How does mobile home park investing differ from apartment investing?

There are many similarities among asset classes within commercial real estate. There are also items that make each niche unique. Here I’m going to call attention to one item that is much harder in the mobile home park niche than in the apartment niche – property management!!

What makes property management so much more challenging for mobile home park investors? In apartment investing, the owners of the asset will bring in a 3rd party property management company. This company will own all parts of property management- collecting rent, issuing late notices and violations, filling vacancies, evaluating and scheduling ongoing maintenance, etc. The property management company works very closely with the owners or general partners of the investment and keeps them updated on the status of the asset. 

This sort of 3rd party property management company doesn’t exist in the mobile home park space. The owner or general manager of the investment is the creator of all property management systems for the park! The on-site manager of a mobile home park will typically not have experience with collections or property management in general. The mobile home park manager will instead be executing the property management systems created by the owner.

In our parks, for example, we’ve created videos on everything from how to issue late notices, how to read water meters, etc.  If anybody ever says “I want to get into mobile home parks to have passive income,” you can let them know that owning a mobile home park is NOT completely passive!  To be truly passive, would mean being a limited partner in a syndication! You can learn more about active vs passive investing here. 

If you’re interested in the passive investment opportunities we have, make sure you join our investing circle.