The Manufactured Housing Forums

Chrissy

I would like to know if you have any suggestion about how I could do an incentive for the residents in the that would give them incentive to clean up their spaces or paint their homes. As an example of what I mean. Have a month where residents are asked to do clean up or paint outside. Have 2 or 3 people judge the homes that are participating in the spruce up and give out 1 to 3 $$$ incentives such as the best recives $100 2nd recives $50.00 & 3rd recives $25.00. Or one prize only would that be better? Or do you think I should leave well enough alone and not even try something like that?

Appreciate your answer.

Have a great holiday.
Respectively
ELaine

Lots of positive incentive programs are effective. The key is choosing one that works and then not wearing it out. First - never have a resident judge another resident. Always use outside judges. Then, rather than awarding a prize to the "best" give it to the "most improved." Thank you cards individually written and signed by you - sent through the mail - are also extremely effective. There are hundreds more ideas available to you by purchasing my "Get Tough - Get Creative" handbook off of my website. The entire handbook shows you step by step how to enforce some of the most commonly violated Guidelines and make your residents think it is their idea to abide by them.

A park I know did very well just by providing a dumpster. The managers let everybody know when the dumpster was coming and invited all the residents to bring whatever they wanted to get rid of. They set up separate areas for appliances, car parts, recyclable metals, yard waste, reusable furniture, and hazardous materials like leftover paint, batteries, motor oil, etc. The impact was amazing! The residents filled up two 20-foot dumpsters and got rid of a lot of unsightly clutter. Total cost of the dumpsters was about $1,000, partly offset by selling off scrap metal and recyclables. Well worth it when you consider the residents did all the heavy lifting!

We provide an industrial dumpster at all of our communities each spring to help the residents get rid of large bulky items that don't belong in our "household trash dumpsters". Our residents take advantage of them and it results in benefits for management and residents. The community looks great!