Ray Alcorn MH park - Posted by Gator

import · August 30, 1999, 9:28am

Posted by ray@lcorn on August 30, 1999 at 20:50:57:

Hi Bob,

Nothing to feel guilty about… I’m glad that so many people have found the site helpful. I had told my buddy that hosts the site on his server to take it down a couple of times, and he didn’t want to because he needed somewhere to point the URL, whatever that means. So I left it up, and left it up, never really knowing why, other than it is interesting to see who stumbles across it from time to time. I hadn’t considered using it for a teaching tool until Dirk got a hold of it… so your thanks should go to him!!

A course…
?several folks have asked, and JP almost demanded, that I write a “course”, and I am flattered that you guys think I am qualified. I?m not real sure that what I would write would qualify as a course. So much of commercial real estate is just dogged persistence. And a lot of it isn?t exactly feature film material. Let?s face it, learning to do an APOD spreadsheet and knowing where to look for the rough stuff in due diligence doesn?t usually make the headlines! But I would like to do it at some point.

Right now though, I think I need the interactivity and the energy of workshops. The contacts I have made, and the deals I am into this year from being involved with the folks in Players Club and now here on CREO, has opened up a whole new world for me. I’ve written here and elsewhere that I haven’t experienced the level of excitement about this business in years, that I did Dallas this past March. I got another good dose of the same type of energy when I did the guest spot at Ed and Terry?s workshop in Atlanta in June. I?m now in two pretty large deals with people that I met in those meetings. There is something about being in a room full of people all trying to be better at what we do that just gets my motor running. There is so much stuff in my head, I need the crowd to tell me what to download! But to get that down on paper is going to take some time.

And that?s the crux of the matter: writing takes a lot of time. I enjoy it… and anybody that knows me will verify that I know way too many words! But the real deal is that I’m a dealmaker first, a writer maybe fourth or fifth… after the wife, kids, my business, little things like that. So for now, this seminar/workshop in Charlotte is all I can commit to. Maybe this winter things will slow down, and I can get some time to write. I did an outline for a book on commercial real estate after talking with JP and Terry in Dallas, so I have the starting point. I?m working on the workbook for my part of the seminar in Charlotte now, and I am having a ball getting all the stuff together. I?ll do a post this week and give you a preview.

Sorry to hear you can?t attend? is there anything I can do to help make it possible?

ray

import · August 30, 1999, 9:28am

Ray Alcorn MH park - Posted by Gator

Posted by Gator on August 30, 1999 at 09:28:48:

Some one recently listed a link for a MH park for sale by Ray Alcorn I believe. It was a nicely done site. I would like to see it again but I lost the web address. Any help?

Thanks in advance and best wishes,

Gator

import · August 30, 1999, 10:31am

Re: Ray Alcorn MH park - Posted by ray@lcorn

Posted by ray@lcorn on August 30, 1999 at 10:31:26:

Gator,

The URL to that site is www.parkrealty.com

The park has been sold, but I left the site up as an example of a format that can be used for investment and loan packages.

The whole story of the site is interesting… we had been trying to sell this park in 1997 through all the traditional methods, brokers, direct mail, classified ad in the trades, etc., for about six months. Because the park had a high number of park owned rental homes, we had very few interested buyers.

I was grousing about the situation one day to a buddy of mine that has a web hosting business, and he suggested doing a web page. I thought it would be expensive, but he convinced me it would be dirt cheap because the investment package was already on disk, and all we would have to do would be to format it, scan in the map, and add some pictures. We put in the demographics and location maps from other pages on the web. It took about four hours total to do.

Then I emailed the URL to two real estate listservs I subscribe to. There were over fifteen hundred hits to the page in 48 hours. Within one week we had five written offers. We sold it to a Fortune 500 company that was the first to see the site, and the first to send an offer. What’s really funny is that we had sent the written package, almost the exact same material, to this company through their broker months earlier, and didn’t even get a phone call. Obviously, from that point on I was sold on using the net in the RE biz!

BTW, I originally gave the URL to Dirk to show him one way to package a deal and, you know Dirk, when he sees something that works, he can’t wait to pass it on. In the week that followed his posting to CRE, there were over three hundred hits to the site! That’s pretty impressive for one mention on one newsgroup…

ray

import · August 30, 1999, 10:28am

Here 'tis ! - Posted by DougO(NM)

Posted by DougO(NM) on August 30, 1999 at 10:28:41:

http://www.parkrealty.com/UniversityVillage/default.htm

import · August 30, 1999, 5:28pm

Re: Ray Alcorn MH park - Posted by BobWhiteTN

Posted by BobWhiteTN on August 30, 1999 at 17:28:57:

Hi Ray,
I am another guilty party resulting from Dirk’s post.
I enjoyed the learning experience so much I bookmarked the site. Have every intention of printing it out for future reference, as time permits.
Have you considered developing a course for those of us unable to attend the conference?

Bob White

import · August 30, 1999, 4:16pm

Re: Ray Alcorn MH park - Posted by Gator

Posted by Gator on August 30, 1999 at 16:16:10:

Ray,

A very interesting story and I really liked the site. It gave a lot of info and the pictures were great. I was interested in the financials to use to compare other deals. Thanks again.

Best Wishes,
Gator