Owning a mobile home park is a good investment to make however, every investment has its downsides. In this article we are going to discuss about some of the management problems you may experience should you purchase a mobile home park.
Table of Contents
What Is A Mobile Home Park?
A mobile home park also known as a trailer park or caravan park is a piece of land that is specifically assigned or set aside for mobile homes. Most of the mobile homes on the park are owned by certain individuals but the piece of land is usually private owned. This means if you buy a mobile home park you will only be owning the land and not the mobile homes. This means it will be your responsibility to ensure that the park is maintained. Mobile home owners will pay you a certain amount of rent which is supposed to cover their water or electricity bills.
Mobile Home Park Management Problems
As noted in the above paragraph, if you purchase a mobile home park you will have rights to the land and not the mobile houses. This means it is your duty to ensure that the land is up to standard. Below we look at some of the problems you may face if you are managing a mobile home.
1. Finding The Right Manager
One of the management problems you may experience with purchasing a mobile home park is that you may not find the perfect or right candidate to manage the park for you. The right candidate is usually someone who has experience living on a mobile home park and can manage people. The person should also be able to resolve conflict amongst people and ensure that the land is properly taken care of. The person should also be honest since he or she will be collecting rent on your behalf. Most mobile home parks shut down because they lack poor management therefore, you should ensure that you hire the right person for the job.
2. Setting Rent Prices
Another management problem you may experience with mobile home parks is that it can be hard to set rent prices for your tenants. The majority of people who live in mobile homes cannot necessarily afford to pay large sums of rent. This means that if you over price them they are most likely to evacuate the premises and this can be a disadvantage to you since finding a new tenant can prove to be a cumbersome process. At the same time if you peg your rents at a very low price you may not be able to maintain your premises. This may result in you making a loss or losing the land. Therefore, if you are going to be purchasing a mobile park it is very important that you know how to peg rent prices such that you do not make a loss or lose customers.
3. Maintaining Property
When you have a mobile home park you may experience management problems of failing to maintain the property. This usually occurs when you are not receiving enough money to maintain your land. You should always remember that any improvements that you make on the mobile home park improve or increase the value of every mobile home on your premises. Therefore, you should aim to constantly improve the park so that mobile home owners can pay reasonable rent fees which allow you to continue maintaining the park.
4. Managing Conflicts
When you own a mobile home park, you should be prepared to manage conflict. This is because a lot of people will be staying on one piece of land and chances are high that they will not always get along. In order to resolve this you need to ensure that you have a good manager who is able to resolve conflict. You can also try to ensure that there is security on your premises. This way, when a conflict arises, security personnel can easily attend to the issue.
5. Security
If you have a mobile home park, it is your responsibility to ensure that there is enough security on the premises. This is because no one like living in a place that has high crime rate. Therefore, it may be up to you to hire or put structures in place in order to ensure that there is proper security on the premises. Failure to do so may result in you losing a lot of tenants and you may also fail to continue maintaining the park.
Where Can I Put A Complaint On A Trailer Park Manager?
If your trailer park manager is giving you problems the first thing you need to do is to gather up evidence which shows that they are doing something wrong against you. If they are violating your lease you should make sure you have the lease agreement with you. If they are doing something else that violates your rights then you need witnesses. You can then report the matter to the police and they will launch an investigation. If the trailer manager is found guilty they will be charged or fined.
Can My Landlord Stop Me From Selling My Mobile Home?
No, your landlord cannot stop you from selling your mobile home. This is because the mobile home belongs to you and your landlord does not have any rights whatsoever. However, your landlord may refuse to give the new owner a lease agreement should he or she have a valid reason. If the landlord refuses to approve or to give the new owner a lease, it may mean that the new owner may have to find a new mobile park home for their house.
Mobile Home Park Manager Harassment?
If your mobile home park manager is harassing you, it is within your rights to report the issue to the police station. They will find ways of resolving the issue if you provide evidence.
Conclusion
Owning a mobile home park is a good investment however, you will experience certain problems whilst managing it. Therefore, it is important that you have the right manager to help you oversee everything that is happening on the park.
