I saw an ad for a park for sale that’s less than 10 minutes from my current community. It’s a small park - 26 spaces, 24 filled. The park owns 100% of the homes. The price looked good and the numbers looked good, but I was suspicious. He’s claiming $600/month per rental, which is high in my area for mobile homes. An apartment would go for that price, but mobile homes (decent ones) are in the $500 to $550 range–we’re talking single wides here. I figure he’s got to be doing weekly rent to get that kind of money.
I drove by to have a look, and I couldn’t believe my eyes. I drove by again to overcome the shock.
This is not a MHP, this is a trailer park. All single-wides, T-tiny lots that are about 80% gravel, mostly homes from the 70’s–probably 65-footers for the most part, dented metal siding, missing windows, derelict cars, and cluttered yards.
The owner has tried to put lipstick on the pig–he’s put in honest-to-goodness stone masonry around most of the homes in place of underpinning. Most of the homes have been recently painted. There’s a big pile of gravel next to a shed that he’s going to do something with. And there’s a new, very large, stone free-standing “wall” near the entrance that looks like it’s intended to be a sign some day.
There are other points, but I won’t bore you. I couldn’t stop muttering “oh, my word” over and over as we looked around. It was really that shocking.
That said, the place did not appear to be a total slum. I’ve seen some total slums, and this was a step up from that. No one standing around waiting to sell drugs, no one screaming, no actual smelly trash laying around. This is just your typical low-rent (?!) neighborhood.
The numbers, though. They speak of good cash flow even if there was a 100% loan and mucho $$$ in repairs each month. And did I mention that the ad said owner financing?
I haven’t bothered to call the owner yet. I’m still thinking I might just for curiosity sake on several issues.
The question, though, is whether or not I’d be crazy to consider a place like this. The scariest issues to me are 1) Unknown amount of time and $$ needed for repairs each month, 2) Weekly rent. What a headache. The current clientele probably could not convert to monthly. I might be able to get bi-weekly out of most of them (assuming I’m right about weekly rent), 3) septic issues - the ad claimed a “septic system”, but I honestly don’t see where the lines could be–the lots are too small. I’m thinking there must be a cess pool somewhere. But if they’re really on tanks, oh my goodness–there’s no place to run alternate lines for repairs, and 4) how much of a revolving door is there in a low-brow place like this? Will I be chasing empty units all the time? I have no experience with this rung of the ladder.
Many questions could be answered by some phone calls and research, but I wanted opinions from the wise ones on this forum before I even attempted to talk with the owner.
Thanks in advance.