Mobile home lots

[Charles Wilson]

I have two 50 x 100 lots I want to turn into mobile home lots and rent out the lots.  Looking for input on the process to setup and rent.

[Jeffrey H.]

First, need to check zoning.  Is this out in the country or in city limits?  If in city limits you need to confirm that these lots are allowed to have manufactured homes on them.  If they're not then you would have the request a change in zoning from the city.

Second, utilities and infrastructure.  Is there city water and sewer available at the road?  If not you will need to have septic and well installed.  Assuming these lots are adjacent to one another you could have one well and one septic system installed, but many people recommend each home having their own septic system.  The cost and maintenance of wells and septic can be quite high, so hopefully city utilities available.  Is electric already available?  You will need to see how electric will be delivered - this may require the installation of a new pole, meter loops, etc.  I assume these lots are facing a public roadway and that you don't need to build a new gravel or asphalt road.  You may need to obtain a curb cut though if there is not one already.  Work with your city on this.  Do you have natural gas available or propane tanks installed?  The homes you bring in may or may not need these.

Third, you have to bring in a home.  You have to prepare the site for the home with a good base.  Will you be buying a new one or used one?  If new the process is fairly turnkey.  They will deliver the home, block it, level it, tie it down and then you can work to have it hooked up to utilities.  If you're getting a used home then you will need to find a mover that can do this, and coordinate with contractors to have utilities connected.  Then you will need to find mobile home repairmen to make the home ready for rental.

Last, rent the place out.  There are lots of posts on screening tenants already and will not go into that.  You can straight rent the homes or look into using something like a rent credit program to sell the dwelling and then charge lot rent only.

Finally, you can expect that it will cost near $10,000 per lot just to get the infrastructure and site preparation done.  Then an additional cost for the home to be brought in.  There are some great books on this topic that covers each of these topics in greater detail and would strongly recommend you check that out.  My favorites are Mobile Home Wealth by Zalman Velvel and also the Mobile Home Park University has a great Home Study course which would be applicable for you:

http://www.mobilehomeuniversity.com/mobile-home-pa...

Good luck.