What are some down falls of having sub leasing.There is one owner that rents out three of his trailers.The owner of the trailer park that I want to buy says he on time and is never late on the lot rent but I believe he has a lot of turn over with his renters.I would like to have more input to the type of people I have in the park when I buy. Any advice will be helpfull.
I don’t know what your state landlord tenant regulations are but in regards to subletting they should be similar. In the case of a land lease community there are, in regards to sub letting, two separate leases. The owner of the home leases the land from you and leases the home to someone else. In this case for the home owner’s sublet to be able to live in the home they must be screened, as with any tenant applicant, by the park owner.
When the owner of a home in my park want’s to sublet they bring the individual to me and I screen them. If they do not pass my screening the homeowner is told they can not rent to them.
As far as the disadvantages in homeowners subletting the obvious one it that nine times out of ten there is no pride of ownership from the owner or subtenant and the property usually looks like hell. For this reason I discourage homeowners from sub letting and make my screening as difficult as possible for applicants to pass.
If the owner of the homes in this park has a lot of turnover and the park owner makes it nearly impossible for him to find a acceptable sublet the park owner keeps getting the rent regardless but eventually the owner will, out of frustration, sell the homes and move on.
We require anyone who is a sub-lease to still go through our criminal and credit check – even if their landlord does one himself. Beyond that, as long as they obey the rules and we get paid the rent, there’s no problem. Of course, these sub-lease tenants are not “stakeholders” in the business, as they have no ownership of the home and normally look at the park as a short-term living situation. But we don’t want to lose these trailers, as the alternative is that we’d have to go out and buy new homes and bring them in (cost of $20,000 to $30,000 per lot normally). So the bottom line is that, although it’s not our favorite thing, we tolerate it and make the best of it.