Posted by Tony-VA/NC on October 25, 2003 at 11:51:09:
The person to ask is the lender. If you are going to be borrowing funds to purchase the park (either in the form of a 3rd party lender or owner carry back financing), your ability to sell off their collateral will be up to them.
Personally, if I were to purchase a smaller park such as this (if that $60k was Gross Income) I would reconsider selling the homes off but I have stated that here too many times before.
If you are living in TN and the park is in PA, I think a move is in order. At $60k per year this park does not support its own full time manager. Even if it did, you would need to be able to manage the manager. Parks do not operate well under absentee ownership. Someone needs to crack the whip.
If you have several other parks where management could manage this parks along with the others, it may be feasible.
I still believe that the only true passive income from a park will be had by the lender, not the owner.
Selling off mobile homes will likely require owner financing. You seem to understand this already. What you may be overlooking is the fact that even when you finance these deals, you still have maintenace, repossession and management headaches.
You will get homes back and have to spend the money and time to repair them to your park standards. If you simply sold them “as is” your park will begin to look like a war zone in no time, especially if you continue to live in another state.
Renting is not to be feared. Look into the realities. Talk with you dad and ask him why he continued to hold them as rentals instead of selling them off. You may be suprised at what you find.
Best Wishes,
Tony