HOW TO TELL A LOT ABOUT YOUR MOBILE HOME PARK FROM THE GRASS
By Frank Rolfe 

 

Of all the barometers of park performance, from a profit and loss statement to the annual license renewal, one of the crudest and simplest is the fine art of analyzing grass. Because you can tell a lot about a mobile home park just from looking at the grass. 

The simplest first question is: “is there any grass?” If not, you may be in a desert, or under water. But if there is grass present, then here are some of the things to look for: 

• Is the grass green in some areas when it’s brown everywhere else (in summer)?  This may be a tell-tale sign of water and/or sewer leaks. Anything that puts moisture in the earth is going to result in healthier, greener grass. When you spot these lush oasis in an otherwise burned out park grassland, you will probably find it spongy and saturated. If the green grass is in the general line of the main (at the back of the trailer) then it may be a break in a main line. If it is near the house, it may be a break in the line that feeds just that one house. The same is true about the sewer line. A clay tile sewer system with a collapse or separation in the line will continually leak moisture and give grass a boost. When figuring out park leaks, green grass is the first place you head.
   

• Is the grass brown in some areas when it’s green everywhere else (in summer)?  This may be a sign of an underground natural gas leak. If your park is on master-metered natural gas, and you see brown patches throughout the park, then you may have significant gas leaks to contend with. Had I known this on my very first park, I could have saved a fortune by not buying it, or negotiating for the seller to fix the leaks. Natural gas kills grass.
   

• Is the grass dead in a neat rectangle in the middle of a vacant lot?  That means that a mobile home was just moved out of the lot. Due to the continual lack of sunshine under the trailer that was removed, the soil is relatively infertile and grass won’t grow there for some time. When evaluating which vacant lots are already set up with utilities for occupancy, then look for big, dead rectangles. The same is true when you are looking for recent pull-outs and decline in occupancy.
   

• Is the grass un-mowed on each tenant’s lot? That is a good sign that the tenants lack “pride of ownership”. This will be a real problem with getting a loan on the park. Banks like to see a park where the tenants respect where they live and keep their lots looking clean and mowed. A park where nobody is mowing means they may also not be observing other key rules, such as paying their rent on time, or at all. You need to put in more diligence on a park with this problem.
   

• Is the grass un-mowed on the park’s common areas?  This could be a sign that the park management is not doing their job. Since mowing grass is not rocket science, if they can’t manage that effectively, how can they manage more complicated issues like repair and maintenance and collections?
   

• Is the grass around the parking pads missing, and replaced with just dirt? This is a sign that tenants have more than the two cars the parking pad allows, and are parking at night up in their yards. This is something you would only know if you visited at night. The deader the grass, the more they are parking on it.
   

• Are the tenants smoking grass?  Welcome to the mobile home park business.

In summary, grass is not as stupid as it looks. It knows quite a lot about a park – it is very observant of its weaknesses, even when they remain unseen by the human eye. So take notice of the grass and let it guide you to where the problems are.

 

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