Valuing a MH Park

[Jeff Dexter]

I work to lower excessive real property tax assessments for Park owners. I know each state can value the parks differently (for tax assessment purposes), but I'd like to know which valuation method (Cost, Income or Sales) is generally considered the BEST for MH parks.

I would argue it's clearly the Income Approach, but many municipalities use the Cost Approach which always results in a higher assessment.

Thanks.

[Barbie]

I am not in the US. I am in the province of Ontario. Here it is done based on the Income Approach in addition to an assessed "cost" value being attached to each mobile/building and lot. I don't know the exact formual. As management I don't have a problem with this method nor does the Landlord, however it is extremely difficult if not impossible to explain this method to a tenant that has to pay thier portion of the tax for thier home/lot. The standard provincal method used for real property other than income property is the sales method. The tenants continually argue thier assessments because the value is often higher than what they paid for or could get for thier mobile today. What they don't seem to realize is there is no way for the province to obtain the sales data because the mobile home is not registered at time of sale as it is not considered "real property" nor do the mobiles have tags/licences. In my community we have homes that are less than 10 years and some as old as 30 years. Because of the method used it is always the older homes that find thier value is higher than what they expect. Needless to say I have no complaints from the newer homes whose value is way less than what they paid for the home.