CoMo-CAL — Advocates For You

Published in THE VOICE July 2009 Page 11


My answer is… to make a proper attempt to buy the park where you live, you need to Get Organized. Also, you must perform “due diligence” regarding the financial aspects of the purchase. I’ll cover the topic of “Getting Organized” in a future article. Today, I’d like to discuss Due Diligence. This is the process of gathering information about anyone who tells you,

Another important advantage is control. When residents own their park, they control its management and rules. They decide which capital improvements are necessary. They no longer rely on a landlord, whose main concern may be profit rather than the welfare of those who live in the park.

Investor Ownership. Most of you who are reading this live in an “investor owned” park. It’s easily the most common form of park ownership in California. Investors buy, own and sell mobilehome communities to make money. Some are “mom and pop” operators; others are real estate investment groups or large corporations. All of these investors want to make a “profit.” That’s not a crime. But some owners are better park operators than others.

“We could NEVER afford to buy this mobilehome park!” These words came from Bill, a 65 year-old gentleman who sat across from me at the dining room table in his mobilehome. Around the table sat four of Bill’s neighbors in the park, a 50-space community located in Northern California. They nodded in agreement with Bill. One said, “Dave, you don’t understand. This is not a rich park. We have some working people here, but most are senior citizens living on small, fixed incomes. Even if we wanted to buy the park, how could we afford it?”

Often, “getting organized” starts with two or three neighbors sitting around a kitchen table and asking each other, “Could our homeowners’ group really buy this park?” In many cases, the answer is yes. Resident groups in big parks, small parks, “rich” ones and “poor” ones have done it. For you folks chatting around the table, here is some good news:

ANSWER: (By Deane Sargent):

A condo conversion (or subdivision) divides the park into individual ownership interests (like squares on a checker board) and each resident has to individually purchase their "square" and obtain the financing to do so.  Resident group condo conversions are difficult because:

Published in THE VOICE October 2007 Page
If you watch or read any news at all, you know about this crisis. It involves the rise in foreclosures in the “subprime” mortgage market that began in 2006 and worsened in 2007. Rising interest rates increased the monthly payments on adjustable rate mortgages, leaving many homeowners unable to afford them. The sharp rise in foreclosures caused several major “subprime” mortgage lenders to go out of business or file for bankruptcy. Apparently, some of these lenders had encouraged borrowers to overstate their income, to qualify to buy homes they really couldn’t afford.

Published in THE VOICE, February 2007 Front Page

Why don’t park owners give the residents a chance to buy the park? One reason is that most owners believe the residents aren’t organized, or can’t get the necessary financing. They are not “on the owner’s radar” as potential buyers. This is sad, because often the owner’s best possible buyer is the resident group.