The bottom line
Selling a BC mobile home park is not the same as selling a residential property, a multifamily building, or a strip mall. The buyer pool is narrower. The buyers are sophisticated. They will underwrite your park line by line, and any place your records are weak, your operating statement is incomplete, or your infrastructure is undocumented, they will discount the price.
An owner who spends 12 months preparing properly before listing typically sells for 5% to 15% more than an owner who lists cold. That gap is not luck. It is the difference between a buyer who has to do all the work themselves (and reads risk into every blank line) and a buyer who can underwrite from a clean package and pay full price.
This guide walks through how BC buyers actually price parks, what to prepare in the year before listing, what the transaction process looks like, and the specific mistakes that depress value. If you are considering redevelopment instead of an operator sale, read the Redevelopment Guide.
5 to 15%
Prep premium
The typical sale-price gap between a prepared listing and a cold one.
12 months
Ideal runway
The amount of time it takes to clean up records, take missed rent increases, and document infrastructure properly.
90 to 150 days
Listing to close
From firm marketing to closing day, assuming a clean DD and a standard staggered condition period.
How buyers price BC parks
BC mobile home parks are valued by the income approach: Net Operating Income divided by a market capitalization rate. A park producing $150,000 of NOI at a 6% cap rate is indicated to be worth $2,500,000.
That formula is simple. Where sellers and buyers disagree is in the inputs. The buyer will run their own NOI normalization on your operating statement. If your reported NOI is $150,000 but the buyer adds back $20,000 of missing reserve, $12,000 of missing property management, and $4,000 of personal expenses you have been running through the park, their NOI is $114,000. At a 6% cap that is $1.9M, not $2.5M.
The seller's job is not to argue the cap rate (the market sets that). The seller's job is to make the NOI line indefensible.
What buyers will add to expenses (so you should add them first)
- Property management at market rates, even if you self-manage
- An honest capital reserve ($100 to $200 per pad per year on municipal-utility parks, $200 to $400 on well-and-septic parks)
- Accounting and legal at arm's-length rates
- Any personal expenses you have been running through the park
What buyers will subtract from income
- Park-owned home rent (it does not get capped at pad-income cap rates)
- Vacant pads that are unmarketable (lot size, slope, municipal limitation)
- Credit loss at 2% to 3% even if your collections have been clean
- Any one-time or non-recurring income items
For the full underwriting walk-through buyers use, see the blog post How to Value a Mobile Home Park in BC. Knowing how buyers will underwrite your park is how you preempt the discount.
The 12-month preparation runway
The single most valuable thing an owner can do is start preparing 12 months before listing, not three. Twelve months is enough time to take a missed rent increase or two, clean up records, document infrastructure work, and address any deferred maintenance that would otherwise show up as a buyer's price-reduction lever.
Months 12 to 9 before listing
Tenancy and rent
- Audit the rent roll, every site
- Take any missed rent increases (RTB-11A, three months' notice)
- Include the levies and utilities pass-through if you have not been taking it
- Confirm a signed tenancy agreement is on file for every site
- Document any assignments still in progress
Months 9 to 6 before listing
Financials
- Reconcile 24 months of operating statements to bank deposits
- Strip out personal or non-park expenses from the operating statement
- Build a clean trailing 12-month and trailing 24-month financial summary
- Get a current property tax assessment and confirm the class
- Confirm the insurance policy is current and the claim history is clean
Months 6 to 3 before listing
Infrastructure and records
- Walk every system: water, sewer, electrical, roads, common areas
- Document recent capital work with dates, costs, contractor invoices
- If on a private well, get a current water quality report on file
- If on private septic, confirm pumping records and licensed operator status
- Resolve any open municipal compliance issues or bylaw orders
Months 3 to 0 before listing
Marketing prep
- Confirm any deferred maintenance is addressed or priced into expectations
- Order a fresh title search and survey if either is dated
- Have an environmental Phase 1 in hand (or budget for one)
- Assemble a clean offering memorandum or work with an agent on one
- Confirm tax planning with your accountant (capital gains timing)
The most expensive thing an owner can do is list cold and let the buyer's due diligence be the first time the park has been audited in years.
Records buyers will demand
When a serious buyer reaches the offer stage, the first thing they (or their agent) will ask for is the data room. The faster you can provide it, the more momentum the deal carries through to firm. The slower or messier your records, the more friction, the more buyer skepticism, the more discount.
