Park owned vs Bring your own trailer

[Ryan Dyess]

From those that own mobile home parks have you found it difficult to fill sites if you just rent the site? One park I am looking at has about half park owned homes and half empty sites for people to bring their own trailers. If the park owned homes need work or are trash what would stop someone from getting rid of them and just renting the site? Thanks for any wisdom you can pass along. 

[Mario Dattilo]

Great question. People moving their own homes in is what we call organic move ins. There are a small number of markets that this is common but you should expect to bring homes in (new or used), set them up, and sell them like a builder would in a development. They then pay you lot rent every month. 

The alternative strategy is a home rental model which is like running an apartment building which means you have turnover, a lot of make-ready costs, etc. 

You can buy the park and assuming the market is conducive for the lot rent model, you can fix the homes and sell them. I’d recommend the sales/lot rent model. 

Unless you’re in a very strong market that has such strong demand that people are buying homes and moving them In Organically then your bringing the homes in yourself. 

Check out my profile for a bunch of good resources for mobile home park investing and as always bigger pockets is a great resource. Hope this helps.