So for the folks that own parks in upper Illinois, say Rockford, Peoria give or take. What has been your experience in filling lots, getting decent tenants, and raising rents.,Seems like there’s always decent looking parks for sale in Illinois, yet seems like they sit on market forever. Just wondering what actual operators in the area are experiencing.
I owned a park for a couple years in that area and my biggest issue wasn’t raising rents or finding tenants. It was dealing with local government officials who were definitely not business friendly. Also, the tax situation in IL is absolutely nuts. I was paying 4x more in IL than my Alabama park and the rents weren’t even close to justifying those taxes in my opinion.
I think you see parks in IL on the market for a while because a lot of investors just don’t want to do business in the state. Good luck to you if you move forward on one, there’s certainly profit to be made there, it will just take more effort than a park in a more business friendly state.
We own a couple parks in Quincy. We went from $245 to $300 and $225 to $270 plus water / sewer billback upon purchase in 2023. We have not raised since then b/c we’re close to market, which probably tops out at $325.
The eviction process is a little more landlord friendly than what we were accustomed to coming from MO, AR, TN, AL. We’ve had situations where we spent a lot to get someone out. Make sure you understand the process for evictions in fine detail before your EM goes hard.