Mobile Home Park Investors With Jefferson Lilly & Brad Johnson

Welcome to Episode 100 of the Mobile Home Park Investors podcast, hosted by Jefferson Lilly and Brad Johnson, with the Park Street Partners. Jefferson is celebrating the big 100th episode by giving you a quick and helpful guide to the last 99 episodes. He lists some of his top favorite/most useful podcasts for someone who might be in the beginning stages of buying a park all the way to someone getting ready to sell their park.   Key Takeaways: [1:30] Thank you for listening! This is episode 100! Let’s do a quick recap of the past 0-99 episodes for those first-time listeners out there. [3:15] If you’re an investor or considering on investing in mobile home parks, listen to episode 1-3, 19-20, 74-76. [5:25] Want to buy your own mobile home park? Listen to the first 20 episodes, then 23-24, 90. [7:25] When you’re about to scale up and have to manage employees, listen to episode 56, 73, 79-80, 93-94, 97-99. [12:15] If you’re a park owner and thinking about selling, listen to episodes 52-53, 66-67.  [14:00] Know o

Welcome to Episode 99 of the Mobile Home Park Investors podcast, hosted by Jefferson Lilly and Brad Johnson, with the Park Street Partners. Spencer Roane is the Founder of SECO, a mobile home park conference that caters to expert mobile home parks owners and novices. This is interview part two so be sure to listen to last week’s show (if you haven’t already) to find out more about Spencer. Today, Spencer shares details about his SECO (South East Community Owners) Conference and why he is starting a community chattel finance program.   Key Takeaways: [1:25] Why did Spencer start SECO? [3:25] How many SECO Conferences has Spender held so far?  [5:50] Spencer has already sold out all the exhibit space for 2018. [6:45] How does Spencer manage the conferences? [7:55] Spencer shares how he markets the conference. [10:35] Spencer is working on a community chattel finance program. What is it about? [16:40] When does this program take place?   Mentioned in This Episode: Park Street Partners Investment Opportunities Pa

Welcome to Episode 98 of the Mobile Home Park Investors podcast, hosted by Jefferson Lilly and Brad Johnson, with the Park Street Partners. Spencer Roane is the Founder of SECO, a mobile home park conference that caters to expert mobile home parks owners and novices. Spencer owns four communities with 450 spaces and shares his experience of how he manages his parks as well as shares timeless advice for those who are looking to jump in and become a mobile home park owner.   Key Takeaways: [2:50] What did Spencer do before he got into mobile home parks? [7:05] When Spencer invested in his first mobile home park, what were some of his first reactions to the park? [14:35] For Spencer, he has not had a default payment for double wide mobile homes. [17:30] How does Spencer manage his four communities? [22:30] How does Spencer find his properties? [24:15] Spencer shares how he markets his properties. [26:10] Spencer uses Rent Manager to track the financials on his properties. [27:30] Does Spencer have plans to grow

Welcome to Episode 97 of the Mobile Home Park Investors podcast, hosted by Jefferson Lilly and Brad Johnson, with the Park Street Partners. Todd Foster currently owns six parks and has an interesting management philosophy that makes his parks easier to deal with, especially on the tenants’ side. Tenants feel empowered in Todd’s parks and Todd shares why in today’s episode.   Key Takeaways: [1:40] What did Todd do prior to getting himself into mobile home parks? [2:40] Todd actually grew up in a park back in Washington. [4:10] After taking over his father’s parks, how did Todd grow from two to six parks? [6:00] How has Todd’s management style evolved over the years? [9:15] Todd has attended plenty of seminars and they all have an undertone theme of how to fight, and win, with their tenants/local government. Why does it have to be that way? [9:45] Todd set out to fix this problem. He wanted to make homeownership a pleasant experience for everyone. [10:05] None of Todd’s rental agreements say the word ‘tenant’ o

Welcome to Episode 96 of the Mobile Home Park Investors podcast, hosted by Jefferson Lilly and Brad Johnson, with the Park Street Partners. Michael Hughes was the head professor overseeing a unique project involving a trailer park home in Boulder, Colorado. Michael and a team of 50 students over the course of 2 years completed this project back in the early 2000s! On today’s show, Michael discusses the ins and outs of how the project came to be and the work involved behind the scenes.   Key Takeaways: [2:25] What is Michael’s background and what did he do before getting involved with mobile homes? [6:40] How did the Trailer Wrap project get started? [13:50] What did Michael’s students think about Michael’s crazy trailer idea? [20:55] How did Michael structure his team for a project like this? [25:00] Did the end-design change from what was originally on paper? [30:50] Since the park has now been sold, is Michael aware of any future plans the current owner has with the property? [36:40] What is Michael up to t

