10 Great Ways to Increase the Value of Your Mobile Home Community

 By Dave Reynolds, MobileHomeParkstore.com

1.  Raise Rents:  A $10 per month rent increase at a valuation using a 10% capitalization rate, can increase the per lot value of $1,200.

2.  Submeter Water and Sewer and Trash:  By installing water meters and billing the residents back for water and sewer and trash you are in effect increasing your bottom line.  I often think this is one of the most equitable ways of to pass on expenses to the residents as they only pay for what they use.  In my experience when meters have been installed the master water and sewer bill is reduced by 30-40% as your residents become conscious about the amount of water going through the faucets.  Leaky faucets are fixed, toilets no longer run continually, cars are not washed every day, etc.

3.  Enforce Rules and Leases:  By enforcing reasonable rules and regulations your community will be regarded as a safe and comfortable environment.  Get rid of problem tenants.  If you are worried about losing the rent from one or two problem residents, consider that you may lose even more good residents and potential residents by keeping those that are causing problems and not obeying the rules.

4.  Reduce your Property Tax Expense:  Contact a company that specializes in going to bat for you with your county tax assessor to get your valuation and taxes reduced.  Many states and counties base the assessed value on the purchase price.  However, most mobile home parks should have a business value component that should not be taxed as property tax.  These companies often work for a % of the reduced taxes thus no money out of pocket.

5.  Reduced other ongoing expenses:  Get multiple insurance quotes, evaluate telephone costs and extras, negotiate with plumbers and electricians to get a lower hourly rate, etc.

6.  Fill vacant lots:  How much is a vacant lot worth?  In many cases, a vacant lot is actually costing you money to keep the grass mowed, the lot clean, and so on.  If your lot rent is $200 per month and based on a simple formula that a lot is worth 60 times the monthly rent, then an occupied lot is worth $12,000.  Would it make financial sense to spend $2,000 to cover the home moving costs of a potential resident?  I believe it does.  Other incentives I have used include, free or reduced rent for the first year or two, free installation of new skirting, free steps and decks, and the list goes on.  Be creative and stay ahead of your competitors.  It is much more effective to come up with 50 ways to market to one customer rather than 1 way to market to 50 customers.

7.  Buy homes for Resale or Rental.  Buying used homes and placing them in your community for resale or rental is another way to drastically increase the value of your community.  As mentioned before, each time you fill a vacant space, the value of your park increases.  As a community owner you have an advantage over most mobile home retailers in that you do not need to make a profit on the sale of new and used homes.  If you profit by $12,000 per space in equity each time you add a new home, you can sell the homes at breakeven and be way ahead.

8.  Increase the Curb Appeal:  Encourage residents to clean up their yards and property.  Hold clean up days on a monthly basis.  Have new and attractive signs installed at the entrances.  Repair roads and maintain adequate street lighting.  Have monthly rent discount incentives to the residents for things such as:  Property of the month, most improved property, etc.  Additionally, financing for your residents such things as new skirting, paint, wood siding,  and other outside improvements can get the homes looking better as well.

9.  Add additional income sources:  If you have some vacant land, consider adding some mini storage units, or fence it off and offer storage for RV's, Boats, and extra automobiles.  If you have highway frontage, look into placing billboards or selling easements to billboard companies.  Look into getting Cable TV or Wi-Fi for the entire park and in doing so, your residents will get a break on these costs and you should be able to profit as well. 

10. Dedicate streets and utilities to the city.  Although is not too common for established communities, if you can talk your city into making this happen, you just reduced your exposure to street repairs, utility repairs and metering.