I am purchasing a poorly operated mobile home park, and had one main question for those of you who are more experienced in park operations. All of the numbers are good, and local zoning will allow me to add some homes to the park. The issue is that the park currently appears full, but it is solely because of the way the homes are situated on the land. I would like to redesign the layout of the park (just the homes, and not the roads), while working on some of the park’s infrastructure.
Assuming I can navigate the tenants’ objections to this, how would I go about doing this? I would hire a licensed mover, but do they do this regularly? In most cases, it is just re-orienting the homes from an East/West basis to a North/South basis.
This is a question of legality. should you do it, sure if you can fill in the spaces and make more money. The legality issue is can it be done in your state with your mobile home park commission and the city zoning. Parks in Indiana have a set layout and a process to go through to change that layout. I have not done this but I expect that if there is a process then there is a way to do it if the people in charge of the commission will allow this. Your best bet is to determine in your state what is needed and by who. You may need to jump through an ungodly number of hoops or maybe just hop on one foot for five seconds. Investigate the state then the city.
Thanks for the suggestion, and I’m sorry if I did not make myself clear, but this is definitely legal. I have zoning approval, and will have to submit a new plan, so that is not my issue at this point.
My issue is solely in how do I do it? I’ll pay for everything, but only some of the homes are park owned, some are tenant owned, who do I get to do it, etc?
I would only reconfigure the homes as they naturally become vacant (e.g. through delinquent tenants or natural ownership turnover). Obviously the Park Owned Homes could go first, and you could incentivize tenants to move from Home A to reconfigured Home B so that contents and condition are off the table as issues that come up.
Doing a reconfiguration with tenant owned homes would be an expensive nightmare, and endless drama for your manager. Think of all the coffee cups, TV’s, and other miscellaneous crap they will claim you broke and want you to replace…with new fancy versions. Then they will want you to replace their porches with the same size stuff built from long ago that won’t fit in the new configuration, etc.
Great points, and that’s my fear. Just don’t think I can take on the liability/headaches that will come from moving tenant owned homes. Might just have to forget that idea.
I think you can make it a requirement that happens upon it being turned over to a new owner as part of the vetting process, but you’ll need to map that process out pretty well and have the current owner sign it as a contingency to sell prior to new owner occupancy… If it’s a really poorly run Park a lot of the tenant owned homes are probably not paying on time, causing riff raff, and might need eviction anyway.
It will be a slow and arduous process for them all to happen but will be worth it. You will learn as you go from moving the POH’s around.
You can if you choose move tenant owned homes. The liability issue is small if you document the home contents in advance with a video camera. Inform the tenants of the date and if you hire movers and labourers experienced in setting homes they will tell you how many days the tenants will need to be out. During that time you put them in a hotel and probably not charge them for that months rent as compensation. I would guess they would only need to be out a couple of days if it is well organised.
