Your First Mobile Home Park Acquisition: A 90-Day Operating Checklist

The first 90 days after you close a park acquisition are the ones that set the next 5 years of operations. Move too fast and you alienate residents. Move too slow and the seller's deferred maintenance becomes your problem. Here's the structured plan we run for first-time acquisitions.

Day 1: The handoff

Close the deal. Walk the park with the seller. Get the keys, the file cabinets, the utility logins, and the bank deposit information. Take a photo of every utility meter. Introduce yourself to the on-site manager (if any) and the residents who happen to be outside.

Don't change anything yet. Day 1 is information collection, not action.

Days 2–30: Audit and listen

Three workstreams running in parallel.

• Utility audit
  Pull 12 months of bills. Identify leaks, anomalies, and the bills the seller misclassified. Often saves 5–15% of operating expense.
• Lease audit
  Read every lease. Note expiration dates, rent amounts, addenda, and discrepancies between paper and what residents are actually paying.
• Resident interviews
  Walk the park three times. Knock on every fifth door and ask what's working and what isn't. You'll find the deferred maintenance the seller hid.

Days 30–60: Quick wins

Start with the items that residents will notice and that cost almost nothing. Replace burned-out streetlights. Fix the broken mailbox. Pick up the trash that's been sitting at the entrance for a year. These build trust and buy you space to make harder decisions later.

Don't raise rents in this window. Don't change rules. Don't introduce new policies. Listen mode continues.

Days 60–90: The town hall and the plan

Hold a tenant town hall. Tell residents what you've heard, what you're going to do in the next 6 months, and what you need from them. Be honest about rent — if increases are coming, say so, and tell them when. Ambiguity creates more anxiety than honesty.

After the town hall, write the 12-month operating plan: capex, infill targets, rent strategy, staffing. Now you're operating, not transitioning.

What not to do in the first 90

Don't fire the on-site manager unless there's clear cause. Don't raise rents until you've done the audit. Don't change park rules until you've held the town hall. Don't make promises you can't keep — residents have long memories.