What needs to be in your data room before you accept an offer:
- Current rent roll with each site's tenant name, monthly pad rent, last increase date, and tenancy start date
- Copies of every signed tenancy agreement
- Trailing 24 months of operating statements
- Trailing 24 months of bank statements (rent deposits)
- Property tax assessments and most recent paid tax bill
- Current insurance policy declarations and claim history
- Trailing 24 months of utility bills for everything the park pays
- Most recent water quality and septic system reports (if on private utilities)
- Most recent electrical inspection report
- Title search and survey
- Municipal compliance letter (zoning, permitted use, any active files)
- Capex history for the past five years
For the buyer's side of due diligence, see Mobile Home Park Due Diligence Checklist for BC Buyers. Knowing what they are looking for is how you assemble the right package.
Marketing and confidentiality
How a park is marketed matters as much as how it is priced. The choices:
Open public listing
The listing goes on MLS, commercial listing services, and is broadly marketed. Maximum exposure, maximum buyer competition. The trade-off is that everyone (including tenants, neighbours, and competitors) knows the park is for sale.
Off-market targeted outreach
The listing is shared confidentially with a pre-qualified buyer pool. Slower, but confidentiality is preserved and the conversations are with serious buyers from day one. Best for parks where tenant relationships, employee continuity, or competitive dynamics make a public listing undesirable.
Hybrid
A short window of confidential outreach to the most likely buyers, then a broader listing if a qualified offer does not emerge. This is the most common approach on parks above $3M.
The right choice depends on park size, region, your timeline, and your tolerance for tenant awareness. Discuss with your agent before the listing strategy is set, not after.
The transaction timeline
From accepted offer to closing, a typical BC park transaction runs 90 to 150 days. The structure:
01
Listing and marketing (weeks 1 to 6)
Offering memorandum prepared, marketing launched (public or targeted). Buyer inquiries fielded, NDAs signed, qualified buyers shown the full data room.
02
Offers and negotiation (weeks 4 to 8)
First-round offers received. Negotiation on price, deposit structure, condition period length, and any unusual terms. Accepted offer with conditions.
03
Due diligence (weeks 8 to 16)
Buyer's tier 1 conditions (typically 30 days): tenancy file audit, municipal verification, title review, infrastructure inspection. Tier 2 conditions (typically 45 days): financing approval, environmental Phase 1, full underwriting review.
04
Condition removal to close (weeks 16 to 22)
Conditions removed, deposit goes hard. Lender finalizes loan documents. Lawyer prepares statement of adjustments. Final walk-through and tenant notifications. Funds transfer on closing day.
Mistakes that cost owners money
Not taking the rent increase every year
A pad rent that is $100 below market across 30 sites is $36,000 per year of lost income, capitalized at a 6% cap rate that is $600,000 of permanently lost value. Assignment of tenancy does not reset rent, so the loss compounds. Take every available increase every year.
Commingling park-owned home rent with pad rent
A buyer will not capitalize POH income at the pad-income cap rate. If your rent roll bundles the two and a $1,200 monthly POH rent is treated as pad income, the buyer's normalized NOI will drop and the price will follow. Separate POH income out of pad rent on the operating statement.
Self-managing without a management line on the statement
Your operating statement might show no management cost because you do it yourself. The buyer will assume they need to hire a manager and add the cost. Strip it from the price upfront by carrying a market-rate management line on your own statement (even if you keep the money).
No capital reserve line
If your operating statement has no reserve, the buyer adds one. That add-back will be at least 1% of pad income, often more. Carry an honest reserve on your own statement and the buyer has nothing left to add.
Deferred infrastructure with no documented plan
A 30-year-old water main that has not been replaced is not automatically a problem. A 30-year-old water main with no replacement plan, no recent inspection, and no documentation is a problem. The fix is documentation, not always replacement.
Listing without an agent who specializes in the asset class
A generalist commercial agent will market the park. A specialist will price it correctly, surface the right buyer pool, and manage the due diligence to protect the deal. The difference shows up in the final sale price.
Tax and timing
Beyond the operating cleanup, the tax treatment of the sale is worth planning in advance. The main considerations:
- Capital gains versus income tax treatment, depending on how the park has been held (corporately, personally, in a family trust)
- Recapture of CCA on depreciated building components
- GST/HST treatment on the sale (typically exempt or zero-rated, but confirm with your accountant)
- Timing of close relative to the tax year, especially if you are also winding up a corporation
- Section 22 election on the assignment of rent receivables and accounts receivable
These are accountant and lawyer questions, not realtor questions. Have those conversations 12 months before listing, not after the offer is accepted.
Where I can help
I focus my brokerage practice on BC mobile home parks. That means I track every park I am aware of across the province, I have an active buyer list, and I have run the due diligence on enough transactions to know how to surface issues early and protect a deal through the condition period.
If you are considering a sale in the next 12 to 24 months, the right time to start the conversation is now. Even if the sale is two years out, an early discussion lets us map the prep runway and protect 5% to 15% of value that would otherwise be left on the table.
Request a confidential valuation through the Sell My Park page, or reach out directly below. No pitch, no obligation.