Garages

mobile home university
1

Has anyone had any experience with garages in mobile home parks?

2

Actual garages - no. Carports - yes. Garages are only found in the most high-end MHPs. Carports are more common. I financed one for a resident who insisted she did not want to deal directly with the local company that provides and RTOs carports. So I did so (and marked it up to make a profit in-line with what I make on mobile homes). But generally I’d suggest you stay out of financing those sorts of ancillary businesses (like storage sheds). Tenants can rent or RTO such things from local dealers. Stick to your knitting and stay focussed on buying mobile home parks and, secondarily, mobile homes to infill your parks.

Good luck,

-jl-

3

Garages tend to dominate the small lots and are not attractive in general. They were not permitted when we first purchased our park.

When we purchased our park 6 years ago we had numerous carports (no garages).

Tenants tend to use their car ports to collect junk and clutter. We enforced our park rules not allowing carports to be used for storage of any type but find it is an ongoing battle therefore changed the rules to insure no future carports.

4

OK,

I am just thinking out loud here

and since I don’t have much experience

your opinions are important to me.

Has anyone ever asked if they could have a garage?

You are saying that a garage is less attractive than a mobile home?

That could go either way?

New garage in front of an old mobile home?

Garages are better than car ports because the collected junk is out of site?

and everybody has junk, I know I do…

Garages would be more valuable in a Northern climate?

The only utility you might need in a garage is electric?

Garages don’t have floors that turn to mush when they get wet.

How much do they cost?

How much do they rent for?

What are the zoning requirements?

You are having problems filling your lots

but every single tenant you have has a car.

So…

you take one lot and put a multi garage on it.

What is the math on this?

Cost?

Income?

Does it count as a filled lot in vacancy calculations?

Is it even legal to do this?

There are 3 mobile home parks in your town.

You are the only one with garages.

Is that a competitive advantage?

Will it help you fill lots?

Will it get you a higher class tenant?

I heard of a park once that built double cement block garages

and lifted the mobile homes up and put them on top!

Could you make money doing this?

or no?

Is it even legal to do this?

Thanks for taking the time to think about this.

5

I am not going to continue this inane discussion.

Here is what you need to do to become successful in this business:

  1. Stop obsessing about utterly irrelevant things like garages

  2. Buy every book available on this website

  3. Come to bootcamp

Your eyes will be opened to what is important, and closed to what is not.

-jl-

6

Both garages and carports add to the appearance of a park, and are well-received with appraisers and banks. If anyone wants to build one or bring one in – and it’s allowed by law – by all means let them do it. You will also note that a carport blocks the home from being pulled out, and that’s another nice perk.

7

Thank you

8

I was looking at a Very nice park in northern Wisconsin last week. All of the homes were 1994 or newer. The homes were a combination single and doubles. About 1/3 of the homes had garages. The lot rents for were the same straight across the board. So in that sense, it didn’t add visible value to the bottom line, although it certainly added to the overall appearance to the park. Some of the park owned homes had garages, and some of those have been sold over the years, so garages could be used as a good marketing tool for selling the homes.

Sure tenants like garages and carports to store their junk. But, if the park rules are strictly enforced (i.e. no junk laying in yards) there is no need to worry.