Mobile Home Park- How to accept rents?

Question

I'm getting ready to close on my first mobile home park. It's a 17 unit. The current owner goes door to door to collect rent every month but I'm not doing that. All of my tenants drop off rent at my office. What recommendations do yall have to accept rent from the mobile home park tenants? I'd really hate to have them drive to my office since they're all in one location. I was thinking of a secure drop box but unsure.

DJ Tosh · Answer

First of all @Reggie Rearden, congratulations on the soon-to-be new asset on your balance sheet. Fantastic!

As has already been said by @Nathan G.you can set up an online format. Keep it simple. There are some basic softwares that do this well and would be perfect for an MHP like this.

One thing you can do which we have done before is find a local bank in proximity to the MHP and set up an account. Then you can have your Residents deposit directly to that account and the responsibility remains with them. You don't have to maintain a secure lock box if you don't want to. We've found this combination to work well when the Residents are deeply ingrained with habits and ideas about certain things. This "re-training" has been addressed above as well but giving them the perceived control of depositing at an institution always seems to make them comfortable. The downside is that it's another bank account to manage!

Genny Li · Answer

Find out what the last owner did and decide if it will work for you. Retraining people can be hard. You can add your preferred method of taking payment (online!!!) as a secondary way and only allow current tenants to use the first way, grandfathered in. There are a lot of old people in many mobile home parks, and getting settled people to do stuff online might be like pulling teeth.

Drew Sygit · Answer

Be prepared to deal with tenants who want everything to remain the same.

Some will adapt, a percentage you'll have to get rid of.

Nathan Gesner · Answer

Find a property management software that allows online payments. This simplifies receipt and tracking. The software is also a great location to store tenant contact/lease information, rent roll, maintenance, and financial reports.

For all others, set up a secure drop box where they can drop off checks and money orders 24/7.