I am under contract to purchase a small 20 lot MHP in southern Illinois. 18 TOH’s and 2 POH’s. All utilities are paid by tenants, except for water. The street is paved and maintained by the city.
I am located on the west coast. For the experienced park owners out there, what do you recommend regarding management of this MHP? Is a park manager/greeter necessary? And if so, how many people actually choose to insure this person by paying for workers comp insurance?
Any thoughts would be appreciated!
In my opinion you wouldn’t need a manager or greeter for a park this size with mostly toh’s. Set up a google phone/number and have tenants contact you directly vial text or call for issues. Hire a local maintenance guy to do odds and ends and have him report rules violations to you. Also, talk to a few of the tenants and ask them to be your eyes and ears in the park.
1 Like
Interview current tenants, offer discount or free rent to assist. Background check a must.
My experience has been that small parks are much harder to manage than larger ones. That is because you don’t have the budget to hire a manager and that the talent pool of potential managers is very small leaving you to pick the best of the worst. Personally, I would not buy such a small park so far away, but at least you only have to worry about 2 rentals.
However, to answer your question, I would pay a monthly fee of $50 to $100 to a tenant to keep them at your beck and call. You can call it a “video inspection fee” or whatever, but make it clear that you may call from time to time with special requests. You absolutely need somebody who can respond quickly in case a situation arises.
We currently have a couple of parks with 30 to 45 units where we pay a $100 monthly fee. If we ever need assistance to deliver a flyer, take a photo, etc, we call these guys and they are happy to help. If you don’t have anybody and need quick assistance, you will have to source somebody first, which can take valuable time.
What if one of your 2 POH develops a sewer leak, the EPA comes investigating, and you need to fix it ASAP. The tenant is unresponsive. You can call your $100 / month guy and say “hey, I need you to let the plumber into the home tomorrow.” Your onsite guy gets it done, EPA is happy, and you go on your merry way.
You must have some type of onsite or nearby presence.
3 Likes
We offer management services here in the Midwest, if We can be of service, please let me know know…
Good ideas already, as a West coaster ive had tenants pay the bank direct ,so no need for mgr to touch funds. must have a tenant that lives in the park as already suggested, 100 rent credit and act as your eyes and ears. They then must advise you of any issues that arise.
A referral from another local park owner who manages a small park is the best way to go. Likelihood is their manager has some extra bandwidth and they would be happy to get her some extra income on the side
1 Like
The answers here are not cheering me up. I have tried to enlist eyes and ears but have not been able to find one person that can watch more than their own park. I have 3 small MHPs in close proximity and getting tenants to follow rules is the major headache. They are ugly and A lot is my fault because I let them run un-managed for 18 years because I only had so many hours in a day and I suck at organizing and delegating. I am trying to figure out how to travel a month or more at a time and run the parks at the same time.
You need a total reboot.
In your head, act like you just bought the park. What would you do if you just purchased these parks and wanted to run them properly from day one?
Read these forums, search for “park management” or something in the search feature. Get a plan and get new rules and start enforcing them
Send a newsletter to the tenants explaining that things are changing, new rules will be enforced, a manager will be hired, ect.
Go through your tenant list and spend some time talking to the best tenants. I bet you have some tenants who are decent people and would love to see the community improved. These are the type of people that would also be potential manager material.
I have bought parks that were managed poorly and every time I wind up sitting on the porch with a tenant in the park hearing the stories on how the park is in disrepair, and these tenant would love to the park brought back to life! Even if the rent went up to do it!
Be prepaired to evict some people and have empty homes to deal with.
O and the biggest advise of all: begin screening tenants properly!
On the other hand if your not committed to turning the parks around, have you thought about selling them before they are empty and not worth much?
want to sell it? if interested DM me