Finding A Mobile Home Park Manager | 3 UN-Successful Stories To Learn From





Few will argue with this statement. Finding the right mobile home park manager to make your park into a well-oiled machine of peace and harmony can be a daunting task. This person is going to a play a key role in the day to day life of your mobile home park. He or she is the park’s number one connection to management.

Certainly, you don’t want the wrong person filling in these important shoes – that’s a given.

3 UN-successful stories to learn from

So that’s why we’re going to stop and analyze three different unsuccessful stories of mobile home park manager disaster.

Here’s something we know about success. If you contrast it against unsuccess, the winning ingredients for success will stand out.

We’re not taking you through these three tales of woe to bring you down. But rather we’re doing it as a teaching point and a springboard for helpful discussion on what exactly makes a successful mobile home park manager.

With these stories, we hope to help you identify the qualities missing in each situation for evading escalated chaos.

#1 The thieving mobile home manager

Over at Terrace Garden mobile home park, an assistant manager was funneling tenant rent money into his personal accounts.

Thankfully, another employee brought this assistant manager’s behavior to the light. Wondering at the idea that the tenants were not paying rent, he investigated further and found that the tenants were indeed paying rent. But the assistant manager had taken control of those payments and took the money into his own accounts.

For any mobile home landlord, this can be a harrowing experience. Who can you trust if you can’t trust those you’ve delegated great responsibility to?

#2 The manager who didn’t research before sending out a maintenance note

In 2016, residents of the Santiago Villa mobile home park found themselves aggravated by the mobile home park manager.

One winter day, they received letters demanding instant work on their homes or property.

Painting the porch

For example, some people were asked to deal with the animal fur on their property. Others were asked to clean their porch or power-wash the outside of their home.

While working towards a cleaner and a healthier mobile home park is a good deal for all, some of the park manager’s demands were not lawful.

For example, power washing was not an option at that time due to a drought. She asked her residents to do something illegal. While this could be a mere matter of ignorance, it surely discredited her.

Change is difficult and her residents were already upset about the changes coming their way. By carefully researching what she demanded from her tenants and what would require eviction, she could have saved herself the pain of backtracking and making non-applicable demands.

#3 – Thieving and a lack of empathy

If those last two stories didn’t scare you, this one will.

Shamefully, a mobile home park manager in Florida faced an arrest on over 40 charges connected to funds missing from a disabled woman’s bank account.

This disabled woman lives at the mobile home park and asked for the mobile home park manager’s help with her disability checks.

Once the bank noticed odd activity in the disabled woman’s bank account, the Sheriff’s Office was noticed immediately.

Allegedly, the mobile home park manager stole $5,354 from this disabled woman’s account.

What should you look for in a mobile home park manager

Now we’ve talked about some unsuccessful stories about park management. Let’s highlight some positive traits that were missing from some of the managers in these stories. They are traits you’ll want to look out for as you interview and hire various managers for your park.

Honesty

If your park manager is honest, you can work with most other deficiencies. With an honest manager, your residents will be at peace in knowing they’re not going to be taken advantage of negatively.

And you, as a landlord, can rest in knowing your property and income is being handled properly.

Smart thinking

Definitely, you’ll want a manager who’s able to think through notices and warnings before sending them out to residents. They shouldn’t be shy about calling up City Hall for input on what should or shouldn’t be a point of contention between tenants and management.

Female Manager With Positive Input and Laptop

Empathy

Additionally, you need a mobile home park manager with empathy. Empathy is what will help them deal with conflict and tempting situations.

If you can put yourself in someone else’s shoes, you can better communicate with and understand them. Should a conflict arise, maybe your manager will be able to better diffuse the situation with an ounce of empathy on his or her part.

Hiring impacts both you and your tenants

In closing, a mobile home park manager doesn’t have to be a slithery or incompetent individual. Everyone has their downfalls but hiring someone you can trust makes a big difference. It impacts your tenants as well. With the right idea of what to look for, you can find a great mobile home park manager.

About Dan Paton

Dan Paton has been working full-time in this field for over a decade. Both him and his partner, Dan Leighton, formed EZ Homes back in 2006 and have seen explosive growth ever since. Dan works heavily in the administrative role within the organization. He is a jack of all trades type of guy. Dan and his wife have 4 children.





Written by Dan Paton

Dan Paton has been working full-time in this field for over a decade. Both him and his partner, Dan Leighton, formed EZ Homes back in 2006 and have seen explosive growth ever since. Dan works heavily in the administrative role within the organization. He is a jack of all trades type of guy. Dan and his wife have 4 children.

April 24, 2022

 

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