Onsite manager or offsite manager - which do you prefer

mobile home university
1

We have always had onsite managers at all of our 12 parks in the midwest. We go off of the theory that in order for a manager to truly care about the park they need to live there as its their community.
But now that we have 100% online rent payments , were thinking that the manager doesnt need to live onsite and we could explore offsite managers as well for a bigger pool of talent. We have had a hard time training and conditioning our onsite managers to take the park to the next level and hammer down hard on violations in order for the park to look really nice. Some managers do but some don’t. Were playing with the idea of getting a more professional offsite manager that would have standards that were looking for. It would be part time and their main job would be rules enforcement and move ins and move outs. Keeping the park looking nice, safe and full. This would not be a 3rd party management situation, we would still manage all aspects of the park, just have our manager live offsite instead of in the park.

Has anyone tried this approach and if so how did you like it. What are the pros and cons and what mistakes should we avoid.

2

We’ve found that having someone onsite definitely helps with having eyes on the park every day, especially when it comes to property condition, violations, move-ins/outs, and catching smaller issues before they become bigger ones.

That said, just living onsite doesn’t necessarily mean someone is going to enforce standards consistently. A strong offsite manager who visits regularly, documents violations, follows up consistently, and is held to clear expectations could potentially be more effective than an onsite manager who gets comfortable or doesn’t want to enforce the rules with their neighbors.

If you go offsite, I’d probably make the frequency of property walks and reporting very clear from the beginning so you don’t lose that day-to-day visibility.