Karl Kulpak owns and personally operates a portfolio of mobile home parks totaling roughly 300 units, some on private well systems and some on city water. Rising resident water overuse was driving up chemical treatment costs, straining private wells, and, at one park on city water, nearly doubling a monthly bill with no leak to explain it.
After deploying SimpleSUB Water across his properties, Karl now recovers 90–95% of utility costs that used to come straight out of each park's budget, and cut one park's persistent $6,000 monthly water bill by more than half.
Customer Profile
- Property: Multi-property mobile home park portfolio (~300 units), including Perry Lakes Estate, Forest View Mobile Home Park, and Olympic Park (pictured)
- Type: Manufactured housing — mix of private well/septic and city water systems
- Location: Pennsylvania, Ohio
- Interviewee: Karl K., Owner & Operations Manager
The Problem: Resident Overuse Was Straining Wells and Budgets
Karl came to SimpleSUB partly out of dissatisfaction with a previous water-monitoring vendor, and partly because resident overuse was becoming a real operational risk in addition to being a cost problem.
On his properties with well water systems, overuse threatens the water source itself. A typical home uses around 2,000 gallons a month, but some residents at Olympic Park were using closer to 6,000 gallons a month.
"If you have residents that are overusing what a typical resident should be using, and you have multiple residents doing that, you can run a well dry. Then you're running into sediment and other things in the ground instead of drawing a clean water supply." — Karl K., Owner & Operations Manager
At Forest View Mobile Home Park specifically, the first sign of trouble wasn't the water bill — it was the chemical treatment bill climbing as more water needed processing.
At a separate, city-water property, the pattern showed up differently: a bill that normally ran 2,500–3,000 in a heavy month nearly doubled to $6,000. No leak was found on inspection, meaning it had to be usage, not infrastructure.
"That was a huge flag... almost doubling what our cost should have been. That was a key indicator we needed to do something, yesterday." — Karl K.
The Solution: Clamp-On Meters That Skip Wi-Fi and Specialized Labor
Two requirements ruled out most alternatives: no dependence on Wi-Fi, because Karl's parks run up to 12 acres, making blanket Wi-Fi impractical, and no cutting into existing pipes, which would mean specialized labor and a much higher installation cost.
"I was looking for something that did not require Wi-Fi, that I could attach easily to a pipe without cutting into the system... it's a lot easier when you have the cellular meters." — Karl K.
The clamp-on, cellular design meant Karl's own project manager could install the meters without outside contractors. At one park, his project manager installed 18 submeters in a single eight-hour day, which included crawling underneath the community’s mobile homes to locate and prep each line.
"For this project, installation was easy. Our project manager installed 18 submeters in a single eight-hour day, even with crawling under homes, cleaning pipes, and testing each one. Cutting in traditional in-line meters would have taken all week, maybe longer." - Karl Kulpak, Owner & Operations Manager
Karl's only real hesitation going in was whether cellular connectivity would hold up in his more rural park locations. In practice, connectivity issues have been rare, and support resolves anything that does come up.
"I wondered, are they going to be able to reach and read these things accurately? And my experience has been fantastic. I very, very rarely have any meter issues or connectivity issues, and even if I do, I just contact support and they're there to help me get it." - Karl Kulpak, Owner & Operations Manager
Results: 90–95% Cost Recovery and a $6,000 Bill Cut in Half
Karl's team now actively monitors accounts and reaches out directly when a reading spikes, often catching a leak the resident didn't even know they had.
"If someone has a large spike in usage, one of our tenant relations people reads it and emails the resident: 'Hey, we noticed a large spike in usage — make sure you don't have any leaks.' That reduces usage for each resident, because they're notified fast that something's going wrong." — Karl K.
On the billing side, Karl now recovers the large majority of a cost that used to be pure loss.
"Our recovery is above 90 to 95%, maybe give or take a couple percent. And I'm super happy that we can get back that much." — Karl K.
Before SimpleSUB, that gap — often 2,000–3,000 per park per month — was an unrecovered line-item expense paid straight out of each park's account.
The clearest single result came at Olympic Park, where a stubborn $6,000 monthly water bill dropped by more than half once submetering and billback were in place.
"That's probably one of the best savings stories for sure. It was such a significant reduction of tenant abuse and usage." — Karl K.
Karl also runs Rent Manager as his property management system, which integrates directly with SimpleSUB and lets his tenant relations team bill water usage straight to rent rather than as a separate manual process.
"I would 100% recommend this product to other operators—multifamily, single-family, manufactured housing—anyone with water lines that need submetering." — Karl K.
Stop Absorbing Water Costs That Belong to Your Residents
Across a roughly 300-unit portfolio, Karl Kulpak went from an unrecovered utility expense to 90–95% cost recovery, and cut one park's water bill in half in the process.
If your properties are dealing with resident overuse, well strain, or utility costs you can't recover, schedule a demo to see how SimpleSUB Water can help.
See what your property could recover
Owners recover 95%+ of water costs with clamp-on submeters — no plumbers, no Wi‑Fi, installed in minutes.
