★★★★★ 4.8 from 53 Google reviews · Licensed Florida Mobile Home Broker
If you own a mobile home sitting on your own land, and you want the home gone but the land is not for sale, you are in the situation we handle most often. We list it, market it as must be moved, land not included, and find the buyer who will take it away. You get paid instead of paying.
You may not have to pay anyone to remove it
Most people in this position start by getting demolition quotes. The numbers come back in the thousands, and it feels like the only option.
It usually is not.
A mobile home that is structurally sound has real value to somebody, even one that needs work. The question is not whether it can be hauled away. The question is whether you should be writing that check or cashing one.
Before you pay to demolish or remove a mobile home, find out what it is worth. It costs nothing to ask and the answer surprises most people.
Who actually buys a home that has to be moved
There is steady demand across Florida, and it is far more varied than most sellers expect. These are the buyers we see most often:
- Young families priced out of building. A couple cannot qualify for a mortgage at current Florida prices, so a parent or grandparent splits an acre or two off their property for them. They buy a used home, have it set up there, and live without rent for a few years while they save. Eventually they sell the home again and build on the land.
- Someone who needs a parent close by. An aging relative needs to be nearby for health reasons. Rather than move them into the house, the family puts a used mobile home on their own property. It is a second home on the lot, ready in weeks rather than a year.
- Investors. They move the home to a rental lot and rent it out, including Section 8 tenancies. These buyers care about the numbers and move quickly when the numbers work.
- Park owners with an empty lot. A vacant lot earns nothing. Filling it with a home starts the lot rent, so parks buy these to put on the ground.
- Buyers who want a particular home. Rather than take whatever happens to be for sale inside a community, they buy the home they actually want and move it into the park.
Underneath all of it is simple arithmetic. A mobile home is a depreciating asset, so a good used one is dramatically better value than a new one at today’s prices. For a buyer facing sticker shock on a new build, a well kept used home that only needs moving is often the best deal on the table.
None of these buyers are put off by the fact that it has to be moved, because moving it was always the plan.
Four of our must be moved listings. Condition varies a great deal in this category, which affects the price but not whether there is a buyer.
Whether yours can be moved at all
Four things decide this, and they are worth checking before you get attached to any number. We will walk through all of them with you, but here is what we are looking at.
Homes built before June 15, 1976 cannot be moved
This is the first thing to check, because it decides everything else.
The federal HUD code took effect on June 15, 1976. Homes built before that date are pre-HUD, and Florida will not issue a permit to relocate one. There is no workaround and no paperwork that gets around it. If your home predates that date, moving it is not an option, and demolition is usually the only route left.
Check the data plate or the title for the manufacture date. If it says 1976, check the exact date, because June 15 is the line.
If yours is pre-HUD we will tell you right away rather than let you spend weeks finding out.
Your title may be retired, and you will need it back
We see this one all the time.
When a mobile home sits on land you own, the title can be retired. The home stops being titled property and your county tax assessor starts taxing it as real property along with the land. Most people who did this did it years ago and have long since forgotten.
To sell the home separately from the land, that title has to be un-retired. You go to your local tax collector or DMV office and they issue a new paper title. Until that is done there is nothing to transfer and the sale cannot close.
It is not difficult, but it takes time, so it is worth starting early. We will tell you whether yours is retired and what to do about it.
The home has to be structurally sound
A transport company’s insurance decides this, not us and not you.
If there are major structural problems in the floor, the roof or the walls, no licensed transporter will take it. That is not them being difficult. A compromised home can come apart on the road, and their insurance will not cover the move.
Cosmetic condition is an entirely different matter. Worn, dated and unattractive all sell perfectly well. Structurally unsound does not travel.
Decks, carports and screen rooms come off first
Anything attached to the home does not travel with it. Screen rooms, decks, carports and add-ons all have to be removed before the move.
You have two options. You take them down before the sale, or we negotiate them into the deal. Buyers often want them, because disassembling an existing deck and rebuilding it on the new site costs far less than building one from scratch. That turns something you would otherwise pay to demolish into part of what you are selling.
How we sell it
We market it as what it is
The listing states plainly that the home must be moved and the land is not for sale. That sounds obvious, but it is where most private sellers go wrong. Advertise it like an ordinary home and you spend weeks fielding calls from people who assumed the land came with it.
Professional photos and drone coverage
Same as every listing we take. A home that has to be moved still has to look worth moving, and buyers judge that in about two seconds on a portal.
Syndication to twelve platforms
Including the mobile home specific marketplaces where relocation buyers actually look, which is not where a general classified ad reaches.
Transport relationships across the state
We have spent years on the investor side of this business, so we know the mobile home transport companies throughout Florida. That matters more than it sounds. A buyer who cannot work out how to move the home does not become a buyer, so the deal has to come with a real route to getting it off your property.
Moving a mobile home is a specialized job, and the buyer pays for it. Our part is making sure they have a real plan before you are counting on them.
We screen the buyer before anything is agreed
Relocating a home involves permits, a transport company and somewhere to put it. We check that a buyer has a genuine plan before you are counting on them, because a buyer who cannot complete the move leaves you exactly where you started, several weeks later.
This man sold my mobile where several others have tried and failed. Professional and courteous. The thing even had a bad roof on it.
What it costs
A flat $2,500, the same as any other listing we take, and it does not change with the sale price.
And you pay nothing unless it sells. The fee comes out at closing, so if the home does not sell, you owe us nothing at all.
The listing agreement runs thirty days. After that you can cancel any time by calling or emailing, with no fee and no notice period. Until you tell us to stop, we keep working.
Common questions
Do I have to sell my land too?
No. That is the entire point of this kind of listing. The home is sold on its own and the buyer removes it. Your land stays yours, and it is clear from the listing that the land is not part of the sale.
What if the home is in rough condition?
Condition affects the price, not whether it can be sold. Homes needing work sell to buyers who intend to renovate. What matters is that the home is structurally sound enough to survive being moved. If it genuinely is not, we will tell you that rather than waste your time.
How long does it take?
Homes that have to be moved often sell faster than homes in parks, because there is no park approval step for the buyer to clear. Around 80% of our listings sell within 30 days.
Who pays to move it?
The buyer does. Moving costs are theirs to carry, and buyers shopping for a home to relocate expect that going in.
Where we work
All of Florida. If you have a mobile home on private land anywhere in the state, we can list it.
Find out what your mobile home is worth before you pay to get rid of it. A real market analysis, no fee and no obligation.
Fill out the form below or give us a call and we will tell you honestly what we think it will sell for.
Brenton Basinger, President, Florida Mobile Home Solutions, Inc. Licensed Mobile Home Broker, State of Florida, license BH 1149137-1. More about our brokerage service.