Turn over costs in a park with 100% tenant owned homes

Im looking at 40 space park all tenant owned 100% occupied.
I know in the manual it says to budget $50-$100 of costs per home for repairs, depending on the age of the homes.
With a 15% turn over rate. In a 40 lot park, that would be 6 tenants leaving a year.
If this is the case should I be budgeting in my expenses for the possibility of rehab repair and or having to potentially bring in new homes?
Right now my budget for all repairs and maintenance is $3500 for the year.

My gut says $3,500 is low, but it’s really difficult to know. If this is a park that has high-quality residents (e.g. the lot rent is $300+, and the homes are all 1990-and-newer, and the residents all put down $3,000 or more), then you may have $0 rehab. Quality tenants in a park like that might well just post an ad on Craigslist and sell the home to someone new, and you won’t have to become involved in rehabbing at all.

On the other hand, if the lot rent is $150, and the homes are all from the 1970s, and the the seller of the park was actually renting all of them until just a few months ago when he decided to sell and pushed all his residents to sign a piece of paper saying they were now ‘owners’ of the home (e.g. they put $0 down) - then you are about to be in for a rude awakening. You’ll likely have 33% turnover the first year of ownership, and your budget should be $3,500/house, not $3,500/park.

Your mileage may vary,

-Jefferson-

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Thanks Jefferson. It helps to hear feedback from someone with experience.

You’re saying that the homes are 100% owned by the tenants and NOT the park, correct?

Our normal budget for that parks would be 40 x $100 = $4,000 per year for repairs and maintenance. That’s assuming that it’s 1) city water 2) city sewer 3) galvanized water pipes in decent condition 4) clay tile, cast iron or early PVC sewer pipes but NOT orangeburg 4) reasonable number of trees 5) no other unusual feature like a bridge, etc.

You are doing something terrilbly wrong if you loses 6 tenants per year in a 40 space park where they all own their own homes. The norm would be 0 to maybe 2 per year, but that’s based on a tenant base that is employed and homes that demonstrate pride of ownership. Most people will sell their homes if they leave, so you would have rent continuity.

In those cases where tenants abandon them and you have to take them over, you should be able to sell them for the amount you have in them (e.g. do a $4,000 reno and sell for $4,000).

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Thanks Frank. Great info. My concern is now put to rest. :sunglasses: