I am having a very hard time finding the lot rent for Mobile Home Parks in a city I am interested in purchasing. I can not find numbers and the one park that I found the phone number to had a voice mailbox that was full.
The local RV parks all have nice websites with information on monthly pad rents.
How does MHP lot rent usually compare to local RV Park monthly pad rent? Is the monthly pad rent a viable comparison to determine accurate market rates?
Thanks
You really should get a comparable MHP lot rent. If this means you need to put a job up on taskrabbit.com for a few bucks to get someone local to check out a few Parks for you in person to get the answer it would be worth knowing as it affects your park valuation and shaping the deal.
RV can be close or the same, but you will feel better knowing you have a like for like comparison.
I think most RV pads include water, sewer and electricity. Someone correct me if I’m wrong. So it’s not very comparable. Use the method described in the home study course.
We actually net as much or more with a RV compared to a mobile home. We always meter electricity and the usage of water and thus sewer is generally less than a mobile. We presently are charging a higher rate for our RV sites than for MH sites. We have both RV sites and mobiles sites in all our parks since we are on a large lake.
Are your RVs permanent or do people just pull in for a vacation or snowbird stay?
We try to have one year leases on RV’s since they can be so transitory and at certain times hard to refill whereas we have no leases for MH spaces. The problem with long term RV’s is the potential for junk accumulation. RV’s with yearly leases pay less than those on month to month, We have RV’s spaces really because we have sites to small for 16x80 homes and three RV’s can fit nicely on two MH spaces and thus more money!!! As a business owner we need to find every way possible to generate the most money possible with the least amount of expense–just because you fill all your spaces your taxes will not go up!!! We are not in the snowbird markets now but are trying to close out two snowbird parks presently.
If you’re putting two RVs on one MHP lot, how do you bill them for electricity? I assume there’s only one electric meter per pad?
Seems pretty clever though. I doubt it’d work in my park but I can give it some thought. I don’t have a lake, but I’m 20 minutes to the beach.
Anyone with a RV staying longer than one month is on metered electricity from our power company and pays directly to them. We do not want to be reading meters and billing. I know some power companies put in a master meter and than park owner puts in sub meters to bill for usage and that is ok but should never assume tenants when not paying directly for what they use will be conservative. We are not in the business of being a Good Sam Park since that group of people always looks for a discount and expect you to be on their beck and call and not interested in the Motel 6 where their light is always on and management is always on duty. Take a part of you park for snowbirds and they will pay over $400 per month for a small site but also expects swimming pools and hot tubs.
I understand, but if you’re putting 2 RV’s on one lot, I assume each of your lots only have one meter??
So how do you have them pay the electric bill if you only have one meter per lot, with 2 RV’s on the lot?
Did you have meters added to the lots? Also, the sewage connection could be a minor challenge, but shouldn’t be too hard.
I could definitely see bringing in RV’s once my turnaround is complete, I am licensed for 12 RV’s I believe. I do not and will not have a pool, but will put in a small picnic shelter, grill, horseshoe pits, etc. in about 2 years. I suppose cornhole would work instead of horseshoes, less liability and just as much fun.
Clinton,
Not uncommon at all. If you live near the city, you can always drive through a few parks and ask the manager. If you don’t and you really want to get the information, you can usually hire something like this out on Craigslist for $50. If you are just looking (not under contract) I wouldn’t recommend spending the money.
Other than that, you might try to pull phone numbers off of street view or ask any broker who has listed a park within 10-20 miles of the city. Then last resort is you can look-up the 2br rents on best places. The lot rent will normally be 40%-50% of this number.