Frank you said this:The first is to figure out the cost of water/sewer per lot. If it’s $40 per month or less per lot, then don’t sub-meter, just raise the rent $30 per month and be done with it. Because all you’re trying to do is basically raise rent, and billing water is not straight profit, as you have to install meters, read the meters, bill the meters, collect the money, and fix the meters. It’s a whole lot easier to spend 50 cents per lot and 100% of the rent raise falls to the bottom line.Why $40, why not $30 or $60?thanksMike
If the water is $60+ per lot there is most likely quite a bit of wasted water and/or the water is expensive and worth trying to get the tenants to watch their usage via sub metering. If the water is only $30 per lot then why go through the hassle and cost of putting in meters ($200 each lot installed), reading them every month(a hassle), sending the tenants bills (a hassle) ect. You must think of the time and cost it takes to sub meter and see if the savings are worth the cost and hassle. I think that is what Frank was getting at.
well said.Brandon@Sandell
i don’t get it still. Why did he use $40? i mean what is so magic about $40??? Is there some mathematical reason for using that number or is it just a number that was picked out of the air?
I believe the average water usage for a mobile home should be in the 3000-4500 gallon range which usually equates to $30-40 per month. So if you have no leaks and there is normal water usage then $40 per lot should be a good rough number to recoup the park water bill. If usage is higher then the investment in water meters makes sense which will create tenant ownership and discipline around water usage while removing the expense burden on the park.
This is why so many of us have our own system and ten years from now we have a good idea of costs where as with the city the cost could be more than doubled. With 136 sites my cost for electricity and chemicals is less than $200 per month vr. with the city the bill would be over $5750 per month. My last state approved well cost less than $6000 and the whole system is computerized that can be monitored from my office. We knew the geology and the normal water quality and yields BEFORE we attempted the money saving project–the payoff is less than 3 years!!!