I have a park under contract where the market rent is ~$400, however the park charges between $210 and $250 currently. Would you A: raise everyone $50 across the board, or B: raise everyone’s rents to the same amount (i.e. $295, or $275)?
More background: it’s all tenant owned, city water/sewer, direct billed, the park is simply one long road so all the lots are fairly equal (i.e. no corner or premium lots), there’s really no justification for different lots to be paying different prices.
@TN, as per your post:
Answer:
Tenants like to compare the treatment they receive to the treatment that the ‘other’ Tenants receive (such as Lot Rent & Rules and how they are applied to their Neighbors).
IF everyone has the same Lot Rent, that is one area that a Tenant cannot show a difference.
We wish you the very best!
Kristin is right about the same rent levels. The component nobody can perfectly answer is how to get them back up to market levels in a reasonable amount of time. It might take a few years - combined with demonstrated park improvements - to show tenants this is why and how. Otherwise you end up on HBO late night.
Good luck!
I have seen a couple weird things where people try and charge a lot fee based on lot square footage. I guess it can sometimes make sense on doublewide versus single wide. Or maybe like a lake view or some legit premium feature maybe but just be able to substantiate this.
I always try to make everyone the same lot rent just because its a lot easier to track and also because tenants like to compare. It also makes it more fair as a tenant. Old owners all the time give preferential treatment to one tenant because they have been there longer, or take care of their units the most, or help out and these tenants over time are well below market. Then they put the increases on any new tenants. I rather have everyone the same and everyone increases at the same time.