Efficiencies in Managing a Moble Home Park

[Michael Tucker]

Hey BP Fam,

My partners and I are under contract with a Mobile Home Park in the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The park has some vacant lots and an onsite manager that lives rent free. 

Right now he collects payments in cash or checks from each resident and handles some maintenance but there has been some neglect on the property. 

I wanted to know if you all have any tips for adding efficiency to managing the park to make the Resident Managers life easier, the tenants and the owner. 

I'm hoping I can manage the manager as well, so if you have any suggestions on how to structure that relationship or just efficiencies in general please share!

[Jeffrey H.]

Your goal should be for the manager to do as little as possible.  

Evaluate alternative means to collect rent, such as a local bank near the park the tenants can deposit themselves, or using payment options through software like Rent Manager.  Have maintenance performed by someone who knows what they are doing and can keep up with your issues.  Let the manager read your meters (if needed) and manage the tenants, nothing else.

Meet for 30 minutes with your manager each week so you have the pulse of the park.  If your manager can still not deliver on their trimmed down responsibilities, get a new manager.  You will need a good manager to help infill a park remotely, so you might as well start looking.