If you’re managing a mobile home park, you’ll want to be careful that you don’t under or overprice your lot rent. You want your lots to be marketable. And you also want to have the right system in place for collecting your mobile home park monthly fees.
So what does that look like? And what’s included in these fees?
In the day to day life of owning and operating a mobile home park, you can feel overwhelmed. Many details will “nickel and dime” your time. That’s why we’ve taken it upon ourselves to lay out some practical options and things to think about in this respect.
How to establish mobile home park monthly fees
To establish your mobile home monthly park fees, you’ll need to see what your local market can bear. You’ll also want to bear in mind the type of mobile home park that you own.
For example, lot rent at a luxury park will be much more than lot rent at a park geared towards families.
What’s included in lot rent
Typically, but not always, you’ll find the following in lot rent: water and sewage, garbage collection, upkeep of grounds and surrounding areas. Sometimes the lot rent will include cable television, internet, electricity, and telephone.
Establishing monthly rent fees
As far as establishing a lot fee goes, as we’ve said above, it depends on various factors such as geographical location.
In Kansas, lot rent averages around $200. In California, it’s around $600. The national average cost is between $200 to $300 per month.
To calculate mobile home rent, write down the particulars of your mobile home park. Is there a fee for pets? Extra fees for garbage pickup? If certain amenities such as cable are looped into the rent, how do you factor that in?
Once you’ve written down all the particulars and crunched some numbers, you’ll get an idea of what to charge. You don’t want the rent to cover only the expense of having someone live on your lot, but you also want it to go beyond that. You need the mobile home park to give you a decent return on your investment.
Collecting mobile home park monthly fees
As you’ll notice in the subsequent paragraphs, there are countless ways to collect your park fees. Read on and see which fits your park best. Some will prefer a more face-to-face approach, others will find technology a handy tool. It’s up to you.
Knock on doors
First of all, there’s always the old-fashioned method. You can walk around, knocking on tenant’s doors. This is certainly a more personal approach. But maybe it’s a bit awkward for you. Or perhaps you’re intimidated by your tenants.
Or you simply have way too many tenants on your land, making door to door collections inefficient.
No worries. Whatever your reason for evading this scenario, there’s another way.
Hire a third party to collect rent
Well, you can always hire a third party. This third party could be an employee on your team assigned the task of managing rent collection. Find someone with the right people skills to handle conflict and you’re all set.
But wait – there are other options.
Use the mail
In short, making use of the postal system is a great way to collect payment. You can ask your tenants to pay via mail. And if you need to, one can always send reminders and late fee warnings to residents.
The entire rent collection system can be done through mail, saving you time and pain.
Drop off location
Additionally, you can set up a drop off location. Your tenants may appreciate having a place to drop off their payments with you. Maybe at the office or a slot box as they’re exiting the park. It’s up to you, really.
Whatever you choose, drop off locations are handy.
Online or via an app
Finally, you can set your mobile home park up with an online system and app. Technology can quickly streamline the collection of mobile home park monthly fees.
A vast array of options are at your fingertips. For instance, some apps will automatically draw from your tenant’s bank account. Others allow your tenants to do more than pay. You can use some of these apps as a mobile home park management portal. It can allow you to easily communicate with your management team and tenants, ensuring that problems get solved and work gets done.
Choose the method that best suits you
In summary, collecting mobile home park monthly fees can be done in many ways. If you find that you like the old school method of face-to-face or mail collection, that’s perfectly fine. Others will prefer the app system. That’s fine too. Find what works and stick to it. You’ll be glad you did.
If you found this article helpful, check out our other article on mobile home park software.
About Dan Paton
