The theory lusd brought up is interesting, but I still wonder if Chris actually paid 30,000 down. I think it is possible that whoever he bought the place from could have worked a deal out with him, say for example, maybe they needed a second car and Chris offered to fix one up for them, or maybe they needed a barn or garage or storage building. The owners could have just shown on paper he paid 30,000 down, when actually it could have been much less. And, if the original owners had moved out of town, then some or all of the work had already been done. Then it wouldn't be likely Chris's neighbors or friends would necessarily know about the specifics of his down payment.
My first husband and I bought a small MH shortly after we got married. It was located in a small MH park, and the owners were great. The thing that made it a pain was dirt street, and snowy bad winters.
We found a much nicer park, and the guy who moved it charged my dad $50.00, they had been friends for many years. Mike and Daddy helped get it ready to be moved, and helped level and set it up and skirt it. Everybody else in town wanted no less than 400.00 to do the same thing. So Chris could have done some work for these people and had his sons help when they could. That way he wasn't paying someone else to help with the labor.