Is a mobile home park or an apartment complex the investment opportunity for you?

Having owned 5 mobile home parks and one 22 unit apartment complex, our choice is the mobile home park. The reasons are many, but I will highlight a few of the most important for you.

Permanent buildings always cost more than spaces, so the initial investment should be substantially less with the mobile home park. Location and quality of properties may provide the exception to the rule, but generally the better value will be the mobile home park.

In any business, you need to look for tax savings. Those dollars are needed in other places. With our current tax laws, you can save 1/2 on depreciation alone. Land improvements such as paving, new utilities, fencing, etc. may be depreciated over a period of 15 years. Apartment buildings, on the other hand, are on a 27.5 year schedule.

If you are interested in using mobile homes in your park as rentals, they must be put on the 27.5 year schedule. However, and this is a big plus, your cost for the home will be substantially less than for apartments.

We have found the repairs to be much less with mobile homes. All the plumbing is under the home and easily accessible. Granted, having to make repairs is not fun, but you will save time and money by not having to tear out walls.

If you are only renting spaces, your repairs are almost non-existent!

Vacancy rates are another reason to choose mobile home parks over apartments. Mobile home owners who will be renting a space from you face a large moving bill should they wish to relocate to another park. Most will not move as long as you are maintaining a clean and safe environment. If you go the extra mile and develop a community, people will not want to move from your property.

Compare this to a typical apartment lease of one year and the stability of the mobile home park wins every time.

Careful screening of applicants, good management, and high quality property maintenance are the ingredients you need to have in place for either type of investment.

If you want to know how to manage a mobile home park, our step-by-step videos and instructions will teach you virtually every aspect of mobile home park property management. Visit us at MobileHomeParkClassroom.com to learn how you can manage a mobile home park.