Lot renters leave? .

[Charlotte Dunford]

Mobile home park investors - have you ever had anyone who are only lot renters leave? It is very expensive to move a mobile home. So does that mean it's almost impossible to leave? Have you ever had anyone leave and under what circumstances?

[Frank Rolfe]

It's not impossible to leave on the part of the mobile home owner, but it may be impossible to move the home. Here's the way it works:

PRE-HUD HOMES (homes built prior to 1976): These are grandfathered in position by HUD but you cannot move one and re-install it in a park virtually anywhere in the U.S. because it does not have the HUD seal.

1977 TO 1989 HOMES: These homes are so old that transporting them is extremely risky since they may just collapse in transport going 55 mph.

1990 TO CURRENT HOMES:  These homes can be moved, but it costs around $5,000 to do so.

So then who would move a used mobile home? There are basically three times that used homes get moved 1) banks on repossessions 2) park owners who buy used homes and bring them into their parks and 3) park owners who pay for customers to move from the park they're in into the park the owners owns. As you can see, it is extremely rare for the home owner to pay to move their home.

So how can you keep them from leaving? Choose parks with predominantly older homes. And keep your lot rents at fair levels and common areas immaculate so that the customer feels your park is a good value so they never want to leave. That's how you mitigate the risk. But is the risk still there? Always, but only on a really, really tiny scale. So small, in fact, that the odds are about as great as a home burning down in most cases.