What Credit Score Should You Require From Park Tenants?

There's no single right answer to the credit-score question — and operators who set one number and forget it are leaving either revenue or risk on the table. The right number depends on your lot rent, your park's submarket position, and how much delinquency tolerance your business model can absorb.

What we see across the industry

Small owner-operators (under 200 lots) tend to set cutoffs between 580 and 620, with manual exceptions for strong residential histories. Mid-size operators (200–1,500 lots) cluster at 600–640. Institutional operators (1,500+ lots) usually run 640+ but with workflow exceptions for verifiable rebuilding stories.

Note that institutional operators don't have higher standards because they're snobs — they have higher standards because their bad-debt assumptions are baked into investor pro formas and a 3% delinquency surprise costs them their next fund's investor base.

Why lot rent drives the number

A 580 cutoff makes sense at $250/month lot rent because the consequence of a missed payment is a $250 problem and the applicant pool below 600 dwarfs the pool above. At $750/month lot rent the same 580 cutoff is exposing you to a much larger payment-delinquency tail.

Rule of thumb: if your lot rent is below $400/month, 580 is defensible. $400–$600, 600 is a better fit. Above $600, 620+ starts making sense purely on collections math.

Build a written exceptions policy

The score is a starting point, not a final answer. Write down the exception triggers — strong residential history (3+ years no late payments), verifiable income at 4x rent, conditional deposit doubling — and apply them identically. The exception policy is what keeps your fair-housing posture clean while still letting you approve good applicants who happen to score below your line.

What to do with thin-file applicants

20% of MHP applicants have thin or non-existent credit files. Don't auto-deny — that's the path to a disparate-impact claim. Instead, lean on residential history, employment verification, and asset depth. A thin-file applicant with three landlord references and a steady job for five years is a better risk than a 640 score with two recent collections.