Frank The Tank,
The most important thing you can do to really know the business is to buy the home-study course. It includes so much vital material, and the price is so cheap, that you would be crazy to buy a park without reading it and listening to the over 40 hours of CDs. It includes our due diligence book, which tells you exactly what to do each day for 30 days, and all the contracts and forms you will need. It also includes a free “Quick Deal Review”, in which we analyze a target park for you, and a weekly Mentoring Hour, in which you can ask us questions every week.
I know that you live in the “Show-Me” state, so I urge you to read just the index to the course manual and see if it is not the most complete reference on mobile home parks ever written.
You can learn some of the pieces of the business from the forum, or articles we have posted on the site, but it is not enough information to correctly invest in mobile home parks. The deals you attached are all flawed in many ways. The most significant problems range from too small a market and too low a rent to too high a price, and the inclusion of park-owned home income.
There is no substitute for knowledge. We have priced the home-study course low enough that anyone can afford it, and it would take me about 100 hours to tell you everything that’s in there. Once you have taken the course, you will immediately see the problems in these deals yourself.
One final thought: I totally agree with starting small and working up once you have more experience (that’s exactly what I did), but instead of a small park, focus instead on a larger park with a small downpayment with seller financing. My first deal only required $10,000 down, but had 83 lots. Later, I bought a 15 space park with the same downpayment amount. The big park made over $1,000,000 when it was sold, The little park only made about $60,000. You have many more exciting exit strategies with a park size of 30 lots plus.