How to Buy a Mobile Home Park: A Real Guide From Someone Who Finances Them

I spend my days financing mobile home park acquisitions. I see the rent rolls, the T-12s, the sponsor packages, and the deals that fall apart on the lender’s underwriting call. I also see the deals that close and the ones that perform.

Most “how to buy a mobile home park” guides are written by software companies, course sellers, or beginners who bought one park three years ago. This one’s different. It’s the version of the story I’d tell you over coffee.

Why this asset class is worth your time

Mobile home parks have been one of the most quietly attractive commercial real estate categories for the last decade. The reasons are structural.

Supply is essentially frozen. Almost no new parks have been built in the United States in thirty years. Local zoning makes it nearly impossible. Existing parks become more valuable by default as demand for affordable housing rises.

Residents don’t leave. Moving a manufactured home costs real money — typically $5,000–$8,000 for a single-wide and $10,000–$13,000 for a double-wide on a local move. That’s why a properly underwritten MHP rent roll looks more like a utility’s customer base than an apartment complex’s tenant list.

Occupancy is high and getting higher. National MHP occupancy has climbed from roughly 86.5% a decade ago to nearly 94% today.

The cap rate spread still works. Premium institutional-quality communities trade in the 4–5% range; stabilized assets between 5% and 7%; value-add and turnaround parks at 7.5% to 12%+. There’s still room for an operator to add value and refinance into a lower cap rate.

The institutional money has noticed. In December 2024, Brookfield was reported to have sold nearly 80 parks for about $1.6 billion. In September 2025, Brookfield was reportedly in talks to acquire Yes! Communities in a deal discussed at over $10 billion. When that capital is paying institutional cap rates on portfolios that size, the rest of the market wakes up.

For an individual buyer, the opportunity sits in the gap between the institutional buyers (who want $20M+ portfolios) and the mom-and-pop sellers (who own one to ten parks and are aging out). That’s where the deals are.

The path, at a high level

Six things you’ll do, in order:

1. Understand the asset. A park is not what most first-time buyers think it is. You’re buying land, pads, infrastructure, and an income stream — sometimes with park-owned homes attached. The details matter. → What You’re Actually Buying When You Buy a Mobile Home Park

2. Find the right park. Most experienced buyers don’t find deals on LoopNet. They find them through broker relationships, direct outreach to owners, or operator networks. Geography matters too — the strong markets right now are concentrated in the Sunbelt, with Florida lot rent growth running 5.5%–11% annually.

3. Run the numbers. Five questions tell you most of what you need to know about an MHP. If you can answer them about a deal, you can tell within an hour whether it’s worth pursuing further. → The Five Numbers That Tell You If a Mobile Home Park Deal Is Real

4. Do real due diligence. Financial first, infrastructure second, legal third, residents fourth. Budget $15,000–$25,000 and 30–45 days for the third-party reports the lender will require. → Mobile Home Park Due Diligence: Where Deals Actually Die

5. Finance the deal. This is where my seat starts. Agency, bridge, local bank, seller financing — the right structure depends on the park, the sponsor, and the plan. → Financing a Mobile Home Park: What Actually Works

6. Close and operate. Closing is the easy part. The first 90 days post-close will teach you three things you didn’t know during due diligence: expenses are bigger than the seller said, at least one resident will test you, and the infrastructure you didn’t catch will introduce itself.

A few things to know before you start

Three types of parks you’ll see. All-age communities (families, mixed demographics, higher turnover but larger universe of residents). 55+ communities (lower turnover, often higher amenity loads). Hybrid parks that mix MHC with RV or seasonal sites (these complicate financing — agency programs generally exclude properties with material RV components). If this is your first park, focus on all-age or 55+. Less to learn at once.

You don’t need to be an institution. The deal sizes between $1M and $5M are where individual buyers play. They’re too small for institutional capital and too large for most beginning investors, which is exactly why they’re the most workable for a serious first-timer with the right sponsor profile and financing path.

You do need a real plan. Vague “I want to buy a park” doesn’t get financed. “I’m buying a stabilized 60-pad park in central Florida with TOH-dominant rent roll and city utilities, 25% down, refinancing into agency debt at year three” — that gets financed.

What to do next

If you have a deal in mind, send me the address, the OM, and the rent roll. I’ll tell you within a business day whether it pencils on the financing side, which lender category fits, and what realistic terms look like.

If you’re shopping but not under contract yet, get pre-qualified on the sponsor side first. You’ll write better offers and close more of them.

If you’re earlier than that, work through the four companion articles linked above. Each one covers a piece of the buying process in depth.

I came up financing the homes inside parks. Now I finance the parks themselves. The mechanics of what works are the same in both directions: clean numbers, honest underwriting, and a sponsor who knows what they’re walking into.

That’s the whole game.

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Amy Brown · NMLS #2310281 · NEXA Lending. Commercial financing available nationwide; residential licensure in MD and FL. Educational guidance only; not a commitment to lend. Terms, rates, and program availability subject to change.