Welcome to Episode 95 of the Mobile Home Park Investors podcast, hosted by Jefferson Lilly and Brad Johnson, with the Park Street Partners. Today’s guest is Mike Johnson. He is a mobile home park owner and early retirement expert. Mike knew that if he wanted to retire early, he needed a passive income. He got creative with how he structured his deals and now owns three parks. Find out more about Mike and his story on this week’s podcast!   Key Takeaways: [2:45] Who is Mike and what did he do before owning his mobile home park? [6:00] How did Mike find his first mobile home? [11:50] How does Mike market his property? [13:15] How does Mike manage the mobile home park? [16:25] Mike discusses how he handles all the paperwork for the property. [18:25] What’s it like managing Mike’s other parks? [21:20] In 15 years of owning parks, Mike has only had to go to court twice. What’s his philosophy on tenants who do not pay? [25:30] What retirement advice does Mike have for others? [28:40] There’s only so much you can re

Welcome to Episode 94 of the Mobile Home Park Investors podcast, hosted by Jefferson Lilly and Brad Johnson, with the Park Street Partners. Today’s guest is DJ Pendleton, the Executive Director of the Texas Manufactured Housing Association. DJ discuss the behind-the-scenes of what goes into lobbying for the manufactured housing industry in Texas and what kinds of things the Association pushes for in the legislature.   Key Takeaways: [3:15] What did DJ do prior to getting into the mobile home park industry? [6:10] What is the main mission or objective of the Texas Manufactured Housing Association? [9:05] The Texas MHA has both annual and quarterly meetings with the members. [10:45] What kind of data does the Texas MHA collect among its members? [12:45] How does DJ prioritize what to lobby against? [18:15] In what areas is Texas leading the charge in legislature compared to other states? [22:15] What kind of legislature wins has Texas had over the years? [29:30] DJ discusses how the Texas MHA was able to get ri

Welcome to Episode 93 of the Mobile Home Park Investors podcast, hosted by Jefferson Lilly and Brad Johnson, with the Park Street Partners. Jefferson sits down with Brandon Turner and Ryan Murdock. They’re both experienced real estate investors, but they recently purchased their first mobile home park in Maine. Brandon and Ryan give details on what their business partnership looks like, their due diligence process, and also share some of the challenges they had to face while owning and renovating this ‘new’ park. Key Takeaways: [3:00] How did Brandon and Ryan first meet? [5:10] How did Brandon get into mobile home park investing? [7:50] What kind of partnership agreement did Brandon and Ryan agree on? [9:25] To be fair, Brandon and Ryan aren’t technically partners. They both own a piece of the mobile home park, separately. [14:35] What kind of challenges have Brandon and Ryan experienced on the mobile home property so far? [20:25] What was the due diligence process like? [26:45] Did Brandon and Ryan run test

Welcome to Episode 92 of the Mobile Home Park Investors podcast, hosted by Jefferson Lilly and Brad Johnson, with the Park Street Partners. Jefferson sits down with Jill Denlea, who is in the process of buying her first mobile home park. On the show, she discusses her experiences and what kind of lessons she’s learned so far about buying her first mobile home park!   Key Takeaways: [2:30] Who is Jill and what is her background? [8:15] Jill recently got into mobile home parks. How did Jill find her first park and how big is it? [13:05] How did Jill get her legal contract? [14:55] What kind of due diligence did Jill do before purchasing the property? [16:55] How is Jill best finding her inspectors? [20:15] What are Jill’s plans for the property? [23:00] The mobile park does not have a website nor are they in the yellow pages. [26:55] Will Jill be needing to enforce the rules in this park? [29:35] It’s important to really educate yourself about this space because it’s a completely different animal than tradition

Welcome to Episode 90 of the Mobile Home Park Investors podcast, hosted by Jefferson Lilly and Brad Johnson, with the Park Street Partners. Jefferson attended for the very first time TEXCO18, which is their 2nd annual event. On the show, Jefferson does a quick highlight of the two-day event and some of the interesting things he learned while there. Key Takeaways: [1:35] Jefferson highly recommends going to trade shows. [2:15] This is the second year the TEXCO conference has been running, but this was the first time Jefferson attended. [3:35] The guys over at Sunstone MHC highlighted the importance of keeping your books separate. [6:00] You can buy real estate through your self-directed IRA. [7:10] There are actually seven different types of IRAs and all of them can be used to buy real estate. [9:15] On Wednesday, Jefferson learned about the process of lobbying the government when it comes to bad mobile home park policies. [12:10] Non-lawyers can now handle evictions. Before, it was illegal for a park owner to

