Property operations & real assets
Books and taxes for mobile home park owners.
Lot rent from tenant-owned homes, rent on the homes you own yourself, water and sewer billed back by the gallon, and the occasional home you finance directly. Gus sorts all of it, and an accountant checks every transaction.
- From $197 a month
- An accountant on every transaction
- Cancel whenever
May came in at $12,200. The water submeter billback finally caught up on three lots that were behind, and I booked the full utility bill and the full reimbursement so neither side hides in the other.
- Lot rent, 64 sitesLot rent
- Park-owned home rentHome rent
- Water and sewer billbackUtility reimbursements
- Water system operator feeUtility system costs
- Road gravel and patchingInfrastructure upkeep
Why your books are different
A mobile home park's books run two different businesses on the same land.
Renting a lot to someone who owns their own home and renting a home you own yourself are not the same transaction. A generalist sees rent. Your park has land leases, home rentals, and a private utility system all under one roof, and lumped together none of them tell you the truth.
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1
Lot rent and home rent get combined
A tenant who owns their home and pays lot rent, and a tenant renting one of your park-owned homes, are billed the same way in the books, even though a home you own is a depreciable asset and a lot lease is not.
What we doKeeps lot rent and park-owned home rent on separate lines, so depreciation and true land income never get mixed together. -
2
Utility billback booked net instead of gross
When the park runs its own water or sewer system and bills tenants back for what they use, recording only the leftover after the utility bill hides both the real cost of running the system and the real income from billing it back.
What we doBooks the full utility bill as an expense and the full reimbursement as income, so both sides are visible and provable. -
3
A repossessed home gets filed as ordinary repair
When a park-owned home comes back after a tenant defaults and needs work before it can be re-rented, treating that refurbishment as a routine repair expense misses that a real asset just got improved and should be tracked as one.
What we doFlags a home refurbishment as capital work on a specific asset, not a routine repair, so it can be depreciated the right way. -
4
Chattel loan payments mixed with lot rent
A park that finances a home directly and collects a monthly loan payment is earning interest and principal on a loan, which is a different kind of income than a lot lease, but the two often land in the books as one deposit.
What we doSeparates chattel loan payments from lot rent, so loan interest income and land income each show up honestly. -
5
Water and sewer system upkeep hidden inside general repairs
A private water or sewer system serving the whole park is a real piece of infrastructure with its own ongoing cost, and buried inside a general repairs category, you cannot tell if the system is getting more expensive to run over time.
What we doKeeps water and sewer system costs on their own line, separate from road and common area repairs.
Your categories
The categories Gus keeps for a mobile home park.
Set up once for how lots and homes get rented and what the park itself costs to run. You never pick a category. He does, and an accountant checks it.
Money in
- Lot rentLand lease payments from tenants who own their own home.
- Park-owned home rentRent on homes the park itself owns.
- Utility reimbursementsWater, sewer, and trash billed back to tenants.
- Chattel loan paymentsLoan payments on homes the park financed directly.
- Late and application feesCharges for late payment or new tenant screening.
Money out
- Utility system costsOperating and maintaining the park's own water or sewer system.
- Infrastructure upkeepRoads, drainage, and common area repairs.
- Park-owned home refurbishmentWork done on a specific home before it can be re-rented.
- Property tax and insuranceThe park's own tax bill and coverage.
- Payroll for on-site staffGrounds and maintenance workers, if any.
- Legal feesEvictions, lease disputes, and chattel loan collections.
- Landscaping and grounds contractsCommon area mowing and upkeep.
What we watch for you
- Lot occupancy
Vacant lots produce no rent and still carry the cost of the land under them.
- Utility recovery rate
How much of the water and sewer bill is actually recovered from tenants versus absorbed by the park.
- Park-owned home turnover cost
What it actually costs to refurbish and re-rent a home, tracked home by home.
- The set-aside
What you will owe, tracked every month across lot rent, home rent, and any chattel loan income together.
Ask Gus
Things mobile home park owners ask Gus.
Text him like you would text anybody. He answers in plain English, and when a question is above his pay grade, an accountant looks and gets back to you.
Probably not all at once. That looks like real improvement to an asset the park owns, so I flagged it and the accountant will likely spread the deduction rather than take it all this year.
I track the full water bill against the full reimbursement separately, so we can actually see whether the system itself is getting more expensive to run, not just whether tenants are paying.
That depends on your state, since land lease rent is usually treated differently than other rentals. I flagged it for the accountant to confirm against your state's specific rule.
The tax side
The tax side of a mobile home park.
Most of what goes wrong here is treating land leases, home rentals, and utility systems as one thing when they each follow their own rules.
What your return has to get right
Your accountant signs it, so it gets done right the first time.
