Example: 36-Pad POH-Heavy Mobile Home Park Turnaround

Problem — the park cleared a private box, not an agency box

A Midwest operator had a 36-pad manufactured housing community under contract at $1,150,000. Trailing occupancy sat at 71%. Fourteen pads were park-owned homes — 39% POH. Municipal water, lagoon sewer, and a T-12 that showed $148,000 NOI.

Agency MHC term sheets the operator collected online assumed 50+ pads, 80%+ occupancy, city sewer, and a low POH ratio. This park failed those tests on day one. The seller would not wait for a 90-day agency process that was not going to issue anyway.

The file needed a bridge that could close on in-place numbers, fund a fill-and-habitability plan, and leave a community-bank exit — not a teaser rate from a channel the park could not use.

Hub: mobile home park financing · Underwriting fork: POH vs TOH · Exit map: bridge-to-agency playbook

Property snapshot

Item	In-place	After fill + POH reserve
Pads	36	36
Occupancy	71% (26 occupied)	88% (32 occupied)
POH	14 homes (39%)	9 homes after 5 conversions / sales
Lot rent (TOH pads)	$325–$375	$350–$395
Home rent (POH)	$650–$775	$650–$775 with habitability reserve
Trailing / modeled NOI	$148,000	$186,000
Purchase	$1,150,000	—
Loan	$805,000 (70%)	Same facility through stabilization

Challenge

Three numbers fought each other.

In-place NOI had to carry interest-only plus a reserve. At 11.0% IO on $805,000, monthly interest is about $7,380 — $88,560 a year. Trailing NOI of $148,000 covers that payment and still leaves room, but only if the sponsor does not spend the leftover on unbudgeted home repairs.

POH habitability is not optional. Fourteen park-owned homes mean turnover, HVAC, and tenant-remedy risk. The example models $200 per POH per month as a habitability reserve — $33,600 a year — inside the path from $148,000 to $186,000. Skip that line and the “NOI lift” is fiction.

Lagoon sewer keeps many banks and all agency desks on the sideline until tests and capacity are documented. The example includes a recent test in the package. No test, no close.

Small-balance context: MHP loans under $3 million. Rates stamp: MHP and RV loan rates as of August 2026.

Solution — bridge sized to in-place, reserve sized to POH

The package that made the file underwritable:

• T-12 and rent roll split lot rent vs home rent
• Pad map with vacant, TOH, and POH marked
• Lagoon test and a one-page capacity note from the operator
• POH schedule: age, last major repair, and which five homes were conversion candidates
• Purchase contract and entity docs
• Exit: community-bank conversation already started, not “we will find a bank later”

Jaken Finance Group box used in the example: 8.99%–13.5% interest-only, 65%–75% LTV typical. This file at 70% and 11.0% IO sits inside that band because occupancy and POH are the story. A 92% TOH park on city sewer would sit tighter. Fannie Mae MHC remains a later conversation, not the close.

Credit was reviewed. Approval rode on the T-12, the reserve, and the exit — not on a W-2 story.

Result — occupancy and NOI after the fill plan

Milestone	Timing
Complete package in	Day 0
Term sheet	Day 3
Underwriting cleared	Day 8
Close	Day 11
Four vacant pads leased	Months 2–7
Two vacant pads still in turn	Month 8
Five POH sold or converted to TOH	Months 4–14
Community-bank refi conversation on trailing NOI	Month 15

Occupancy in the example moves 71% → 88%. NOI moves $148,000 → $186,000 after the habitability reserve stays in the model. That is the lift. It is not a promise that every 36-pad park will print the same months.

Interest-only carry at $7,380 per month is paid from in-place cash plus a thin reserve the sponsor posted at close. The fill plan does not get to borrow against month-15 NOI in month one.

Takeaway

POH-heavy parks are financeable when you model home rent and home expense as two businesses. They are not financeable when you annualize lot rent and ignore the homes. Agency is an exit you earn. Bridge is the product that buys the time.

If the seller will carry a piece, read seller financing on mobile home parks. If you are still choosing a product, start at get approved or submit a scenario. (833) 264-7776

Sponsor profile

The operator in this example had closed two smaller parks and managed POH inventory before. First-park sponsors can still clear when the T-12 is clean and the GC or maintenance plan is real. First-park sponsors with no reserve and a 75% LTV request on 60% occupancy do not.

What the first channel offered — and why it was the wrong desk

An online “MHC rate” the operator saw assumed agency floors. The park failed pad count, occupancy, POH, and sewer. Chasing that quote burned two weeks of attorney-review time. The file that closed was the one that admitted the park was a bridge file on Monday.

Diligence that actually moved the example

Rent roll integrity. Lot rent and home rent in separate columns. Mixed columns hide vacancy and hide POH opex.

Pad-level occupancy. “About 70%” is not a rent roll. Twenty-six occupied pads, ten vacant, fourteen POH — written down.

