Mobile Home Park In Floodplain

[Logan Hartle]

Has anyone purchased a park that is partially or fully in a floodplain?

I am looking at a park that has great cashflow potential but is partially in floodplain.

[Frank Rolfe]

We own many mobile home parks in floodplain -- it's a pretty common problem. Here's how you approach this:

1) How many mobile home lots are actually impacted with floodplain? Sometimes it's only a few lots and sometimes it's only the common areas like a pavillion.

2) What's the BFE (base floodplain elevation) of this water? In other words, how high does it get? If it's 2' or less, that water won't get into the home and simply flow underneath (remember that mobile homes are basically on stilts made of concrete blocks roughly 3' off the ground).

3) Is the water projected to be "pooling" of "current" -- in other words, is the water just sitting there or would it be moving at a rapid pace that could wash things away?

You can find quite a few articles on this topic on the internet, and you can also learn a lot by reading up on FEMA's own materials on their website.