Residential rental · 27.5-year property
Cost Segregation for Mobile Home Parks
A park is mostly land improvements wearing a residential label. Roads, pads, utility laterals, site lighting and park-owned homes carry short lives — which is why parks routinely accelerate a third or more of their basis.
Why parks reclassify so heavily
Most of what you bought is not a building. Interior roads, concrete pads and runners, water and sewer laterals, electrical pedestals, site lighting, fencing, mailbox clusters and signage are 15-year land improvements. Park-owned homes and their appliances, skirting and tie-downs fall into 5-year classes. The result: parks routinely move 30–45%% of depreciable basis into bonus-eligible lives — figures we see engagement after engagement, including a recent park where 42%% of adjusted basis accelerated.
The allocation questions that decide the outcome
Two issues dominate park studies. First, the land allocation: parks are land-heavy, and a defensible split between non-depreciable land and 15-year improvements on the land is where the value is won or lost. Second, purchase-price hygiene: goodwill, chattel homes and finder’s fees do not belong in real-estate basis, and a study that fails to carve them out invites trouble. We adjust basis first, then classify what remains.
Component takeoff
What we pull out of mobile home parks
Grouped by the recovery period each component lands on. This is representative, not exhaustive — the takeoff on your building will be longer.
- 5Park-owned homes held as rentals — appliances, carpet and finishes
- 5Skirting, steps, decks and tie-downs on park-owned units
- 5Office and laundry-building equipment, cabinetry and finishes
- 5Dedicated equipment electrical and information systems
- 15Interior roads, drives, concrete pads and runners
- 15Water and sewer laterals, and park-owned utility infrastructure
- 15Electrical pedestals and site distribution
- 15Site lighting, fencing, signage, mailbox clusters and landscaping
- 27.5Community buildings, offices and laundry structures
- 27.5Building shells of park-owned apartment or duplex units
Questions
How much of the basis usually reclassifies on this property type?
Studies on mobile home parks typically move 30% to 45% of depreciable basis into 5, 7 and 15-year classes. That is a planning range from comparable buildings, not a promise — the number that ends up on your return comes from the actual takeoff.
What documents do you need?
The closing statement, the current depreciation schedule and the property address at minimum. Construction records, drawings, pay applications and change orders make the work more precise and often cheaper.
I bought this several years ago. Is it too late?
No. As long as you still own it and placed it in service after 1986, a look-back study captures every missed deduction and brings it forward on the current return via Form 3115. No amended returns.
The study is one piece. We can handle the rest of the return.
Deprecio is part of the Shurek Accounting & Tax family of brands. If you want the study and the tax work under one roof — the return, the Form 3115, entity structure, quarterly estimates, multi-state filings — that is a single engagement, not a hand-off between two firms.
No-cost feasibility review
Find out what your building is hiding.
A feasibility review is free and takes about twenty minutes. Bring the closing statement and the depreciation schedule; we will tell you plainly whether a study pays for itself.