Just closed on a park and about a third of the homes do not have skirting. I want all of the homes in the park to have skirting.1. How much time should I give them to get skirting installed on their homes? 2 months? 6 months?2. Do most of you have tenants skirt around the hitch / tongue?3. Have any of you ever paid to have it installed and then financed it over time and added it to their monthly rent? If so, what sort of plans did you come up with?
We told our tenants that they had two months to skirt themselves or we would do it for them and add it to their rent. They pay $100 a month until it is paid off.
If the skirting was absent on 1/3 of the homes I wonder what other surprises you will find. If the sellers had guidelines and then if they are enforced problem solved before new ownership. I have found that there is a certain mentality in run down parks you will be hitting your head against the wall for some time and in some cases really NEVER change especially if an absent owner.
Your due diligence should show that the park is a successful location or not, and your existing tenant base may have to go over time, but good parks will always prevail over the tenant base. Some people don’t skirt because its expensive and the owner never required it. But in most of the turn around parks that we do, the clean up becomes infectious once you start showing real progress. That being said, skirting is way more expensive than most tenants can handle in a lump sum, so the normal procedure is to do it up front and bill them over time, or in some cases, don’t bill them at all (senior citizens, etc.).
Welcome to the welfare system–All our tenants bring in new homes have 30 days to complete skirting. Every year an independent person looks at EVERY home and the homeowner gets a notice as to everything is either great or a detailed list as to what is needed done to stay in park. Some items on the list, mold or mildew on home, unsafe porch or steps, holes in skirting etc. The high standards allows us to attract upper end retires and continue an outstanding property. Section 8 welfare housing makes me sick for parks to think that the business model needs government hand outs to be successful or fill empty spaces where is your creative spirit??? When you receive monies from the government I guarantee they will also CONTROL YOU. This will also affect parks in the future that have NO INTEREST in government handouts (section 8 housing since now their nose is UNDER THE TENT!!! and they cannot wait to regulate more free enterprise that our parents hated and would not accept!!! The government is not bowing to us being a servant the way the constitution intended we are bowing to them!!! I believe we have passed off the cliff and I left farming for all the welfare the farmers are receiving since the insurance policies are subsidized by taxpayers up to 75%. Thanks for the opportunity to voice my concern and opinion.
I haven’t got on here lately, but when I hear the parks getting into Section 8 this blows my mind. The only Park Owners that would even consider would be out of town owners with empty spaces, or empty mobiles . I have had my fill of Government Section 8 in Apt. complexes and you want to be told what to do about your own properties, It works about as good as ObamaCare, If you plan to ever sell buyers will turn away from your properties because of Section 8, Unless its a FIRE SALE!!! Don’t be cond by these so called ( Experts ) that think they know everything about of all the dos and don’t about Buying and Operating a Mobile Home Park, But after seeing some of the Parks these people own and operate and for them to be teaching a course on what to look for Buying and Operating a Park, Most Absentee Park Owners Hire a Managers and very seldom view their Parks , Call on a regular basis and look at reports but only reason to visit the park is to hire another manager because the average manager will last 4-6 months and $$$ is missing? After reading most of the blogs The guy who maybe could teach a buyer about Parks might be this guy by the name of CARL. He has the experience of owner operator with almost 40 years experience , I have visited with this guy and Believe me he knows his stuff, And I toured his Park in Oklahoma and I was impressed. All I can say about getting into Section 8 Housing in Parks your either going BROKE or Getting ready for a FIRE SALE!!!
You guys really hijacked the OP thread and turned a little nasty. Everyone does business differently and it does nobody any good to come on a forum used for helping others and bashing other owners. The point of this forum is to get advice from experienced owners. Not everyone is going to agree and nobody has stated their way or the highway.
I asked for advice on dealing with homes without skirting. My original question had nothing at all to do with Section 8 housing.If any other park owners have advice on dealing with turning around a park where some of the homes have no skirting, I would love to hear from you.Thank you in advance.
Well said. That’s exactly what makes this forum different from all the others – everyone respects everyone else’s opinion, and takes what they want and leaves the rest.
Homes brought into our community have 30 days to install skirting. We also do an annual inspection and give notice to home owners needing to do maintenance or general upkeep. We would consider financing skirting (at a reasonable interest rate) but would never provide free.
All homes in our community are required to have the tong removed. They are not attractive and serve no purpose once the home is placed. It can be stored under the home to be reattached should the owner chose to move the home in the future.
Here are some additional thoughts on skirting. If you are trying to skirt a bunch of homes at one time, consider only using good vinyl on the most visible homes on the corners, and then use a cheap material from a salvage yard on the other homes which are not as visible. Anything, if painted and installed straight, works as skirting and I’ve used them all – metal, plywood, corrugated fiberglass, etc. Think Hollywood set design. You may not even need to skirt the backs of some homes, since nobody sees those in the right application (like up against a fence). Skirting serves no purpose other than to block the view of the hideous underbelly of the mobile home, and to reduce freezing pipes in extremely cold climates, and just about anything will do, as long as you paint it to compliment the home.
Skirting Questions:1. How much time should I give them to get skirting installed on their homes? 2 months? 6 months? 2 Months2. Do most of you have tenants skirt around the hitch / tongue? Yes, skirt the hitch/tongue.3. Have any of you ever paid to have it installed and then financed it over time and added it to their monthly rent? If so, what sort of plans did you come up with? In the future we plan to install and finance it. $50 Per Month until paid.About 5 months ago we purchased a MHP where there is some type of underskirting (loosely speaking…lattice, vinyl siding, horizontal metal strips) on the mobile homes.With the purchase of the MHP we became the proud new owners of 7 Older MHs.We have decided that we will first install new, white, vinyl underskirting (around entire mobile home and tongue) and new wooden stairs on the MHs that we own.This is to show good faith on our end. Do as we say and do as we do :-).Once we install the new, white, vinyl underskirting we will then give the Mobile Home Owners 60 days to install new, white, vinyl underskirting. If they do not comply, we will install it and charge them $50 per month until it is paid off.We foresee that most of our Residents will not have the entire money needed to install the vinyl underskirting. Thus, we will not be surprised if we have to foot the bill initially for most of them.We wish you the very best!