Welcome to Episode 90 of the Mobile Home Park Investors podcast, hosted by Jefferson Lilly and Brad Johnson, with the Park Street Partners. Jefferson sits down with Daniel Din in San Francisco to discuss what park owners need to know about Freddie Mac’s lending opportunities. Daniel is the perfect guest for this week’s show because he has been with Freddie Mac since 2007 and oversaw the development of the manufactured housing lending department in 2014.   Key Takeaways: [2:00] What’s Daniel’s background and what did he do before he joined Freddie Mac? [2:45] Daniel shares a little bit of the history of Freddie and how they got into lending. [6:00] How can mobile park owners borrow money from Freddie? [7:10] What’s the difference between Fannie Mae and Freddie’s business model? [9:45] How long does it take the average park owner to get approved? [11:35] What’s the smallest loan will Freddie make? [17:45] Daniel shares the history behind opening a manufactured housing lending department in 2014. [24:50] Does Fr

Welcome to Episode 89 of the Mobile Home Park Investors podcast, hosted by Jefferson Lilly and Brad Johnson, with the Park Street Partners. On this week’s show, Jefferson welcomes Charles Becker and Brenda Garcia-Lemus from Duke University. They have both done extensive research and have collected data on manufactured housing rents and home values. They dive in and discuss what their data can tell us about both the west and east coast markets and give us valuable insights on how we can plan for the future. Key Takeaways: [1:30] Charles has appeared on the show before, so Brenda gives a quick introduction about herself! [3:00] In person, Charles and Brenda have some slides showcasing some data. They discuss what the data means for those who are just listening to the show! [5:10] How did Charles and Brenda capture the data of how much rents vary by each state? [6:35] In Texas, they have homes that average around 17 years old and California, for example, has homes that are in the 32-year range. This indicates Te

Buying the first mobile home is the easy part, it’s getting the second one that gets a bit tricky! Welcome to Episode 88 of the Mobile Home Park Investors podcast, hosted by Jefferson Lilly and Brad Johnson, with the Park Street Partners. This episode is a continuation of last week’s interview with Ralf Gomm. Ralf discusses how he markets his parks, manages his parks remotely, and how he builds a good rapport with his tenants. Find out more about Ralf’s mobile home park journey on this week’s show! Key Takeaways: [1:15] How does Ralf market his parks? [2:40] When Ralf finds a park he’s interested in buying, what kind of marketing did the seller do? [4:35] Ralf is thinking about doing drone footage on one of his properties. Jefferson chips in on his experience with it. [6:45] How does Ralf manage his homes remotely? [10:45] Ralf credits his wife for remembering every little detail about the tenants, all the way down to what their dogs and cats’ names are. This helps Ralf build better rapport with everyone. [1

Welcome to Episode 87 of the Mobile Home Park Investors podcast, hosted by Jefferson Lilly and Brad Johnson, with the Park Street Partners. Jefferson interviews Ralf Gomm, who has been a mobile home park owner for the last 4 years. Ralf currently has 100 pads right now. Ralf really likes mobile homes because he’s able to passively invest in property while he is working a full-time job. However, Ralf does see himself leaving his job when he eventually obtains more pads! Find out about Ralf’s journey and how he got started buying his first park on this week’s episode, and also don’t forget to tune in next week to hear the second part of Ralf’s interview. Key Takeaways: [3:05] What did Ralf do prior to getting into mobile home parks? [4:00] Ralf wanted to start his own business, but the ‘traditional’ methods didn’t make sense to him. [4:25] Ralf even looked at real estate investing in Europe, but the numbers for it just weren’t good. [5:00] When Ralf discovered mobile home parks, things finally made sense for hi

Welcome to Episode 86 of the Mobile Home Park Investors podcast, hosted by Jefferson Lilly and Brad Johnson, with the Park Street Partners. This episode is a continuation of last week’s interview with Ben Braband, a park owner who owns 2,300 pads and has been in business for the last 12 years. On the show, Ben shares how he organizes and manages his mobile homes and where he sees his business heading in the future.   Key Takeaways: [1:40] With 2,300, how does Ben keep organized? [5:20] How empowered are Ben’s managers? What do they handle? [7:45] How does Ben compensate his managers? [16:40] Would Ben like to grow and expand his business in the next couple of years? [17:45] How does Ben approach his deal sourcing opportunities? [18:55] Does Ben plan on selling anytime soon? [20:40] How has Ben involved his kids in the business that they may inherit one day? [22:25] What advice does Ben have for those who want to get into the business?   Mentioned in This Episode: Park Street Partners Investment Opportunities

