Chapter 16 of 20
Offers and negotiations
What is genuinely negotiable, what is not, and which contingencies to insist on.
1 min read
Base your offer on what the home will cost you to own and what the inspection is likely to find, not on the asking price and not on what similar homes list for. Asking prices in this market are frequently set by hope rather than by evidence, particularly in private sales.
Make the offer contingent on things that protect you: a satisfactory inspection, clear and transferable title, financing approval, and, in a community, the community's approval of you as a resident and your review of the lease and rules. That last one matters. Committing to a home before you have read the documents that will govern your life there is a serious risk, and the contingency costs you nothing to include.
What tends to be negotiable: the price, who pays for specific repairs the inspection identifies, what personal property and appliances are included, and the timing of possession. What tends not to be: lot rent, the community rules, and community approval of you as a buyer. Those are the community's terms, not the seller's, and the seller cannot trade them away.
Get everything in writing. Verbal agreements about which appliances stay, what will be repaired, or when the seller will vacate are the most common source of closing-day disputes, and they are entirely avoidable.
Key points
- Price the offer on ownership cost and inspection risk, not on the asking price.
- Make it contingent on inspection, clear title, financing, and community approval.
- Include a contingency on reviewing the lease and rules.
- Lot rent and community rules are not the seller's to negotiate.
Watch out
Do not waive the inspection contingency to win a home. On manufactured housing the defects that matter most are the ones you cannot see, and the downside is measured in tens of thousands.