We were shocked to hear the asking price for the house then again we didn’t know anything about manufactured homes.
We didn’t have to go too far to find a reasonable small restaurant which was not overly crowded. Once we were settled on a table and gave our orders, I asked Lynda – What do you think?
Lynda said you can’t even buy a small mobile home in Canada for that price.
I said even with the exchange rates, this is unbelievably reasonable asking price.
Lynda asked what was the recent exchange rate when you converted dollars recently.
I said our dollar was only worth 0.71 cents in American.
She said it is significantly low.
She said we must be crazy even to explore any possibility of living away from Adam, he’s only 23 years old.
I said agree with you.
She said we only came out to bug the Real Estates folks and now it seems if we are getting hooked.
I said we are not not hooked, and I don’t want you to think that I am pushing you to do something you don’t like to do.
She said that’s how everything starts in our family and then we get carried away.
I asked her if I ever let her down?
Not really because I am also as crazy like you but not to the extent you are, I hope.
The food was served, and we started eating. I wanted to change the topic to make sure that I was not banging again and again to get her to agree with me because I wasn’t totally convinced that this idea was totally workable. Nevertheless, I had acknowledged the fact that it had merits. My thinking was, if it wasn’t meant to be, what the heck we were doing in Las Vegas whereas we always wanted to go to Phoenix.
As soon as we finished eating and paid the bill, I asked Lynda what would she like to do?
She said we don’t really have anything specific plan for this afternoon, and we will be leaving here tomorrow anyway. Hence why don’t we go along with to look at the property they are eager to show us.
I asked Lynda what she thought about the guy we spent almost 90 minutes talking about several things including manufactured homes?
She said he’s not a typical Real Estate person. He has got more brains and that must be the reason he owns the business. Furthermore, if you think you can manipulate him like you always did in Canada, by lowballing, you’re mistaken.
I remember saying to Lynda that I was totally upset with her for having such a low opinion of me.
You know what? She said, you got away most of the times more specifically when we bought the Calgary house.
I said I don’t even remember what I did so terrible that you still remember it.
She said the owner was desperate as the person who had made a reasonable offer to purchase his house, didn’t get his mortgage approved.
I said, I don’t remember that. What all I remember was that you wanted that house badly and I was trying to so my best to get that house for you. Luckily, I was working for a bank and there was almost given that I will not have any problem whatsoever to get my mortgage approved. Not to mention that at a very low rate, too.
She said I remember what you told the owner. You told him that the interest rate appeared to be as high as 22 percent, and it is hard if not impossible to get mortgages approved for the people in general. Whereas I work for a bank and you can consider my offer as good as cash.
Lynda said let’s not go on with that. I have forgiven you only because you got me the house of my dreams.
We went back and before we parked our car, a lady came to me and said, my name is Judy and I got the limousine parked there to take you to show the house in Henderson.
We both were shocked but move along to get into the limousine.
We noticed that Henderson was only 16 miles from Las Vegas and while going there we also noticed on the billboard that the total population of Henderson was only 90,000 people.
The person who was driving the Limousine, Judy said to us, so you folks are from Ontario, Canada.
Lynda said how did you know that?
She said that’s what your license plate, says.
She continued – we don’t get to see too many Ontario License Plates here in Las Vegas but plenty of license plates from British Columbia, Alberta, and Manitoba.
Lynda said simply because those provinces are relatively closer to Las Vegas, I guess.
She asked Lynda if she liked Las Vegas?
Lynda said we haven’t seen too much of Vegas yet, but we have seen enough to say that we both like Las Vegas.
She said, it may not be for everybody, but this city is amazing. I came here only for a week almost 18 years back and I am still here. I am in no hurry to go anywhere else.
I said if you are happy here, who can argue with you.
She said now I want to change the topic and would like to tell you about Mountain View Manufactured Homes Park.
She said they have 360 manufactured homes located on this park which is known as a Gated Community. I sold several houses to the folks who got retired in the Mid-West like Chicago, Wisconsin, Columbus, Indianapolis, Kansas City etc. and who decided to relocate to Las Vegas. Partly because life here is relatively cheaper and simple.
The state government gets enough money from casinos, and they don’t have to keep increasing sales tax here like other states. Furthermore, she continued – The State of Nevada does not impose a state income tax on individuals or participate in the administration of Federal Income Tax. This means that if you live and work in Nevada, you do not need to file a state income tax return based on your earned income, such as wages or salaries.
She said speaking about manufacture homes, people don’t understand until they buy a manufactured home that there’s not much difference between the houses they were living in the Mid-West.
She said here they don’t have to worry about the rain, storms, or fires. It’s almost guaranteed that when you get up in the morning, the sun will be shining. She also said you don’t have to maintain four set of different clothes to cope with all seasons.
I looked at Lynda and she said I know but we have responsibilities there. Adam is only 23 years old, and I have friends and perhaps the most important things is that you worked so hard to get the business going and we just cannot abandon it.
Our conversation was interrupted when Judy said – Here we are.
We saw a huge gate and Judy had a remote control to open the gate. She said she does so much business on the park that they decided to give her a remote gate opener.
She said she will take us first to the club house to look at the facilities and then she would take us around to show how clean this park was.
She said she also work with some other manufactured homes parks, but she said this park has five stars which means something in the business.
As soon as we entered the gate, we noticed that there were flowers everywhere. The sidewalks were decorated to look beautiful. Lynda was totally impressed.
As soon as we approached the Club House, which was a neat looking building, we realized that even their parking lot was clean.
Once we got in, we saw there were some folks who were playing Billiards. There were some folks who were playing cards. At the same time somebody was sitting in the corner and reading a book which was borrowed from the library right there.
We said Hey to some of those folks and one of them said looking to get in here?
I said we are just exploring. He said that’s what happened to me and my wife. They just came here to explore. It was almost five years back.
Lynda asked if they regret for making that decision?
He said never.
He continued – Everybody in this gated community feel comfortable enough to do whatever they like to do and perhaps the most important factor is socializing. Food is cheap here. We eat out a lot because this is the only city where restaurants don’t cost that much. The reason is being that casinos don’t make any money in the restaurants business. Their main money comes from gambling. As a matter of fact, it is indeed one of the major reasons that’s attraction folks to go out and have cheap meal and the gamble, if they like.
I asked if people living in Las Vegas become addictive to gambling as it could lead to compulsive behaviour.
He said of course there are that kind of people also live in the city but most of the people who live on this part are relatively smart folks and they had worked in some responsible positions before they got retired somewhere in the Mid-West.
He continued – we are a kind of social club. We go out in groups and eat out and play machines little bit but come back with our wives. We never lost any of our wives in gambling yet.
I thanked to the guy and said I remember this conversation the time we are going to make a decision.
He said good luck to both of you.
