Stand off at the OK Corral

One thing we have found is that people can come up with money when they need to. We had one tenant that was about 3 weeks behind. He was behind and already had an eviction filed against him when we took over the trailer park. He didn't seem to want to pay. We finally got a hold of him and he had a bad attitude and seemed to get mad that we were asking him to pay rent. We had decided that even if he did come up with the money, we wanted him out. We told the manger we didn't want his money and that he had to leave. I didn't want to deal with him in the future.

The way the evictions work is that we have to give them 10 days to pay. After the 10th day we serve them with a 24 hour "set out" notice. Which means that in 24 hours we will enter the residence and literally set out their belongings on the curb. I am not looking forward to doing this to anyone.

The manager got a hold of him and let him know the 24 hours period was approaching. He got mad and said he would have the money tomorrow. He also mentioned that his stove wasn't working. He said, "The stove won't turn off and that's a fire hazard.". Well that scared that crap out of me! I thought, he is going to burn the place down. I felt like we were having a stand off like in the old westerns. Who is going to draw first. I told the manger to get that stove out of there as soon as possible.

The next morning came and sure enough he had his money. The manager told him we said not to accept his money and that he was going to have to leave. This is when his attitude changed. He started to apologize and begged to stay. Apparently he was about to break down in tears. The manger called us and said he had his money and that he would never be late again. We decided to accept his money and let him stay. I told our manager to let him know that this was it. If he is late anymore, to go ahead and move because we weren't doing this again.

The next day we got him a new stove. He was very happy and surprised to be getting a new stove. I don't think we will have anymore problems with him but we'll see what happens.

"Bad Boys.. Bad Boys....

Whatcha gonna do.Whatcha gonna do when they come for you."

Now that the Cops theme song is going through your head. Here goes. Saturday night we received a call from the managers wife saying that one of our tenants were getting pretty rowdy. Apparently these guys have been a problem for quite sometime. It is a group of guys from Mexico who are young and like to drink. They speak very little English. I had gone over earlier in the week to talk to them about the beer cans in the yard and the music. They assured me that there would be no more problems. I even had my Dad with me as a translator. Communication was not the problem here. They seem like a good bunch of guys. I thought we wouldn't have anymore problems.

Anyway, We got to the managers place about 9:00pm. We could see the tenants trailer from his place and sure enough they were partying hard. We called the police and they told us they were on their way. I wasn't the first phone call they had. While we were waiting for the police a couple more cars pulled up to join the party. The police arrived about 10:00. I hustled down there to confront my tenants since I now had a policeman between me and about 25 guys. I introduced myself to the police officer and told one of the guys that were going to have to leave. They begged and begged. "Please! No more problems. No more problems." I told them "No!" They had their chance and blew it. Well, by this time we had come down off the porch and we're standing in the yard. The neighbors started coming out. One of them accused one of the party goers of punching him and hitting his 18 month old daughter. People were shouting back and forth. "I didn't touch you!", "Yes, you did!", "Please? We stay?". It was at this point I felt like I was watching a bad episode of cops (or would that be a good episode?). It was definitely something to be seen. The police officer finished up with us and turned his attention to the alleged assault. (Police officers definitely don't get paid enough.) We made our way back to the manager's place and the neighbors retired back their trailers. We kept an eye on what was going on down there and we noticed that another police car pulled up. I don't know what happened. I am not sure if anyone went to jail or not. It was crazy!

Bad boys bad boys
Watcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do
when they come for you ....

Trailer Park Slumlord

My wife and I just purchased a trailer park. My goal is to retire at age 55. I am hoping that this, along with our rental houses, will help me to achieve that goal. It is located deep in the South. It's your typical trailer park. The rents are low and some of the trailers look pretty bad. It has a lot of potential which is one reason why we bought this one in particular. There are about 50 spaces. All are rented except a couple. We have an on-site manager. He handles just about everything but we have been pretty "hands on" trying to learn how this thing operates on a day to day basis. It needs a lot of work.

We are experienced at the rental business since we have a few rental houses. This is our first trek into the "Trailer Park" business. Already we can tell this is going to be a completely different animal. We have owned the trailer park for a couple of weeks and already have some good stories to tell so I thought I would start a blog to share some these stories. Maybe I can give someone out there a chuckle. Check back often to read some the crazy stories I will be posting.