Survey: How much do you charge for parking, extra residents, late fees, etc?

There’s a lot on the forum about lot rent and how to use average apartment rent as a benchmark. Relative to lot rent, I’m curious how much most parks charge per month for “extra” fees such as parking, extra residents, storage sheds, etc. Here are my numbers:

Lot rent: $300

Parking: $25 for each vehicle over two.

Extra resident (water/sewer are master meter, and larger families use more): $25 for each person over four.

Storage sheds: Does anyone charge tenants to place storage sheds next to their homes? Nearly all of my residents have one, and they provide their own. I don’t currently charge anything. I’m contemplating allowing them to have a max of two and charging $40 or $50 for the 2nd.

Thanks for your replies!

I should also mention that if you own several parks, please post an illustrative example that you think best represents your “extra” charges relative to lot rent.

I try not to nickle and dime and try to include most everything in the lot rent rather than break it out like a discount airline. Late fee is a straight $50 no matter if its 1 day late or 15 days late. Cancelled check is $35 plus the $50 late fee. I’m relaxed on the cars unless its blatantly obvious but that is also $25 if more than 2 vehicles. They pay their own water so I don’t care how much they use, they will get billed for it. Storage sheds to me it depends. I’ve only taken over parks that residents have had their sheds for a while so I will let it slide. However, I have a park where a few residents added on to their single wide and they are about the size of a double wide. I charge them for a double-wide.

I am new at this. How do I justify charging high prices for tenants space rent? Seems like analogy of comparing apartment rentals with mobile homeowners does not pan out in my head. Mobile homeowners are just that…owners of their own homes. They just pay for the land to place the home on. They only pay for space, not the actual living space, like with apartments. They pay all taxes , replace pipes if needed and separate utilities not included in the rent. There is no pool, or clubhouse in this park. If the owner owned the home, I can understand, but like mentioned, that can be another headache. Any comments? I want to be a fair and compassionate landowner, especially when owning 55and older parks.

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Late fee $20. It is a rarity that I ever have to charge the fee.
I own a seniors community so some what different than most. I limit occupancy to max 2 people which is simple in my case. I see no justification for charging a vehicle fee. I prefer to simply limit vehicles to max 2 per lot. This I see as being particularly important in family communities and should help to keep down the number of adult occupants per lot as well. It will also restrict accumulation of unnecessary vehicles cluttering up the community. As for sheds I do not have any reason to charge a fee but do limit sheds to one per lot at a max 100 sq. ft. When I purchased the community many lots had multiple sheds which I had them remove. My goal was to have a attractive and uncluttered community.
I believe it is best to have clearly and uniformly enforced rules than to have to charge extra fees. The overall appearance of your community should take priority over finding way to charge residents more fees. Aside from occupancy numbers in family communities (children) this is relatively simple to do.

Hi Greg… I like your idea of allowing one shed per lot… to keep park clean.

Most/many townships and cities have restrictions on shed size and the number of sheds allow per lot. There are many building codes that are not generally enforced by local governments that a community owner can include in their rules and enforce. You can use them to have unpermitted additions, sheds etc. removed. Use the building codes to your advantage to support your rules.

The answer to your question is COMPS.

(You justify by pointing to equivalent rental rates elsewhere that are comparable to your own).

I don’t understand why, if tenant pays the monthly lot rent, and buys his own shed, installs it properly, etc…why you are charging rent on that. How can you charge rent, when the lot rent is already paid? What is the basis of conceiving this- other then one more profit making ploy?

@Shamrocks94

Well in a lot of municipalities they need a permit to install the shed. The city is then able to charge you higher taxes for that added structure. So if you don’t charge a fee that’s fine, but as an owner you may have increased your tax bill.

Community owners should be passing the tax portion associated with the TOH to their tenants either as part of their lot rent or as bi-annual tax bills. Community owners do not cover the tenants portions of the total property tax when the city/township is not taxing the tenants directly.
Each home should have a individual assessed value and the city/township provides the property owner with the annual mil rate. The community owner calculates the home owners portion and bills the home owner directly for the taxes on their home, shed, etc. I send out my tenants tax bills twice per year when I receive my tax bill from my township.

So since new owners have purchased my parents mobile home park, they have now water metered bills added, greatly increased lot rents to come, and you are saying that the new owners could also impose an annual tax bill for land my parents do not own, too? On a shed they paid thousands for and had professionally installed?

How can long term mobile home owners know how to plan for their future, the increased costs, and all these hidden new bills when mom and pops sell the parks to investors? Can you understand how this is all upsetting?

How many kinds of hidden cost increases can there possibly be? This is all pretty hard for folks that have lived in the same park for a few decades, and are trying to live out their days with meager fixed incomes.

It’s tough for everyone to plan for the future. Being on a fixed income means being left behind. This is not a problem that private enterprise in a capitalist society can solve.

I am not suggesting that mercenary rent increases are all right, because they are not, but the new owner has to pay for updates to all that infrastructure that is 30 years old. If you look at it another way, your parents have been living with their housing costs subsidized because they’ve not been paying enough to take care of maintaining any of the roads or sewers. Those have been under funded because everybody under funds spending on infrastructure maintenance and now it is time to pay the piper.

Also your corporate overlords do not have consciences .

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It can be a serious shock for long term tenants when they have had mom and pop owners that did not maintain market rents. Had they maintained their rents and fees at market all along there would be far less impact cost wise for residents when ownership transfers. Realistically rents should rise every year at between 2 and 5 percent to simply keep up with the annual cost of living increases. As Brandon points out having subsidised rents can not and does not last forever.
To plan for your future any year you do not have a rent increase you need to put away 5% of your annual rent cost to cover future increases. You can then draw on it when ownership changes hands again.

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Agree on all counts, Brandon. My park was built over 50 years ago and has lots of deferred maintenance. I’m taking on $200,000 in CapEx just to keep it running - full replacement of the water pipes, partial replacement of the sewer pipes, and some paving.

While there are certainly mercenary rent increases in this business, I think it feeds a false (and damaging) narrative to suggest that it’s the norm. Most operators are simply trying to earn a fair return on investment by keeping their properties as mobile home parks instead of selling for redevelopment.

As for my property, instead of billing for items such as parking, extra residents, and sheds, I’ve decided to simply limit residents to one shed, increase lot rent to closer to market, and direct bill for water.

Shamrocks94 wrote, "and you are saying that the new owners could also impose an annual tax bill for land my parents do not own, too? "

To my knowledge, the only taxes that tenants typically pay are personal property taxes on their home, if they own the home (TOH = tenant owned home). I’m not aware of cases where the municipality bills the tenant directly for real estate property taxes.

With over 30 years of hands on experience: 1 shed of 100 sq. feet or less, only 2 cars allowed extra parked in a different area $25, homes over 2 people $150 per month or $5 per day with background checks etc mostly senior parks, late fee $5 per day and if continue late give an eviction. Most parks being sold have deferred maintenance and with such low cap rates at sale make improvements come out of savings. Please note the reference to past sales price I noted that we sold the property in 2015 for $3,250,000 and less than 5 years later WITH LESS INCOME is priced at $5,250,000 and it is listed presently on the park store. We sold at a 10 cap since it is old septic tanks and well but is listed at a 5.6 cap rate–vert difficult to make any major improvements without significant increases to present residents and please people new to the business very low cap rates can be very negative for years especially WHEN interest rate go up ( will you still have a profit if rates go up 2-5%)???

Thank you for such a kind and respectful answer.