Good afternoon, MHU friends.
I’ve heard some practical advice this week about setting up our development to offer an RV product as opposed to a MH product, based on requirements for things such as septic, space and the fact that the trend is RV is continually becoming more of a longterm option rather than a temporary option for residents. I’ve also seen that, in my area, rents are similar for lots between MH/RV.
It sounds to me like providing RV lots or potentially a blend of both is possibly the way to go but I’m sure there’s pros/cons to one vs the other.
Do you have experience with a park that caters to longer-term RV tenants? Supposedly in areas like mine that are less travel oriented and house pricing continues to shoot up, RVs can become a good longterm option for many. There would be laundry and a small office and park area. It’s also on a small lake, so that’s a nice amenity.
There is a lot of overlap, but the big issue is that RV’ers want amenities like a store, clubhouse, laundry with showers and bathrooms.
I am familiar with an RV park in Dolores, Co. where the new owners are discouraging seasonal and monthly visitors. They want daily and weekly rentals and are offering cabins and tent spots in addition to the traditional RV spots. Consequently, this summer they have some significant vacancies, 20% at my last count.
This is clearly a seasonal business because of the cold weather. The season is extended a little until Thanksgiving because of hunting season, but I would think the goal should be to keep every space full all season long even with a small discount for longer term visitors.
I have a mixed park with both long-term RVs and mobile homes. I have installed as many mobile homes as possible to get units that are more likely to stay in place longer.
Managing a RV park is a full time job. Definatly a far different responsibility than managing a MH community. I view MH owners, in a trailer park, as bottom of the tenant pool. I can not imagine what the quality of long term RV tenants might be but assume they would be far more difficult to manage and would lower the overall quality of your community. Assuming you are considering RVs the quality of your tenant base is most likely not a issue.
My residents would not appreciate or tolerate RVs in our community.
At Mission, Tx. 5 months and done, but during the season very, very, busy. Other mid west locations use only 6 months to 1 year leases and basically with lots of retires and some workers we do not baby sit them with activities! Come on people PLEASE where are all the nice parks that are for sale–We NEED at two more properties and DD is less than 5 days and cash!!! Personally with +30 years of experience owning and personally operating 2-3 parks and fine tuning them becoming a multi-millionaire is quite simple–beyond 3 parks why bother???
@Greg, there are times you have to be flexible. In my park there are some spaces that absolutely cannot fit a manufactured home so RVs are the option to collect payment on them. Plus… there are some benefits to RV lots in areas where there might be a construction boom or a tourist season that will pay off. I offer zero public buildings (shower houses or Rec Hall, etc. or activities, just full-hookups on my RV lots. The lots are rented on a monthly basis only. I take a lot deposit to off-set some of the “move-out in the middle of the night” issues and it is what it is. Do I prefer MH lots over RV lots? Absolutely! That said…this is a for-profit business so I am not going to waste the lot!
@Jsmith, Some investors may need to introduce RV rentals to remain profitable. Makes sense and I can see how it can work in a trailer park but not in a MH community. RVs would reduce the quality of the community.