Mobile Homes in California

[Jonathon Moore]

Hi all. I am looking into potentially purchasing mobile homes and renting them out in California. I have a lot of questions, so I am wondering if anyone can direct me to some good resources for this? My biggest question is whether or not a tenant can be charged the cost of space rent in their monthly payments?

For example:
Mortgage = $500
Space rent = $500

Can the tenant be charged $1,000?

Thanks all!

[Nick Guerin]

Hi Jonathon, 

   This is a topic that interests me, as well. In my opinion, if you can find a mobile home park where you either own the individual parcel of land on which the home sits, or a mobile home park that has converted into a Coop ownership model (where you buy the mobile home and a share of ownership of the land, with rights to your space), then you are better off. Of course, these parks are rare and more expensive to get into, but potentially still less than a townhouse of similar size. 

   The coop mobile home park where I own did not used to allow for rentals (or subleasing, depending on who you ask), but with CA's passage of Assembly Bill 3182 last year, that changed. AB 3182 mandates that coops, HoA's and other similar organizations allow for at least 25% of the total number of homes to be permitted for rental (or subleasing). With this change, we decided to rent out our manufactured/ mobile home, and it's going well so far. I'm considering similar future investments, but still researching our options. Of course we are responsible for the monthly assessment whether or not we have tenants. 

   I'm not sure how a park with space rent may or may not be impacted by AB 3182, but I would be curious to find out if anyone here knows! If subleasing is allowed in parks with space rent, then of course you would still need to pay the space rent, with or without a tenant, but you could price your rent to factor in that expense. Put another way, I think the answer to your question is "yes", but the challenge is finding a park where you can pull this off (not to mention limited financing options, so hopefully you have cash). 

Nick