How are you collecting Rents and Managing The Park?

Question

Hey guys,

I would like to know how you are collecting rents and managing your parks? Do you provide free wifi and have the tenants pay over a online website? through software? or good old check?

Also, how do you manage the property IF you are located out of state? Property management? Or do you self manage?

Is this something really difficult to do while living a great distance away?

Looking forward to your help!

Thanks,

Cody

Gulliver R. · Answer

I have my tenants deposit their rent at a bank 10 minutes away. That way I can check my online banking to see if they paid or not. Or they can pay online. 90% of my tenants pay by the bank deposit way and a small percentage pay online.

I manage all the rent collection. That way I don’t have to worry about my OnSite manager stealing. I like to see all the money coming in. I manage all the expenses being paid. For example paying the insurance, the mortgage, the trash, etc. I handle all the marketing and advertising for homes that are vacant and need to be filled. I do this on Craigslist. I handle all the calls coming in from interested prospects. Then my OnSite manager helps by touring the homes to these prospective tenants. If the Prospect is interested then I have them fill out an application and then a background check. Then I email them their Lease. They read it and sign it. Then they meet the manager at the home. The manager also will collect the move in costs and deposit them in the bank. Make sure their in cashier Check form or money order.

I have the on-site manager that lives in the community deal with all the things that require being physically at the park. He’s cleans the common areas of the park like picks up litter, mowes the grass, etc. he lets me know if there are any violations. I have him video the entire park twice a month so I can see if  the entire park is clean and being maintained well.

You can manage any park from far way just as long as you collect all the rent every month, paying all the bills every month and making sure they are always about the same cost per month, keeping the park 100% occupied (or close to it), making sure the homes and the park is cleaned and well maintained (your manager should be taking care of this and you video monitor it), and finally if you have the tenants pay for water and sewer just make sure you are collecting all those bills and make sure that w/s bills are under control.

Create a well oiled system every month to monitor the above things and you will be just fine. Having a great OnSite manager is like finding gold!

Hope that helps!

Gulliver

Allie Pfannenstiel · Answer

My Fiance and I are in Arizona and we use Cozy.co to do all of our servicing.

We dont own any parks but we have about 20 cash flowing mobile homes in parks across the valley.

We have a really cool set up from start to finish that we are continuously working on but this is typically how it goes from start to finish.

1. Make relationships with the park, letting them know that we want to partner with them to keep their occupancy up and make their park look better by buying and fixing up their shitty unperforming homes. Then from there we have a 30 day process.

2. Acquire home

3. rehab - managed by our contractor

4. Market home through social media and email campaigns - virtual assistant

5. Screen qualified tenants - Assistant/cozy.co

6. Show home - put a lock box and park application in the home so it can be self shown

7. Close - deposits are wired or put into our bank, monthly payments are serviced through cozy.

We seller finance all of our homes so that we dont get calls in the middle of the night for fixes.

JC K. · Answer

Residents bring rent to the onsite manager. Manager logs info in rent roll form and deposits checks. I would like to start using Cozy, but some residents are old fashion. I provide free WiFi only at our laundromat and RV area, which gives the manager service too.

I use Cozy for applications and extra advertising. I currently do the majority of the advertising, but that will change once I figure out the best methods. FB local groups has been an excellent medium.

I am selling homes so I talk to potential buyers. The on-site manager shows homes. She gets paperwork signed.

Most of my communication with the manager is via text.  She is young and had no experience, but I had few choices and she is doing okay and getting better all the time.  Part of my vision is to mentor her and help her make money from owning assets.

Jeremy Roberts · Answer

We self manage our park but its 3 miles away. We except checks or cash. ether by mail or drop off in a box at our house.

Matthew Flewelling · Answer

Hey Cody,

If you are managing mobile home parks, the solution we use might be helpful. Paylease is our payment processor and they have an option for tenants to pay rent 24hrs a day at Walmart. It does cost $4 for the tenant, but they are at walmart anyway and in most cases would by buying a money order. It integrates perfectly with our management software Rent Manager.

You might even think about setting up a lockbox with a bank like BB&T. The tenants can send their payments into them or deliver the payments to the bank. Not sure about cash.

We don't include free wifi.

I am bias because we are PM's here in South Carolina, but I always suggest a property manager. A good one (like us) pay for themselves in a lot of cases.

Good luck!

Derek Robinson · Answer

I currently have 5 parks, and a contact on a 6th.  All my parks send me some kind of certified funds (money order, certified check, etc.) to my P.O. Box.  I've looked into various ways to pay, but this is the only one that seems to work across the board with every tenant.  A few might slightly complain when I first by the park, but they are fine with it.  I'm sure it can get lost in the mail, but in 3 years I've never had this problem, and they can stop payment if it does get lost in the mail and send a new check.

All my parks are in the south (North and South Carolina).  I'm not sure about other markets, but some tenants are too old to use an online system to pay, or too "backwoods" to even use the internet.  I think another good option are systems that let you pay at a Dollar General or Walmart.  I've talked with multiple park owners that use these systems with success.

I have a 3 lot park that is in my state, but 4 hours away.  I manage with one from a distance, but there isn't much to manage.  Each tenant has their own power, city water, city sewer, and maintains their own grass.  I drove there once to look at it 2 years ago and haven't been back since.  Checks come in every month with no problem.  My other parks are an hour away, and I self manage the lot rentals on those as well...again, not much to manage.  I own a few trailers in a few of my parks and I have a local property manager handle these because I don't want to get a call about a leaky pipe or whatnot.  I'm negotiating a 40 lot park currently and even though it's just lot rent only, it's 3 hours away, so I'm thinking about a property manager for this one.

Allie Pfannenstiel · Answer

@mike

@Mike G. we sell our homes at 10-12  % on 60 month terms typically. We have started considering 72 month terms as well

Mike G. · Answer

@Allie Reeves what kind of interest do you charge on the loans you finance to the buyer? whats the term on the amortization?

How are you collecting Rents and Managing The Park?

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