Finding Contractors

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I’ve shaken out the handful of bad apples in my park after taking it over, and now I’m left with several homes in really rough shape.

How do other park owners go about finding contractors for repairs? So far I’ve used:
Craigslist - there are a lot of swindlers and fakes on Craigslist that have to be sifted through, but so far this has been my best resource. I’ve both posted a job offering in the ‘skilled trades’ section, and called people who are offering services in the ‘skilled trades’ section.
Angieslist - I just started using Angie’s list, but so far I haven’t had a lot of luck. It seems to be skewed towards large companies that do expensive custom builds and high end remodels.

Are there any other sources park owners find helpful?

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This is also one of the biggest struggles we have in my parks. We can’t help but hire people from the parks or somebody that someone knows for $10 - $12 an hour that has “done construction his whole life”. This works out ok for awhile, if you are on site with them - running to get them materials and on top of things. But they often drink too much after work or get angry to much and quit or just aren’t that interested in quality. It’s short sighted, but a $10 an hour, we keep trying it. The other end of the spectrum is any professional company that wants $100 an hour of more to unclog a sewer line or whatever. We continue to try to find someone in the middle for maybe $25 or so that can do electric and plumbing with quality. But there is always a reason why someone is a deal. The $100 an hour companies stay in business because they do the job quickly and well and walk away without any drama or excuses. The longer I work on parks, the more I appreciate the no drama and no excuses from the workers - I get enough of that from the tenants.

I wish I had a better answer. I’ll be watching this thread to see what other do in their parks.

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Noel_S…ah the never-ending search for good Manufactured Home Contractors.

Now that’s the million dollar question :smiley:.

Trent, we love your post. We can so relate to your experiences.

For our first MHP we paid for an Angie’s List account (not much money…we thought that we could get some good peeps) and hired at least one Contractor off Angie’s List. Even though this Contractor had ‘good’ reviews he was NOT good. We tried to hire other Angie’s List peeps and they all seemed to be ‘too busy’ to even schedule an appointment. Needless to say we now skip Angie’s List.

Another source is our MHP Tenants. We have used and still use some of our MHP Tenants. We have had bad and good experiences with this.

The bad experience first. One of our MHP Tenants did some lawn work for us (cutting grass). Cutting grass might seem like a simple task…tall grass becomes short grass. However, for this Tenant he mowed in the dark, drank alcohol while he mowed and then strong armed Tenants to have him mow their yards. Drama…Drama…& More Drama. Needless to say, he was quickly NOT used again.

The good experience. One of our MHP Tenants works for a Landscape and Land Clearing Company. He now mows our grass. The grass goes from tall to short with NO Drama. NO Drama is such a nice feeling :smile:.

Another source is to go to Mobile Home Supply Stores and ask for referrals. Again, we have gotten very bad referrals and very good referrals.

Another avenue is other MHP Owners in your area. If they are friendly, they ‘might’ share some of their peeps. One of our neighboring MHP Owners gave us the name of our best (most wonderful) Contractor we have ever had. This Contractor works specifically on Mobile Homes. Thus, he is very knowledgeable, quick and reasonably priced.

Lastly, our specific State has a LLR (Labor, Licensing and Regulation Department). This State Agency provides licenses for different professions. One of those professions is a ‘Manufactured Housing Repairer’. Our best (most wonderful) Contractor we have ever had (listed above) is a Licensed ‘Manufactured Housing Repairer’. We love our ‘Manufactured Housing Repairer’.

We wish you the very best!

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Best sources are friends and business associates. You need to get referrals from those with similar standards as your own.There are no other reliable sources. If you do not live in the area as your park your options are limited and mostly hit and miss.
Finding quality contractors is not something you can do reliably if you are not part of the local network.

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fwiw

I have a personal friend that is a small scale (20 homes and under) RE Developer and home improvement contractor. He has one person a lead that is skilled in everything, so the Lead watches everyone they hire as an onsite person. They have had good experience hiring from “street corner” out of work workers. They just screen them one at a time and kept the best. Maybe some of you could apply this concept.

Also a couple years ago, I was introduced to the website Houzz through some fellow veterans I was developing a website for. Houzz appears to be mostly small contractors, local to your area, and many of them are exceptional in their specialty, and are reasonably priced. You occassionaly run into the person with an ego problem, but most times it is someone that just ventured out on his own.

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Best way I’ve found is to call or go to the local mobile home supply store. Talk to the manager. Don’t ask for a recommendation, they’re not allowed to do that. Ask who they’d use personally or something along that line. The contractors that specialize in mobile homes have to get their supplies somewhere, find out who’s in the most often, they’ll often have a business card board too.

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Any contractor that’s a member of your state MH Association is generally a competent pick as well.

The decision to hire true professionals vs laborers is one park owners have to regularly make. Lean toward the former for your bigger more dangerous projects (road repairs, electrical issues, gas, heating, repairs involving structural integrity) - and make sure they are licensed and insured, and working under a contract. Though it’s often difficult or impractical to hire them for smaller projects (grass cutting, painting, clean up, minor maintenance, etc).

Check for the “Performance Agreement for Contractors and Contract Labor” and “Performance Agreement for Rental Home Contractors” forms in the “Forms” section at www.MobileAgency.com The latter agreement has very specific requirements for any contractor that goes inside a tenants home to work.

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