I’m getting very close to retirement and my wife and I are looking for a place at the coast. We’ve been serious for a couple of months now.
Got the money, got the realtor - just need a place to come available.
We found a great little gated manufactured home community with lots of amenities. There was a home on the market that we made an offer on. The seller self-identified as “motivated”. We lost it in a bidding war. It sold, and the new owner closed on the 20th. June 20th this year. A few days ago. Then…
On the 21st, this happened:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/abcnews.go.com/amp/US/wireStory/california-golf-dispute-sparks-shooting-fire-dead-63895264
This was the house NEXT door. No wonder the owner was motivated. I feel sorry for the new owners. Had it one day and now it’s gone.
Man, was that ever close? Buy a lottery ticket.
Oh yeah, I don’t believe in deities yada yada, but something was looking out for you!
Second Beck, buy a lottery ticket.
Apparently good, clean living pays off. You do live a good, clean life, right? 
Nah, you’ve got it backwards; IF he bought there he would now be mansion shopping.
The OP was lucky. I hope the person that bought that trailer purchased insurance effective the day the sale closed.
Yeah, I wondered. I know one thing though, I’ll have fire insurance when I finally do buy.
Wow. You dodged a bullet, all right. Sounds like the guy had an arsenal. I hope wherever you land, you have nice, normal neighbors.
I’m pretty sure any lender (if a lender was involved) requires homeowners insurance be arranged before the closing. If there was no lender, if it was a cash sale, then I hope their real estate agent was on the ball.
Not trying to compete with the OP but I dodged a similar bullet.
I was moving into an apartment complex that had first and second floor apartments. The one I was moving into was a second floor apartment.
But before I moved in, I got a call from the manager. Somebody who was already living in the complex wanted to move into the second floor apartment. Because they were already a resident, they had “seniority”. So I ended up moving into the first floor apartment they were moving out of.
About six months later there was a fire in the complex. Somebody in a first floor apartment had some faulty electronics which started a fire. It completely destroyed the apartment - and the second floor apartment above it. Which, of course, was the apartment I was originally supposed to move into.
Thank you. I know this incident was a rare, one off but still it makes you aware you have no idea what situation you’ll be moving into when you buy a house.
Did you actually visit the house/neighborhood or was the whole offer done remotely?
We actually visited the site. We have made quite a few trips over there in our search. We were over there this past weekend (looking at another home down the street) and actually witnessed the remains. Shocking really.
UPDATE:
We did move into that park after all. It’s a great place and we love it.
In the meantime, the manager retired. They had an open call for applicants. My wife applied and got the job. So she is privy to all the past paperwork. It turns out that the people who bought that house did NOT have insurance yet. They paid cash (getting loans on used trailers is not easy) and lost it all.