Hi All
This is my first post & I am having trouble. Hope I don’t post it twice. I found this site about 1 week ago & have been perched here ever since. I am looking for a mh park so this is a treasure trove. I also signed up for Steve Case’s emails and the first one made me think of this:
I live in a small town in Western KY. About a year and a half ago a couple of sophisticated investors from the West Coast bought a large trailer park here for $1.3 million. The park might appeal to a recent seminar graduate: 30-40 storage sheds, 150 lots with 50 empty lots, 50 empty trailers that should be hauled away and burned and 50 trailers rented to paying customers. Clearly a turnaround situation.
Unfortunately they made 2 serious mistakes (not even counting normal due diligence). The first was price. $1.3M might possibly be the ARV if the park were fixed up, cleaned up, & full of good tenants. But certainly not now. God only know how they were talked into that price. The fact that no locals touched the park in the years it was for sale might be a clue. In this town builders are selling new 1200 sq foot 3/2 single families for $100k. So $1.3M is very serious money here.
The next mistake was not coming here & looking at the park. Incredibly they sent a representative who assured them that it was ok. I don’t know what their representative checked but all he had to do is walk out to the mailbox & look up & down the street. He would have seen a major drug operation downwind, a recycing company (ie, junkyard), an abandoned flea (drug) market upwind, and numerous other signs flashing a big red “DO NOT BUY HERE!!!”. DUH!!
By now these guys realize that the seller cooked the books (yes, the 50 paying tenants are not really paying, at least not every month) & that they were swindled. Rumor has it that they are trying to dump the park. I wish them lots of luck. I still can’t believe anyone would spend that kind of money without checking the property!! Personally I would not take it if you gave it to me,seriously.
Dennis