New investor in need of advice.

[Elijah Williamson]

I've been following BP for about a year now and have yet to do a deal. I live in rural Alberta, Canada. A few days ago I got a tip from a friend that someone in my small town of about 2,000 people that someone want's to sell her land. It has two mobile trailer homes on it currently, each paying $150 a month for land rental and room for 6 more trailers. She's asking $35,000 for these 2 acres.

My main issue is I wasn't planning on investing here as vacancy can sometimes be high and there aren't many renters around. Most houses here are up for sale for over 2 years here. My friend wants to go 50/50 on this deal and then buy trailers to move out here are rent. We worked out the cost and it's about $15,000-$20,000 a trailer. The other option is to sell the land instead. She's only asking $35,000 and my friend is convinced it's worth more then double that. My fear is even if it's worth $70,000-$80,000 I don't know if it will sell. Houses take 2 years to sell here. I'm really being pushed to make a decision as my partner wants to move quickly on this but can't do it without me. If I do this, I lose my down payment  for a potential rental house.

As someone with little to no real world experience in investing, is there something I'm not seeing here? Are my fears unfounded? Should I or should I not do this deal? What should I do to cover my bases and make the best decision?