Four Star Homes offers expertise to manufactured home clients
A new office has opened in North Fort Myers to offer an option for manufactured home leased landowners.
Elizabeth Williamson has lived in North Fort Myers since 2001, the same year she became a real estate agent. She is with Realty One Group MVP.
“I love North Fort Myers. I breathe it and live it,” she said. “North Fort Myers is my happy place. I have been doing anything from manufactured home to acreage properties.”
She recently became licensed with Four Star Homes, Inc., which focuses on leased land manufactured homes. Previously, those buying in this type of community often had to go through the parks’s sales office as there was a lack of independent licensed sales agents for these transactions.
“I recently joined Four Star Homes LLC, Florida’s largest and most experienced full-service mobile and manufactured home brokerage company, to address a real need for leased landowners seeking strong representation,” Williamson said.
With leased land, an individual owns the manufactured home, but not the land on which it sits.
“Each park will be different, some are both, or one or the other,” she said of leased and deeded land. “We thought it was important to get licensed to do both. We found the lease-land communities have very limited hours for sales. We are available seven days a week. We are doing real estate as early as 8 a.m. until 9 p.m.”
With leased land an individual needs specific financing.
“Not all companies will do mortgages,” she said, adding that it’s almost more of a personal loan than a mortgage.
Williamson said if a home is on leased land, she can only point buyers to certain lenders.
“There are some specific manufactured home lenders, and they understand the process,” she said.
Concerning deeded land, an individual will pay a monthly HOA fee to pay for some of the amenities within the park. She said it’s a straight real estate transaction, as opposed to leased land where the manufactured home is sold through a title, similar to a car.
“The manufactured home comes with a title,” Williamson said.
A deeded land transaction goes through a title company, or attorney’s office.
“The deeded land you can go through normal mortgage panels. Sometimes, depending on age, we have to seek a secondary option like a personal loan,” she said. “Anything newer than 1978 that is attached to a land, you can get a mortgage on.”
She said deeded land is a more stable market because HOA fees are more manageable.
“It’s so difficult to sell the property and then tell someone they will be paying $800 to $1,000 because lot rent and usage of amenities. The numbers are so askew. That is where it becomes difficult because the fees are much larger,” Williamson said.
Williamson can be reached at 239-728-8313, or email elizabethw@fourstarhomes.com. The satellite office is at 390 Pondella Road, Suite 5, which allows them to conduct both companies.
“We are open to explain the differences to folks,” she said.
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