Lotly vs. Buildium for Mobile Home Parks

Buildium is a solid mid-market property management platform with strong accounting, a clean resident portal, and a competitive price point under a few hundred units. But it's built around a residential, apartment-style unit model, with no purpose-built concept of lots versus homes, park-owned homes, or infill home sales. Mobile home park operators end up bending a unit-centric tool to fit a lot-centric business — tracking lot rent, home rent, and POHs with notes and manual charges instead of native fields.

Feature	Lotly	Buildium
Built specifically for mobile home parks	Yes — designed for parks from day one	No — residential/apartment/SFR-focused PMS
Lot-level occupancy tracking	Native	Generic unit model, not lot-based
Lot rent vs. home rent split	Native, billed separately	Not MHP-native; manual workaround
Park-owned home (POH) tracking	Native	No dedicated POH model
Infill / home-sales pipeline	Native multi-stage pipeline (inquiry → closing)	Leasing prospect CRM only — no home-sales pipeline
Built-in tenant screening	Native: TransUnion credit + criminal + eviction/housing records	Yes — TransUnion credit/criminal/eviction, per-screen fee
ACH-first rent collection	Default; sub-$1 per transaction	Online ACH/EFT; per-transaction fees
Mobile-first tenant portal	Yes; sub-90-second pay flow	Resident portal + app; apartment-tuned
One-click certified mail + state notices	Native (LetterStream) + state-specific templates	EZMail print-and-mail + notice templates; not one-click certified
Eviction case manager	Native, state-law-aware + AI-assisted	Eviction-pending tracking + guides; no AI case manager
Automated past-due outreach	AI-drafted, days-past-due ladder (email/portal/SMS)	Rule-based reminders; not AI days-past-due ladder
In-app AI suite	Native: AI assistant, maintenance agent, doc OCR, AI drafting	Lumina AI (Growth/Premium tier); general-PM tuned
Lease e-signature	Built-in, included	Per-doc fee on entry tier; unlimited on higher tiers
AI-assisted data onboarding	AI-mapped import from any PMS (CSV/Excel/ZIP)	Template import + implementation specialist; not AI-mapped
MHP-formatted owner statements	Native, no QuickBooks required	Owner statements; not MHP-formatted
Pricing model	Per-lot, vacant lots free, month-to-month (no annual lock-in)	Tiered per-unit + add-ons; vacant units still count

What Buildium does well

Buildium is a genuinely capable mid-market property management platform. It pairs strong double-entry accounting with a clean resident portal, online ACH payments, integrated TransUnion tenant screening (credit, criminal, and eviction checks), listing syndication, and a growing set of AI tools branded Lumina that help draft owner and tenant communications. For managers under a few hundred units it's typically cheaper per door than AppFolio, with dedicated implementation specialists and import templates to help you get started. The catch for park operators: every one of those strengths is built around a residential, apartment-style unit model. It's a strong tool — but it's tuned for apartments and single-family rentals, not parks.

Why Lotly wins for mobile home parks

Mobile home parks don't run like apartment buildings, and Buildium's data model treats everything as a generic unit. A lot where the resident owns their home, a park-owned home you rent out, lot rent billed separately from home rent, and a vacant lot you're trying to fill are four very different things — and in a unit-centric tool they collapse into one generic 'unit' you have to work around with notes and manual charges.

Lotly was designed for parks from day one. The data model is lot-level, lot rent and home rent are billed separately, park-owned homes are tracked natively, and vacant lots are free under per-lot pricing instead of counting against a unit count. On top of that sits the operational workflow MHP operators actually need every week.

A true lot + home model

Lots (not apartment units), separate lot rent vs. home rent, and native park-owned-home tracking — none of which Buildium models natively.
One-click certified mail + state notices

Native LetterStream certified mail with state-specific legal-notice templates, versus Buildium's EZMail print-and-mail and generic notice forms.
AI-assisted evictions and past-due outreach

A state-law-aware, AI-assisted Eviction Manager plus an AI-drafted, escalating days-past-due reminder ladder across email, portal, and SMS — beyond Buildium's eviction-pending tracking and rule-based reminders.
An MHP-native AI suite + infill pipeline

AI Assistant, Maintenance AI agent, paper-application OCR, and a built-in inquiry-to-closing home-sales pipeline — versus a leasing-only prospect CRM and tier-gated writing assistant.

The bottom line

Buildium prices on units in tiers, plus add-ons and transaction fees, so vacant lots still count against your plan, and extras like e-signature carry a per-document fee on the entry tier. Lotly is per-lot, vacant lots are free, and it's month-to-month with no annual lock-in.

If you manage apartments, condos, HOAs, or scattered single-family homes and want solid accounting at a fair price, Buildium is a reasonable choice. But if you operate mobile home parks — with lots, park-owned homes, infill sales, and state-specific notices — operators choose Lotly because it's built for the way parks actually run, not adapted from an apartment tool.

Best for

Buildium: Small-to-mid-size apartment, condo, HOA, and single-family portfolio managers who want strong accounting and a resident portal at a competitive price.

Lotly: Mobile-home-park-first operators who want lot-level workflows, certified mail, infill stage tracking, and per-lot vacant-free pricing without the apartment-DNA workarounds.

Pricing

Buildium: Tiered per-unit subscriptions with unit minimums and overage, plus add-ons and transaction fees (ACH/EFT, screening per report, e-signature on the entry tier). Billed on unit count, so vacant lots still count toward your tier.

Lotly: Per-lot pricing with vacant lots free. Month-to-month contract — no annual lock-in. See pricing →