Chris Koerner shares a real-estate negotiating tactic: using asymmetric information about the value of a mobile home to separate it from a land-and-shop purchase and secure a lower land price. He recounts convincing the seller to keep the mobile home (which Koerner knew was worth far less than the seller estimated) and buy only the land and shop for $470,000, while the seller later sold the mobile home for about $8,000.
The best way to get a great deal in real estate is to have asymmetric information, which leads to asymmetric leverage. So this land I'm standing on right now, you see that pad right there? That used to be a mobile home. I didn't want the mobile home. I just wanted the land and the shop. Okay? So the guy thought it was worth 500 grand. I thought it was worth closer to 470. He said, Listen, it might be worth 470 without the home, but the homes were 30 grand easy, maybe 50. But I had asymmetric information. I buy and sell mobile home and RV parks for a living, and I knew that mobile home was worth no more than ten grand. So I said, how about we do this? You keep the mobile home, move it wherever you want, and I'll just buy the land in the shop. Only for 470. He said, deal. He sold that mobile home for eight grand, and then he had to pay to move it as well. So I got the better end of that deal.
