Driving For Dollars

2 weekends ago, my brother in law and I went on a drive to a small park I was eyeing prior to putting in an offer. Part of the plan was to visit the other 4-5 parks that were in the nearby area (all withing 10-15 minutes of each other). I found the nicest park in the area and am using that as my “ceiling” when it comes to a rehabbed, improved and stabilized park.

I also found - what I thought - was a gem of a park. This park looked to be 50+ lots easily w/ 10+ lots completely empty and 10+ lots with condemned homes (red X painted on them). It has a pool, clubhouse and laundry mat onsite - all in need of some work. It’s on a great street and there isn’t much neighborhood - or close housing - to influence the property too much… My problem has been locating records to find out who owns the darn park! I was able to locate the property with the county assessors office but it has 2 APN’s listed for the address.

Does anyone else have any tips on how to locate owners of parks? I would love to start marketing to this person.

The states is primarily work in, Wisconsin and Minnesota, have online search systems that allow for the lookup of LLC’s, Corporations, etc. This will typically lead to the registered agent and their address. The agent MAY be the owner, but it also may be the owner’s attorney or accountant. May not help much, but its somewhere to start.

Sometimes, when all else fails, I scope the park out and ask the tenants who the owner is. Tenants LOVE to talk about their parks, good or bad. There is always a tenant out having a smoke, mowing lawn, or working on their car. The tenants all have friends or relatives who live in other parks too.

“Price is what you pay, value is what you get”

Here are some additional ideas:

  1. Ask some tenants if they know who owns it

  2. Ask the city inspector who owns it

  3. Ask the manager who owns it (and pose as an insurance agent wanting to give a quote)

  4. Ask the neighboring property owners who owns it

  5. Ask another park owner who owns it (and pose as an appraiser trying to get comps)

Between this and the property tax records, you should locate them.

Many people go after tax records and they are good, but sometimes they give dead ends as they lead to blind LLC,s etc.

When you look at taxes- look at he the main property but also look at the homes. If several are titled under one name- you might have an owner.

We have had luck doing deed checks for the address. Most of the time- the owner of the LLC will sign their name as managing member etc… this should leepfrog you right to the owner and around the LLC…

Has anyone had any luck using the insurance agent/appraiser angle when cold calling parks?

Thanks, Gil