- Park-owned homes depreciate, land leases do notA home the park owns and rents out is a depreciable asset with its own schedule. Land itself is never depreciated, so lot rent income needs to stay separate from home rent for the depreciation math to come out right.
- Infrastructure and land improvementsRoads, water lines, and fencing are often land improvements that depreciate faster than a building, and can qualify for 100 percent bonus depreciation when placed in service after January 19, 2025.
- Chattel loan interest is its own incomeWhen the park finances a home directly, the interest portion of each payment is loan income, taxed differently than straightforward rent, and needs its own line to be reported correctly.
- Contractor 1099sPlumbers, road contractors, and other vendors not on payroll get a 1099-NEC by January 31 if paid $2,000 or more in 2026.
Deductions mobile home park owners miss
Your bookkeeper knows what to look for in your statements. You never have to.
- Water and sewer system repairs
- Road gravel and patching
- Park-owned home refurbishment
- Landscaping and grounds upkeep
- Property insurance premiums
- Legal fees for evictions
- Chattel loan servicing costs
- Signage and street lighting
- Fencing and drainage repairs
- Bank and processing fees
- Accounting and legal fees
- Utilities on vacant park-owned homes
General information about 2026 federal rules, not advice for your business. Your accountant looks at your actual numbers before anything gets filed.
All year, not just April
A mobile home park year, kept every month.
Lot turnover and home refurbishments happen on their own schedule all year. Your taxes come on a schedule. Your team keeps you ahead of both. Every month in between, your bookkeeper closes the books and speaks up the moment something looks off.
- January
Plan the year
Last year's return gets started, the vendor 1099 list is ready, and you get a monthly set-aside so tax season is already handled.
- April
Filed. Done.
Your return is filed and signed. No surprise bill, because the set-aside has been running since January.
- July
Halfway check
Where you stand, what you will owe, and whether a home refurbishment this year changed the number.
- October
Before winter repairs
Before cold weather stresses the water system and roads, Gus looks at utility recovery rate and any infrastructure worth fixing before December.
What you get
What you pay depends on what your business needs, and it does not move after that, busy season or slow. No hourly bills, no surprise invoices, no setup fee.
Book a call- Monthly bookkeeping
Every transaction sorted into categories set up for mobile home park owners. You never categorize a thing.
- An accountant checks every transaction
Real review, every month, before your books close. Not a spot check.
- Your business tax return, filed
Prepared, reviewed, and signed by that same accountant every year.
- The monthly number
What you made, what you spent, what to set aside for taxes.
- Your own bookkeeper
A real person assigned to your business, in the app whenever you need them. No hold music.
- On your books all year
Every month, not just in April. Your team speaks up whenever something is worth your attention.
- Cancel any time
No contract. No cancellation call. Your books are yours.
Straight answers
Questions mobile home park owners ask first.
We have both tenant-owned and park-owned homes. Can Gus tell them apart?
Yes. Lot rent from tenant-owned homes and rent on park-owned homes are booked on separate lines, since only the homes you own get depreciated, and mixing the two would throw that off.
Do you reconcile our water billback against actual usage readings?
No. Gus works from your bank statement and books the full bill and the full reimbursement so both sides are accurate, but reading individual submeters and calculating each tenant's share is a park management task outside the subscription.
Is financing a home for a tenant directly too complicated for a flat subscription?
No. Gus separates the loan payments you collect from ordinary lot rent, so the interest income gets tracked the way it needs to be, without it ever getting confused with rent.
We just took back and refurbished a home after an eviction. How does that affect this year's taxes?
Refurbishment work on a specific home is usually capitalized and depreciated rather than deducted all at once, so Gus flags it and the accountant sets the right schedule.
Our park runs its own water system. Is that too specialized for Gus?
No. He keeps the water system's operating costs on its own line so you can see whether the system is getting more expensive over time, separate from ordinary lot rent income.
Our books have never separated lot rent from park-owned home rent. Can that get fixed?
Yes. Send your recent bank statements and Gus will start splitting the two going forward, and most owners have a clean picture within a month or two.
Is a real accountant checking my books?
Yes. You get your own bookkeeper, Gus does the first pass on every transaction, and an accountant checks every one before your month closes. That same accountant prepares, signs, and files your business return. Goatkeeper is not a CPA firm, and we never pretend a person looked when they did not.
What does it cost, and can I cancel?
It starts at $197 a month, depending on what your business needs. No setup fee, no hourly bills, no contract. Cancel any time from the app, and your books go with you.
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What makes a bookkeeper worth paying for Every business we keep books for
Book a call
Pick a time. That's the whole signup.
Fifteen minutes with a real person on our team. They look at where your books are, tell you straight what it takes to get caught up, and get you set up on the spot if it fits.
- $197 a month to start
- An accountant on every transaction
- Cancel whenever