What is my Virginia mobile home park worth?

The one formula that matters

Value = Net Operating Income ÷ Cap Rate. Everything else is a detail feeding one of those two inputs. Get the NOI right and you can estimate your own park within a reasonable range in about fifteen minutes.

Step 1: Build a clean NOI

• Start with gross potential rent: every lot at market lot rent, occupied or not.
• Subtract physical vacancy and bad debt (be honest — buyers verify).
• Add other income: pet fees, storage, late fees, laundry, utility reimbursements.
• Subtract real operating expenses: property taxes, insurance, water and sewer, trash, grounds, repairs, professional management (use 5-8% even if you self-manage), administrative, and a capital reserve.

A common owner mistake is presenting NOI that assumes your own free labor. Buyers add management back in, so you should too — it prevents a painful re-trade later.

Step 2: Pick an honest cap rate

Virginia cap rates move with utility type, market and quality. Broad ranges we currently underwrite to:

• Richmond, Hampton Roads, I-95 corridor, public utilities, all tenant-owned homes: the tightest rates in the state.
• Roanoke, Lynchburg, Charlottesville, mixed utilities: moderately wider.
• Southside and far Southwest, well and septic, heavy park-owned homes: widest, because the operating and capital risk is real.

Step 3: Adjust for the things spreadsheets miss

• Park-owned homes are valued separately and conservatively — they are depreciating personal property, not income real estate.
• Vacant lots carry option value only if infill is genuinely possible: sewer taps available, county permitting realistic, and demand present.
• Deferred capital (roads, water lines, a tired lagoon, drainage) comes off the price dollar for dollar.
• Below-market rents are upside — but a buyer only pays for a slice of upside they still have to execute.

A worked example

A 40-lot park in Southside Virginia: 34 occupied at $325/month, 6 vacant lots, well and septic, 5 park-owned homes, owner self-managed.

• Gross potential rent: 40 x $325 x 12 = $156,000
• Vacancy and credit loss (18%): -$28,080
• Effective gross income: $127,920
• Operating expenses at ~40% (taxes, insurance, well/septic, trash, mowing, management, reserves): -$51,168
• NOI: $76,752
• At a 9% cap rate: ~$853,000, plus a separate, modest value for the five park-owned homes, less any deferred capital.

Change one input — say lot rent is $265 instead of $325 — and the value moves by roughly $250,000. That is why lot rent relative to your local market is the single most important number on the page.

Get your number checked

Send the basics and we'll return a written valuation range and a cash offer within one business day. If we think a broker would net you more, we'll say so.