Lagoon. A test dated in the last year. A promise to test after close is how files die in month two.

POH condition. Photos and a punch list on the five conversion candidates. A POH that cannot be sold or rented is not “upside.” It is capex.

Taxes and insurance. Lagoon communities sometimes carry pollution or extra liability. The example uses actual quotes, not last year’s seller number.

Payment math the sponsor has to live with

Line	Monthly	Annual
Interest-only @ 11.0% on $805,000	$7,380	$88,560
In-place NOI	$12,333	$148,000
Surplus before capex and reserve	$4,953	$59,440
POH habitability reserve (14 × $200)	$2,800	$33,600
Surplus after reserve	$2,153	$25,840

That surplus is the fill budget and the “something broke” budget. It is not salary. If surplus after reserve is negative, lower the leverage or walk.

Pro forma NOI of $186,000 is the exit conversation. Community-bank DSCR on $186,000 at a 6.75% amortizing permanent — depending on term and amortization — is a different payment than $7,380 IO. Model both. The MHP rates page is the live band. The 2026 MHP rates guide is the channel comparison.

Fill plan that is a plan, not a slogan

The example does not assume ten vacant pads lease because the new owner is optimistic. It assumes:

• Four pads already had applicants the seller had not processed
• Two pads needed $4,000–$7,000 of lot work (drive, skirting, a clean-out) before they were showable
• Four pads stayed vacant longer because the street view was the lagoon and the homes next door were tired

That is why occupancy stops at 88% in month eight instead of 100% in month three. A 100% story would have been easier to write. It would not have been a park.

Lot-rent increases in the example are modest and staggered. A $70 jump on every TOH pad in month one is how you buy vacancy. The NOI lift is mostly fill and POH conversion, not a rent-gouging story.

Insurance, taxes, and the lagoon line

The seller’s insurance number was an SFR-style package. The example uses a quote that names the lagoon and the POH count. The delta was real. Taxes were current. A sold-pending appeal was not treated as a reduction.

If your park has a private utility, budget the test and the next repair. A lagoon that “has always been fine” is not a report.

When this example does not apply

• 80-pad city-sewer TOH parks that already clear agency — call that desk
• Single manufactured homes on owned land — DSCR for manufactured homes
• RV parks with a 14-week season and no annuals — different income shape; start at the RV park guide
• Owner-occupied land-home packages

Month-by-month cash in the first half year

The example’s first six months are where most park files tell the truth.

Month 1. Close. Interest starts. Two vacant pads are not showable until lot work is done. POH reserve begins on all fourteen homes, including the ones that look fine.

Month 2. One vacant pad leases at lot rent. One POH turns and sits 18 days. Habitability spend is real. Surplus after reserve is thinner than the annual chart.

Months 3–4. Two more lot-rent pads lease. One POH sells to a resident and becomes TOH. NOI ticks up. The lagoon test does not need a repair. That is luck, not a plan. The plan was having the cash if it did.

Months 5–6. Occupancy is in the low 80s. The operator stops talking about 100% and starts talking about which two POH homes are the next conversions. Community-bank notes go out with a trailing six-month, not a trailing one-month.

If your park cannot survive months 1–3 on in-place NOI plus a posted reserve, it cannot survive a fill story. Lower the leverage. Or walk.

Documents the community bank asked for later

The exit in this example is a community bank, not agency. The bank asked for:

• Trailing 12-month after the fill, not the purchase T-12
• POH ratio after conversions
• Lagoon test not older than a year
• Tax bills after the sale reassessment
• A rent roll that still splits lot rent and home rent

That list is why the bridge term is 12–24 months and not “we will refi at month six because we feel good.” MHP refinance and cash-out is the product conversation when the trailing numbers exist.

What the operator almost did wrong

Three shortcuts showed up in the first draft of this file. Any one of them would have killed the surplus.

Annualizing the best month. July lot-rent collections were strong because two POH homes paid late fees. That is not a T-12.

Skipping the POH reserve on “good” homes. The homes that look fine still turn. The reserve is a portfolio line, not a punishment for the worst unit.

Asking for 75% LTV because the listing said the park was “worth more.” The listing was not an appraisal. Seventy percent on a story we believed beat seventy-five percent on a story we did not.

The operator also wanted to raise every lot rent $50 at closing. The example waits. Fill first. Raise later. A vacant pad at a higher asking rent is still a vacant pad.

Water, sewer, and the test that sat in the glove box

The lagoon test existed. It was in the seller’s truck. It was not in the data room. The example does not close on a verbal “we tested last spring.” The PDF is in the package. If your park is on well and septic, the same rule applies: recent tests, capacity, and who pays when a field fails. Rural park context: rural mobile home park hard money.

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Example deal math on investor real estate. Rates, terms, and conditions apply only to qualified borrowers and may change without notice. Jaken Finance Group does not finance owner-occupied housing.