What to Do When Your Mobile Home Park Is Closing in Arkansas

Rumors fly when a park changes hands. Before you decide anything, get the real notice from the owner or manager.

You want to know the date the homes have to be out, whether the new owner is offering anything to help with moving, and whether any homes are allowed to stay. Sometimes a park is being sold, not closed, and the new owner keeps some homes. Sometimes it really is closing for good.

If the deadline in the letter seems short or something doesn't sound right, that's a question for a lawyer or legal aid. Everything below assumes the closing is real.

Once you know the deadline, it comes down to three choices:

Moving a mobile home isn't just hooking up a truck. It has to be disconnected, the skirting and tie-downs come off, it needs axles and tires, then it has to be hauled and set back up somewhere that will take it.

And that's the second problem: finding somewhere for it to go. A lot of parks won't take older homes. Putting it on land you own means utilities, a pad, and county rules. When a whole park is closing at once, every one of your neighbors is calling the same few movers and the same few parks.

For newer homes in good shape, moving can be worth it. For older homes, the move can cost more than the home is worth.

When we buy a home from a closing park, we're buying it knowing it has to come off the lot. So the offer is built around what the home is worth after the cost to move it.

That means the age of the home, whether it's a single or double, whether the frame and axles are solid, and how easy it is to get a truck to it all matter. We look at those things first and tell you straight whether the numbers work.

If we buy it, the move is on us. You don't have to find a mover, a new lot, or a place to store it.

This is the biggest mistake we see. People wait, hoping the closing falls through or the deadline gets pushed. Sometimes it does. Usually it doesn't.

Every week you wait, there are fewer movers available and fewer buyers who can still get it done in time. The homes that get sold early get better offers than the ones sold in the final rush.

You don't have to sell the day you get the notice. But you should know what your home is worth and what your options are right away.

Back rent and loans don't disappear when the park closes. If you owe the park, that usually gets settled out of the sale. If there's a loan on the home, the lender has to be paid off or agree to the sale before the title can transfer.

Tell us about either one up front. They don't stop a sale, but they change the paperwork and the timeline.