Vendor Management for Mobile Home Parks: Plumbers, Electricians, and Movers

Single-vendor relationships break the day the vendor takes a vacation. Three-deep benches in every critical trade are the difference between "we'll take care of it today" and "can it wait until Monday?" Here's how to build them.

Three-deep, every trade

Plumbers, electricians, HVAC, mobile home movers, sewer/septic, roofing, snow/lawn, general contractor. For each, you want a primary, a secondary, and a tertiary. Primary handles 70% of volume. Secondary fills in. Tertiary is for emergencies the first two can't take.

If you have a single plumber and they go on vacation, you'll wish you had built the bench three months earlier.

The W-9 + COI workflow

Every vendor needs a current W-9 and a current Certificate of Insurance on file before their first invoice gets paid. COIs expire — most are 12 months. Set a tickler 60 days out and renew before they lapse. Your insurance carrier will ask for these in any premium audit, and a missing COI on a job-site injury can void coverage.

Pricing benchmarks that matter

Get quotes from your tertiary vendor every 6 months on standard repairs. Use them to benchmark your primary and secondary. If your primary's prices have drifted 20% above the tertiary, it's time for a renegotiation conversation. This isn't about cheaping out — it's about staying calibrated.

The vendor relationship is the operator's job

Vendors prefer working with operators who pay invoices in 14 days, return calls, and treat the relationship like a partnership. The cheapest vendor isn't always the right vendor — the right vendor is the one who picks up at 6 AM on Saturday because they like working with you.