62 letters, 9 calls back, two sets of financials. $58 in stamps.

The 21 percent expense ratio is the tell you should be happiest about. On my small multifamily the seller numbers come in around 30 percent every time and it's always because management, reserves and half the repairs are missing. For a park with 14 park-owned homes I'd expect the real number well above the 35 to 45 percent range you'd see on a lot-rent-only park, because now you own 14 roofs and 14 water heaters. Ask him what he spent on the homes specifically, separate from the land, and see if he can even answer.

The 22-lot one sounds like the version I'd want. Tenant-owned homes, city utilities, meters already in tenant names means you're collecting one thing and maintaining roads. What's lot rent in the nearest town of any size? If it's $265 and comparable parks are at $400 that's the whole conversation.

Question before you get attached to either one. Who owns the water and sewer lines inside the park boundary? City water and sewer at the street doesn't tell you whether the city maintains the pipe under your roads or whether that's yours from the tap forward. In a lot of places the utility stops at the master connection and everything past it is private infrastructure with your name on it. I've seen people find that out in year three with a backhoe on site.

The forty minutes about knees and gravel is how you get the second call. I'd write that guy again in six months.

One thing that would move a lot here: what happens if the 22-lot park's rent is $265 because the homes are 1972 singlewides worth $6k and the tenants are on fixed income? Cheap lot rent with no headroom is a different asset than cheap lot rent with room to move. Walk it and look at the homes, not the roads. Nine of my units taught me that the tenant base sets the ceiling more than the market comp does.

How did you handle the parks split across four parcels? When I've looked at land like that the seller sometimes doesn't own all four, or one is in a trust with a dead trustee, and you find out at title. I'd pull the deed on each parcel before I spent another stamp on that one.

Genuine beginner question since you did the work. Did you have to say anything about being licensed or not in the letter? I know solicitation rules vary by state and I don't want to write 60 letters that get me a phone call from a board.

@plumb, the licensing trigger is generally about acting for someone else for compensation, and it does vary state to state, so confirm your own state's rules with the commission or an attorney before you mail. @rigging, the part I want is the letter itself. One page, plain language, no talk of a specific price. Did you put a phone number or a callback form?