5 ms·

There are plenty of trailer parks all over the country that will let you plop your yurt down and even plumb it in to local utilities. You may not enjoy your nei

by travoc 5y ago

There are plenty of trailer parks all over the country that will let you plop your yurt down and even plumb it in to local utilities. You may not enjoy your neighbors very much.

game_the0ry 5y ago
Increasingly those trailer parks are being bought by private equity and institutional investors.
- Aeolun 5y ago
  What do they do with them? Doesn’t seem like something you renovate and resell?
  - jdkee 5y ago
    They extract the maximum amount of rent they can. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/03/15/what-happens-when-investment-firms-acquire-trailer-parks https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/03/15/what-happens-w...
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - ncphil 5y ago
      ... and then kick the residents out when they finally get zoning approval to redevelop for luxury housing: from politicians whose votes are surprisingly cheap (most elected municipal officials have ties to the real estate industry, or are themselves in the business). This is happening right now, here in North Carolina. The worst part? Who do you think makes up the largest part of trailer park residents here? Yep. That's right. Separated or retired military veterans, retail workers and domestic servants. They don't need to watch Masterpiece Theater to experience the wealth inequality and exploitation of the Gilded Age: they're living it every day (although our popular culture won't allow them to question it). Oh, and one more thing: although some elitist s.o.b.'s may disagree, trailer park people are no more unlikable that McMansion neighborhood residents. In fact, I usually find the former a lot more pleasant to deal with.
      - quantumBerry 5y ago
        Yes I have been to actual shanty towns including in a very poor latin american country and the middle east. I don't know why people here have such a hard on for there being something wrong with the people in trailer homes and shanty towns. They seemed like people who were just in different housing than some of the rest of us to me and I'm very glad their shanty town / trailer was available to them, because otherwise they'd be completely without shelter.
newsclues 5y ago
You might also not like your neighbours in an expensive gated community.
quantumBerry 5y ago
Does the trailer park get to overrule local building codes? Will I dislike them because they're poor or because people who live in trailers are just bad people?
StillBored 5y ago
Well as someone who lived in a trailer park for a few years, don't... Its not the neighbors, they are mostly fine, if generally lower income. But there _IS_ a large social stigma with living in a mobile home/trailer. The real problems are financial. Definitely don't get a mortgage to buy a home in a trailer park. Its the worst abuses of both the mortgage and rental markets. No matter what your at the mercy of the landlord raising prices (and selling to someone who raises prices to drive everyone off), while frequently ending up underwater in the trailer itself. For people who are this low on the income ladder the ability to _move_ the trailer is mostly non-existent since it generally starts at a few thousand $$, and goes from there. So, people lose the trailers, and their investment when they can't pay the rent. Then there is the problem that even the worst built house is better quality than what you find from any of the mobile home builders which have to basically use plastic/vinyl/particleboard glued together to keep weight down with the occasional staple to hold things together while the glue is drying. Most of the homes cannot be moved after a couple years because they would fall apart when presented with road speed winds and vibration. So, often not only to they lose the home, they end up owning the trailer park mgmt for removing the trailer. So, its bad. When people put mobile homes on land they own, they tend to build houses around them over time by adding covered decks, screen rooms, additions, new roofs, etc. Basically turning them into prefab cores of frequently reasonably nice houses/cabins after they rip out the crummy plastic bathrooms and put in actual porcelain toilets, real stoves, fridges, tile, countertops, etc. None of that really happens in your average mobile home community because people maintain the fiction that they can move the trailer even when its rotting in place. Bottom line, I would live in a car/truck before I considered living in a trailer in a trailer park. People with children are probably better just finding another family to share a rental with and packing bunk beds in.

by travoc 5y ago

There are plenty of trailer parks all over the country that will let you plop your yurt down and even plumb it in to local utilities. You may not enjoy your neighbors very much.

game_the0ry 5y ago

Increasingly those trailer parks are being bought by private equity and institutional investors.

Aeolun 5y ago
What do they do with them? Doesn’t seem like something you renovate and resell?
- jdkee 5y ago
  They extract the maximum amount of rent they can. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/03/15/what-happens-when-investment-firms-acquire-trailer-parks https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/03/15/what-happens-w...
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - ncphil 5y ago
    ... and then kick the residents out when they finally get zoning approval to redevelop for luxury housing: from politicians whose votes are surprisingly cheap (most elected municipal officials have ties to the real estate industry, or are themselves in the business). This is happening right now, here in North Carolina. The worst part? Who do you think makes up the largest part of trailer park residents here? Yep. That's right. Separated or retired military veterans, retail workers and domestic servants. They don't need to watch Masterpiece Theater to experience the wealth inequality and exploitation of the Gilded Age: they're living it every day (although our popular culture won't allow them to question it). Oh, and one more thing: although some elitist s.o.b.'s may disagree, trailer park people are no more unlikable that McMansion neighborhood residents. In fact, I usually find the former a lot more pleasant to deal with.
    - quantumBerry 5y ago
      Yes I have been to actual shanty towns including in a very poor latin american country and the middle east. I don't know why people here have such a hard on for there being something wrong with the people in trailer homes and shanty towns. They seemed like people who were just in different housing than some of the rest of us to me and I'm very glad their shanty town / trailer was available to them, because otherwise they'd be completely without shelter.

newsclues 5y ago

You might also not like your neighbours in an expensive gated community.

quantumBerry 5y ago

Does the trailer park get to overrule local building codes? Will I dislike them because they're poor or because people who live in trailers are just bad people?

StillBored 5y ago

Well as someone who lived in a trailer park for a few years, don't... Its not the neighbors, they are mostly fine, if generally lower income. But there _IS_ a large social stigma with living in a mobile home/trailer. The real problems are financial. Definitely don't get a mortgage to buy a home in a trailer park. Its the worst abuses of both the mortgage and rental markets. No matter what your at the mercy of the landlord raising prices (and selling to someone who raises prices to drive everyone off), while frequently ending up underwater in the trailer itself. For people who are this low on the income ladder the ability to _move_ the trailer is mostly non-existent since it generally starts at a few thousand $$, and goes from there. So, people lose the trailers, and their investment when they can't pay the rent. Then there is the problem that even the worst built house is better quality than what you find from any of the mobile home builders which have to basically use plastic/vinyl/particleboard glued together to keep weight down with the occasional staple to hold things together while the glue is drying. Most of the homes cannot be moved after a couple years because they would fall apart when presented with road speed winds and vibration. So, often not only to they lose the home, they end up owning the trailer park mgmt for removing the trailer. So, its bad. When people put mobile homes on land they own, they tend to build houses around them over time by adding covered decks, screen rooms, additions, new roofs, etc. Basically turning them into prefab cores of frequently reasonably nice houses/cabins after they rip out the crummy plastic bathrooms and put in actual porcelain toilets, real stoves, fridges, tile, countertops, etc. None of that really happens in your average mobile home community because people maintain the fiction that they can move the trailer even when its rotting in place. Bottom line, I would live in a car/truck before I considered living in a trailer in a trailer park. People with children are probably better just finding another family to share a rental with and packing bunk beds in.