there was a poor situation. Those things need to be cured, they need to be fixed. Okay, I hope that makes sense. All right, and just remember the rules on renegotiation. Don't don't argue, don't press the fact, like if people are emotional. I had another one-on-one client for just mobile homes yesterday, and he flat out got in an argument with a seller because he told him the price, and seller didn't seller didn't want you know to tell him something, and he's like, Well, I can find it out, and they went in the tiff. I'm like, you don't do that, right? And he was emotional, right? Once you understand that we're emotional creatures, you understand that we're all doing our best, right? Like, and just think, like, we're all acting away at a time for a certain reason. Let cooler heads prevail, right? Let logic set in, and

Rules For Retrades And Closing

SPEAKER_00 8:38

you'll get the deal that you want. Of course, you got to do the outreach, but like this deal's taking a month so far, right? So, like, good things take some time, but he is gonna get a banger part by the time it's all said and done, right? Like, I think it's like 24 units for like 315,000 seller finance, like an eight and a half percent interest rate. Unheard of, like half of it's rented out, so it's bringing in like six G's a month already, right? People say those deals don't exist. I want to show you how they exist, they don't exist at face value. You've got to make the deal, and what I mean is I just walked you through the process. I let alone this thing was listed for $475 and didn't sell forever. For over a year, expired at several agents, nobody could figure this thing out, right? We got it figured out. Thank you so much for jumping on the Property Profits Podcast. My name is Travis Wells. I hope to see you on the next one. Please refer to friends, family, other investors if you got something out of this, if you took anything away. And I'd love an honest review. Like, help the algorithm out. You know, just whatever you're listening to this on, take the split second to leave a review. DM me on Facebook if you need to get a hold of me, want to get a hold of me. Leave comments and messages. If like tell me what you like, what you don't like. We can make this thing even better, right? Um, tell me if you have other experiences. Until next time, thank you so much. See you then.