Mobile Home Parks
Lot rent, POH income, and utilities are three businesses under one gate.
A manufactured housing community earns from lot rent, park-owned-home (POH) rent, utility pass-throughs, and home sales — each recognized and taxed differently. We build books that see the community as it actually runs, so you know which line is actually carrying the asset.
Why MHP books break standard accounting
Lot rent is real estate. POH rent is housing. Utility billing is retail.
A manufactured housing community stacks land leasing, residential housing, and utility submetering on one parcel — and each one hits the books differently.
Tenant-owned vs. park-owned homes
Tenant-owned home lots generate pure lot rent — near-zero variable cost. Park-owned homes (POH) generate higher gross rent but carry maintenance, vacancy, and turnover cost. Blending the two hides margin completely.
Utility pass-throughs and RUBS
Water, sewer, and trash billed back to residents via submetering or RUBS (ratio utility billing) are often misclassified as revenue when they're pass-throughs. The treatment changes your NOI, your taxes, and your cap rate.
Infrastructure capex vs. maintenance
Roads, water lines, sewer systems, and electrical pedestals are long-lived capital assets — not repairs. Expensing them inflates costs and kills your depreciation runway.
Home sales and chattel financing
Selling or financing park-owned homes introduces dealer-like revenue recognition and, in some states, dealer licensing. Mixed with rental income, it creates compliance exposure and obscures the real estate economics.
Where the real margin hides
Multiple lines, each with its own margin. Most owners see one.
A manufactured housing community isn't just lot rent — it's real estate, utility services, housing management, and occasionally retail finance on one parcel. Each line is recognized and taxed its own way.
The expense-ratio truth
MHPs run at 30–40% expenses. Only if you book them right.
Manufactured housing communities have the lowest expense ratios in residential real estate — but only when utility pass-throughs, POH maintenance, and infrastructure capex are all classified correctly. Misbook any of those and your margin looks worse than it is, your NOI understates, and your cap-rate valuation suffers at the closing table.
The MHP tax playbook
The deductions a single-line P&L hides.
A manufactured housing community isn't taxed like an apartment building. Handled right, the difference is real cash — handled wrong, it's an audit flag or a missed depreciation decade.
Cost segregation on infrastructure
Roads, utility lines, electrical pedestals, and fencing often depreciate in 5–15 years, not 39. A cost segregation study front-loads those deductions significantly.
Land improvement vs. building classification
Most MHP basis is land improvement, not building. Correctly classing site work, landscaping, and utility infrastructure unlocks the 15-year depreciation track.
Park-owned-home depreciation
Manufactured homes classified as personal property depreciate over 7–10 years under MACRS — far faster than real property. Classification matters at acquisition.
Utility billing and sales tax by state
Submetered water and sewer pass-throughs, laundry, and home sales are each taxed differently by state. One misclassification creates multi-year back-tax exposure.
RE professional status & passive loss
Active operators who meet real-estate-professional thresholds can offset ordinary income with park losses — particularly valuable in early depreciation-heavy years.
1031 exchange and Opportunity Zone strategy
MHPs are like-kind real property — fully 1031-eligible. Many communities also sit in Opportunity Zones, enabling gain deferral and potential exclusion.
What we actually run for you
Every service mapped to a MHP problem.
The problem
Books built for lot rent and POH
We separate lot rent, POH rent, utility pass-throughs, and home-sale proceeds from day one — so your NOI is real and your cap rate holds up in due diligence.
The problem
Occupancy and fill-rate forecasting
Model the revenue impact of filling vacant lots, converting POH to tenant-owned, or raising lot rents — before you commit to a capital plan.
The problem
Utility, sales, and property tax
Multi-state filing across lot rent, utility billing, home sales, and property tax appeals — reconciled and remitted, nothing left to back taxes or missed exemptions.
The problem
Cost segregation and depreciation
Put roads, utilities, and park-owned homes in their right depreciation class and model the deduction before you elect bonus depreciation.
Buying or selling a manufactured housing community?
Numbers that survive due diligence.
Whether you're underwriting a purchase or getting a community sale-ready, we build financials lenders and buyers actually trust.
The numbers we put in front of you
Run the community on operator metrics, not just a P&L.
Reporting built for manufactured housing — the KPIs that tell you whether to fill lots, raise rent, convert POH to tenant-owned, or tackle infrastructure.
Figures shown are illustrative.
Keep exploring
Go deeper — or just talk to us.
Talk to someone who's read an MHP rent roll before.
A 30-minute call. Bring last year's numbers and your rent roll — we'll show you what your books should be telling you, then map out where we can help, on a free intro call.
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