Another long one - Posted by Karl (Oh)
Posted by Karl (Oh) on March 22, 2001 at 24:05:19:
I?m staying up late tonight trying to work on my taxes, but I keep slipping into typing posts about mobile homes. It?s a lot more fun. Having trouble sleeping? This story should do the trick?..
My PM has been telling me about an ?abandoned? mobile home in another little park he runs up the road. The home is a nice ?85 Redman 2/2 in good shape, just yellow from years of cigarette smoke. The owner was an older woman who passed away two months ago, and no one has been in touch with the park to let them know what?s going on with the trailer. So my PM asked me to investigate, possibly get the home declared abandoned, get possession, and resale the home. He just wants the lot rent to keep flowing.
So I filed a police report on behalf of the park, did some investigating with the BMV and auditor?s office, talked to some of the neighbors, finally tracked down a sister of the deceased owner who wants nothing to do with the home. It seemed that none of the relatives we could find were interested in claiming the home.
Today my PM told me that the son of the woman called him to talk about the home. He said that they would try to sell the home through probate to settle the estate. He?s not sure how its going to work out, but he mentioned to the PM that they only thought the home was worth around $2k. BINGO!
So I called the son today about possibly buying the trailer, and talked to his wife. She told me the whole story, and I told her what I did and that I might be interested in buying the home. She said that her husband was thinking about fixing it up and renting it out. I told her that the park didn?t allow rentals. I explained how easy it would be for them to just sell it to me. I was a cash buyer, could take care of back lot rent, etc. We had a nice chitchat, I told her to talk it over with her husband, gave her my number, and hung up.
A couple hours later I stopped into my PM?s office. He had just got off the phone with the son. The son was calling with an extremely angry complaint about me for the things I said to his wife. Apparantly I told her that they couldn?t fix up the home, I wouldn?t let them rent out the home, they had to sell the home to me, and they needed to pay back lot rent right away. The whole time the guy was on the phone, the wife, who couldn?t have been nicer to me on the phone, was yelling in the background about how badly I treated her, and all the terrible things I said to her. The PM said she was off her nut. My PM tried to calm the guy and explain what my role was, and that he had given me their number, and that he thought I would probably pay them their $2k for the home if they wanted to sell. The guy ended the call by saying he wouldn?t sell the home to me in a million years.
Just to keep it professional, I called him right back, but got his answering machine. I apologized for whatever I might have said that was offensive, gave a quick explanation of what I did, and that I was just trying to help out him and the park, and wished him luck with his trailer.
So here?s a guy stuck with a trailer, he wants $2k for it, I?m offering $2k, but because his wife is wacko, he won?t sell me the home. Isn?t the best part of this business all the interesting people we get to meet?
Karl Kleiner