The tiny house and mobile home movement have been increasing drastically over the past couple of years all over the world. Younger generations are picking up an interest to move to simpler housing, mobile homes are becoming increasingly popular. But how much does it cost to build a trailer park?
Building your own trailer park from scratch is a lot of hard work and money, generally, the cost of developing a trailer park will run you anywhere between $4 and $10 million. If you are serious about running your own trailer park, we recommend you look into buying an already developed park and doing it up yourself.
Let’s break down the actual work involved in building a trailer park, and what each part would cost you. Keep in mind that the costs are only estimates, it depends on where you are located, what standard you are looking to achieve, and other factors.
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How much would it cost to build a 100 lot mobile home park?
It’s hard to give a precise price tag for building a trailer park, as there are so many different factors in play. In an ideal world, you can get a trailer park up and running for less than $1 million but that’s very unlikely, instead, you are looking at a cost of anywhere between $4 and $10 million to get started.
The costs to consider before you even start buying the land are of course the cost of land and the location, water and sewage, design and blueprints, management costs, cost of trailers, how much to charge, and marketing cost to bring in residents. There are even more things to consider if you want a higher standard on your trailer park, but let’s start with the bare minimum.
Land and location for your trailer park
The land required for a trailer park is going to cost you a lot of money, and that’s even before you count in plans, blueprints, and development. You can’t just buy any land either, it has to be a location that is in one way or another appealing to your future residents.
A piece of land in a good location is almost impossible to find today, which leaves you with less attractive lots. Even if you manage to find a decent piece of land you will have to pay a great deal of money to prepare the land for development.
If you are serious about owning a trailer park, you should consider buying an existing one and fixing it up. If you already own the land, it was inherited or gifted to you, I suggest you start smaller and increase the capacity as you go. This means you will have fewer lots, meaning less income in the end.
Preparing the land for development
Before you do any preparations you have to make sure you have all the right permits to start development. Which permits you need depends on which state you are located in.
Designs and blueprints for development
Not only do you need a land development permit issued before you start development, but you also need to have plans and blueprints for your trailer park. The price of plans and blueprints vary depending on which firm you hire and also the scope of your trailer park, expect costs of anywhere between $25,000 and $100,000.
Water and sewage treatment
Unless you bought an already developed piece of land, chances are you will have to build your own water well and sewage treatment facility. This is something that will take a long time to build and also cost you a lot of money. Building your own water and sewage treatment facility can cost anywhere between $500,000 to $700,000 and will have to be maintained and updated regularly.
Cost of trailers for your new park
You could potentially get a few residents to move in with their already build trailers or tiny houses. However, you will never be able to fill 100 lots without paying for the majority of the trailers yourself. The cost of a standard trailer is around $25,000 and if you were to buy 100 of them you are looking at a cost of $2.5 million. That is a lot of money to be investing before you even know if you will be able to find residents for all of them.
Costs of managing a 100 lot trailer park
Management is not cheap, you will not be able to do everything on your own, and relying on the help of family members is not sustainable in the long run. The average salary for a trailer park manager is $57,000 in the US. Other than the manager you might want to pay for security, garbage collector, a janitor, and other unforeseeable costs. The cost of managing a trailer park easily adds up to between $100,000 to $200,000 per year.
How much to charge for a lot
To find out how much you can charge for each lot you can have a look at the cost at other trailer parks in the state. You might not be able to charge as much as others, depending on location, amenities, reputation, and more. Renting a trailer usually costs between $200 and $800 per month, so at the very best scenario, you would be making $80,000 per month. More likely you will be able to charge somewhere around $300-450 per month.
Marketing costs
In order to find new residents and fill all the trailers, you will have to advertise in some way. Nowadays a lot of advertisements are online, as younger generations are becoming increasingly interested in tiny houses and trailers, this is a good place to start.
However, running an ad on forums, Facebook, or Google can cost $1000’s each month, don’t be surprised if you have to spend upwards of $10,000 before you start getting any new residents at all. Other popular ways of advertising are through billboards, the local newspaper, and magazines.
Buying a trailer park
If you are serious about owning your own trailer park and got the means to invest, I strongly suggest you have a look at already developed parks in your area. Most parks are a bit run down and will need additional spending on maintenance and repairs, so always bring an expert to audit the park before you buy anything.
Buying a trailer park will cost you anywhere between $1 and $4 million depending on location and how much needs to be done to it. If you choose to buy a trailer park instead of developing one from scratch, you do save a lot of time and headaches.
Final words
As you might have noticed, it is not cheap to build a trailer park even if you already own the land. There is a lot of planning involved, permits, plans, buying the trailers, management, marketing, and more. If you want to own a trailer park we instead recommend you invest in an already developed trailer park.
Owning a trailer park is a lot of work and headaches, only get into this business if you are 100% sure this is what you want to do. There are a lot of people who get into the business of trailer parks but go out of business and lose millions of dollars.
Hi I’m Tom! I have been a camper enthusiast ever since I went camping with my family as a kid, love everything that brings me closer to nature. Photographer, RV owner, husband and father, trying to help others interested in camping on this blog.