Here in Santa Barbara, plenty of MHs in the nicer parks are totally finance-able and sell in the $250-350K range, less in the over-55 parks.There are plenty of super cheap houses in many parts of CA, so it wasn't hard to apply Lonnie's strategy to SFHs.

Draw deed, "signing", doc prep, demand fees....they have line items for things that used to part of the "escrow fee".I have a family member selling land here in Santa Barbara.

I imagine a campaign in golf mags, big city newspapers, press releases etc..I have seen it done in Cali, Santa Barbara specifically and always coincided during slow RE markets.

And the appraiser is a good double check.I would agree with you, Barbara, that insiders do seem to snag some of the best deals before they get out to the general public.

$500,000 isn't going to buy you a whole lot of site work in Santa Barbara - if that is where this is.

Well, I'm a newbie from Santa Barbara, CA.

Does anyone have experience with any property managers in Santa Barbara?

Looking to network and potentially intern for syndicators in LA or anywhere along California up to Santa Barbara.

Originally posted by @Barbara Stapleton: I would think an investor and even homeowners would avoid anything with a balloon payment. 

Santa Barbara County somewhat restricts growth, so there is a shortage of real estate.