I have 49 mobile homes that I rent and maintain. Also, I have 35 lots that are rented for mobile homes.

My question has to do with maintenance,upkeep and repairs of the houses. I use excel sheet that shows the month of furnace filter change, age of roof, age of skirting, AC,Water heater, deck, floor covering, paint, deck stain, pressure washing, mailbox.

While having this information is helpful, it misses the mark on overall condition for making a positive first impression….the kind of stuff that new countertops, upgrade flooring would provide.

What systems do you use besides the No system system.

A long time ago I decided that I didn't want to go all computer entries for these things.

Instead, I went out during the back to school sales in early August and bought about a hundred 8x10 spiral notebooks at the sales at WalMart for about 25 cents each.

Each property gets it's own notebook. I just keep them in a couple boxes in the office area. Whenever I do an inspection, repair,etc I just make notes in the book. I can jot down material lists, measurements and more and they are there later.

Sisco,

Wow! You are ORGANIZED!

I use the eyeball system - how does it look.

AND I want them looking good ALL THE TIME. I don't want to be caught with with a vacancy in winter with ugly - things we cannot fix in winter like peeling paint AND trying to re-rent it.

I also want the home looking good ALL THE TIME so people drive by and say "If that house ever comes open I want to rent it."

We make them perfect at turnover so upkeep is usually very minor.

The age of my shingle roofs does not matter becuase theya re all different - lhow does it look -curled, aged. etc? Does it leak? Do I need to replace it?

Curb appeal is updated at each turn over - new mailbox? paint the porch floor? patch the concrete steps? write a date on the furnace filter when we swap it leave 12 more filters.

(In all our years and a million furnaces I've never had a furnace "go bad" due to a clogged filter, only people who complain about lack of heat so we tell them to replace it.) At lease signing we teach them to replace it to reduce their gas bill.

We replace water heaters, etc when they die. Some last 6 years, some last 20 so the date does not matter to me.

All our props are in town so if we need to look at something it's a 10 minute drive.

System: I DO take 150-200 photos when we buy a prop, esp plumbing, wiring, etc My super and I can sit on my office and LOOK at the plumbing or whatever and discuss changes or updates.

HE sends y pics and

Also, if I want to have them on computer, I can just scan the pages and put them in a file on the computer.

He sends me pics and asks "Should we replace this?"

Overall system for FREEDOM!!! - Keep it looking great and fix things quickly.

I like details as I find them helpful.

I also like to have the model and serial numbers of things as I can look them up for parts, repairs, sizes, manuals, warranties, ect...

With 49 mobile homes--you have a lot to keep track of. Just my observation-mobile homes just don't hold up as well as stick built. I owned one once--just 7 years old when I bought it. Sold it as fast as I could and did a 1031 into a duplex--best choice I ever made.

Each to their own.

To be able to out source that much work you would almost need Equipment Guide List for each Trailer. A sheet that would have the year, make, model and VIIN of each trailer.

Your sheet could have the following:

Size of air filter needed (My Miller only has the filter on the door)

How many, Where and year of smoke detectors

Where the CO Detector is at

Year and location of fire extinguishers

Type of skirting around the trailer

When the toilet flapper was last swapped out.

Type of facets in Kitchen and bathroom

Age and model of HWT

Type of flooring:

Age and type of roof.

Insurance company and coverage amount

Future maintenance ahead:

Sisco,

Just remembered...at one point we started keeping a list of mini-blind sizes for each room and furnace filters for each home.

Found it just as easy to measure when doing the turnover checklist which includes the shopping list.

Rather than try to coordinate the list with a helper, the helper just measures and gets what he wants. Streamlined and no office papework to keep track.

It's all about our personal styles of getn' er dun!