Only three tenants live in the mobile home park year round – the others live there only in the winter, and live out of state.

“It’s probably a foot deep inside my trailer. I didn’t open the door because we got sandbags in front of it” said Martinez. At least one resident has moved their mobile home to a competing park that does not have flooding issues.

 
Frank & Dave’s Opinion of This Story:

Before you ever buy a park with floodplain issues, you’ve got to have a handle on what your worst case scenario is and how you would deal with it. Having waist high water is more than a small problem. Destroying people’s trailers while they are out of town is not good for tenant retention. Flood plain is a scientific concept – it’s not subjective. Figure out what the worst case scenario is on any property with flood plain, and see if you can handle it. If you can, fine. If you can’t, don’t take the gamble.

We cap the enrollment at just 20 people, and only have a couple tickets left.

This is the last time that we will be holding the event in Dallas in 2010, so if you are convenient to the D/FW Metroplex, this is the event you want to hit to save on travel expense!

For more information call (800) 950-1364 or go to www.Mobilehomeparkstore.com.

# of Mobile Home Park Lots:115 RV Spaces

Price:Auction 8/26

Contact Person:Dan Falls

Contact Phone:866 921 8883

Contact E-mail:Dan.Falls@williamsauction.com

Description:The Spokane RV Resort is a vacation destination for RV fulltimers and weekend explorers alike. Located adjacent to the Deer Park Golf Club in Deer Park, Washington, the gated 17.80+/- acre resort won Woodalls® 5W rating for both facilities and recreation in 2010 and attracts RV golf and outdoor enthusiasts from throughout the United States and Canada. There are numerous amenities available along with gorgeous mountain and golf course views.  The Spokane RV Resort Remains Open for Business

Link:www.williamsauction.com/deerpark (display)
http://www.williamsauction.com/deerpark?utm_source=RVParkStore&utm_medium=enewsletter&utm_campaign=spokane (actual)

The power to the park was lost when Duke Energy’s lines that serviced the park burned out. To run new lines, the company has to obtain a boring machine that can dig under roads. Duke thinks it will take about a week to get the power turned back on.

Robert Love is a longtime resident of the park, but is having great difficulty coping with the loss of the power. “I’m on oxygen, but I’ve got no electricity. I’ve had to rely on two small oxygen machines, but they’re running low, and I’ve got to find somewhere I can get electricity for them. I’ve already lost over $500 of food in my freezer”

Residents are trying to cope by staying outside their homes, or visiting neighbors who have generators to cool off for a while.
Frank & Dave’s Opinion Of This Story:

This article is a great example of the hypocrisy of the media concerning mobile home park owners. If this was a master-metered power system, owned by the park, the paper would be all over the owner and how terrible they were to let this happen. In this case, Duke Energy receives not one criticism.

The other lesson to be learned here is the risk you run when you own a park that is master-metered for electricity. Imagine if the power being out was your fault. You’d have every tenant in the park threatening you. Do you really think the tenant lost $500 of food  in their refrigerator? What does he have in there, lobster and caviar? But that’s the kind of threats you’d have, too. So before you buy a park with a master-metered electrical system, make sure that you can mentally handle situations such as this.

The levee will cost around $4 million to build. If everything goes as planned, the levee could be in position by the end of 2011.

 
Frank & Dave’s Opinion of This Story:

Who would have ever believed a story like this? Ten years ago, most cities would have cheered to think that flooding would force a mobile home park out of business – now they’re willing to spend $4 million to keep them open. What the heck happened? Most cities have realized that mobile home parks deliver excellent affordable housing, and are much more desirable than lower-income apartments.

Hacker said, regarding living in trailers near a highway “no one want to live that way”. Other residents cited concerns about being able to rent the lots, and also the fact that the property has an ancient Quaker cemetery on it.

Mark Shiralli, a town resident, said “let’s get a developer in here who wants to build homes – that’s what we need”.

Frank & Dave’s Opinion of This Story:

One thing that maintains the value of mobile home parks is the fact that virtually nobody in the U.S. wants a new one built in their city, town, county or state. If you ever want to unite a community – to get them marching with pitchforks and flaming torches – then all you have to do is to propose building a new mobile home park. And that’s great, because it keeps the supply of parks static, and creates a lot of the value in your park investment.

Although the loan has been sent to a special servicer, it is not currently in default.”The company made to request to implement certain amendments to the loan” said Jennifer Ludovice, an ARC spokesperson. “Due to the structural impediments inherent in CMBS debt, it was necessary for the loan to be transferred to special servicing to facilitate this process even though the loan is not in default.”

Frank & Dave’s Opinion of This Story:

Virtually everyone in the industry has been following the ARC story for over a decade. ARC came on the scene over a decade ago and rapidly bought their way up to 55,000 lots – often seemingly with abandon. Farallon took a huge risk taking over ARC, and this is the news story that will probably garner the most attention in the industry for the next several months.

This is the event in which Frank & Dave, who have owned and operated over $100 million in mobile home parks over the past decade, show you the shortcuts, tricks and insider secrets that you need to know, in a real-world setting -out in the field inside real mobile home parks. It is a complete three-day immersion in the mobile home park business, from how to find parks to buy to evaluating them, negotiating them, doing diligence on them, financing them, closing on them, and operating them.

For more information, call (800) 950-1364 or go to www.mobilehomeparkstore.com.

Frank & Dave’s Opinion of This Story:

If you don’t go to our Boot Camp before buying your first park -you’re crazy. We make up the cost of the Boot Camp within the first few minutes of negotiating your contract, or the first month of operations of the park. The biggest names in commercial real estate come to this Boot Camp before jumping off into the park business.

Park owner Kenney Shipley says that the bills are wrong, and have been in error since the city installed a new water meter. Right after installation, his water bills skyrocketed, so he has only paid the amounts for each month that he paid for 2008.

The City of Slaton has tested the meter and found it to be accurate, and says that the money is owed and past due. If they do not receive payment in full immediately, they will shut the water off before the end of June.

Shipley has vowed to keep the water flowing, even if he has to file a legal injunction against the city to keep them from shutting the water off.

Frank’s Opinion of This Story:

The old “my water meter is broken” excuse doesn’t work for your tenants, and it sure doesn’t work for the owner, either. If you dispute a bill, you need to get the meter checked, and also look for any leaks in the system. Many cities will give you a one-time reduction if there was a major leak. But after the test on the meter is completed -and if it is working properly -you better pay your bill. We’re shocked the city let him get away with this for over a year without threatening to shut off the water sooner. Do you think he should hire a lawyer and file an injunction (total price probably $10,000) or just apply those funds to his bill? And do you think he should proactively try to reach a payment plan with the city and put this issue behind him immediately? We do.

During recent flooding, the park had damage, as well as tenants’ personal property. Those tenants have sued the mobile home park. The park is claiming damages which include loss of revenue during the period the park was flooded.

Frank & Dave’s Opinion of This Story:

You don’t see a story like this very often. Normally, it’s the park’s flood plain zoning that is being blamed. But you can have parks that are not in the flood plain impacted by heavy rains as well. Even the best drainage plans rely on storm sewers or creeks that can be jammed with debris and fail to operate. Whenever you buy a park in a low-lying area, particularly near a body of water, you have to make sure that you have 100% awareness of what the possibilities are if some type of flood device malfunctions. You don’t have to be in the flood plain to have liability issues with flooding -as this park demonstrates.