Welcome to Episode 85 of the Mobile Home Park Investors podcast, hosted by Jefferson Lilly and Brad Johnson, with the Park Street Partners. Ben Braband is a fellow park owner who owns 2,300 pads. On the show, Ben shares some of his personal experiences about park ownership and what he’s learned about being a park owner for the last 12 years.   Key Takeaways: [1:20] What did Ben do before buying his first mobile home park? [5:35] What kind of seminars did Ben attend to help him with his mobile home park? [7:00] How did Ben find his first park? [10:30] At about 12 years in this business so far, Ben has a total of 2,300 pads. [12:40] What are Ben’s acquisitions criteria and how have they evolved over the years? [21:00] The bulk of Ben’s properties rely on city water and sewer, but they do have parks that rely on well-water also. [21:35] How did Ben do his due diligence on his wastewater treatment plant?   Mentioned in This Episode: Park Street Partners Investment Opportunities Park Street Partners Business Resou

Welcome to Episode 84 of the Mobile Home Park Investors podcast, hosted by Jefferson Lilly and Brad Johnson, with the Park Street Partners. Crystal Adkins is the Founder and Editor of Mobile Home Living. The website was inspired when she was unable to find any remodeling ideas for her recently bought a mobile home. So, she decided to take matters into her own hands and start her own online magazine! Key Takeaways: [2:40] What did Crystal do before joining Mobile Home Living? [4:15] When Crystal first owned a mobile home, there weren’t any websites out there that had any mobile home remodeling ideas, so she decided to create her own website. [5:20] What is Crystal’s online magazine about? [7:15] Crystal wasn’t a writer when she first started her website. After 6 years of being in business, she decided it was time to hire extra help this year. [10:25] What kind of feedback has Crystal received over the years? [11:45] What are the top 3 most read articles on Crystal’s site? [15:25] Does Crystal write articles ca

Welcome to Episode 83 of the Mobile Home Park Investors podcast, hosted by Jefferson Lilly and Brad Johnson, with the Park Street Partners. Jefferson sits down to do a quick recap of the 2017 National Communities Council that he attended in Chicago. It’s a great place to get industry-related news as well as to network!    Key Takeaways: [1:35] Around 400-500 attendees showed up at this years NCC trade show.  [3:00] Hopefully we will see less regulation in the next couple of years.  [5:15] Jefferson attended a seminar about using technology tools (ManageAmerica) to better manage your mobile home park.  [7:25] ManageAmerica, like RentManager, works with cheque scanners!  [9:55] There was a panel on how you can better manage natural disasters.  [12:25] If you want to help the victims of East Texas, please use a reputable charity that’s helping those in need.  [14:55] It is estimated that Florida has had over 2.5m claims for assistance, and 1/3 of those have been served. 2/3 of people who have been hit by hurrica

Welcome to Episode 82 of the Mobile Home Park Investors podcast, hosted by Jefferson Lilly and Brad Johnson, with the Park Street Partners. Michael Montiero and his co-founder founded Buildium in 2004 after being unable to see the exact amount their tenants were paying in rent each month. Their product fixed a critical pain point for them and they have since branched out to help other small to medium business owners in the same position. Find out how a product like Buildium can help you keep track of your rents!   Key Takeaways: [3:25] What did Michael do before joining Buildium? [6:35] Did Michael ever raise VC money for Buildium or has it always been bootstrapped? [7:25] What problem did Buildium first solve when it was built in 2004 and how has the product evolved today? [9:40] Who primarily uses this product? Property managers? [12:30] Does Buildium have late notices with the right legal language in them based on the state the customer is in? [14:40] How does Michael get feedback from the customers who us

Welcome to Episode 81 of the Mobile Home Park Investors podcast, hosted by Jefferson Lilly and Brad Johnson, with the Park Street Partners. This week, Jefferson interviews Rich Rice, the CEO of Adventure Homes. Rich discusses their custom building process, what’s different about their homes today vs. four years ago, and how a mobile home owner can work with Rich!   Key Takeaways: [2:15] What did Rich do before he joined the mobile home manufacturing industry? [5:15] In 2017, Adventure Homes should exceed $47 million in total sales with close to an 8% net profit. [6:45] What’s different about the mobile home parks Rich and his team produce today vs. the first four years of Adventure’s existence? [9:55] The important thing to remember is Adventure is a production facility, just like GM or Ford. [12:05] When Rich is designing these mobile homes, does he use an interior designer of sorts? [14:30] Rich talks about the quality of their mobile homes. [18:05] How long does it take to get a mobile home approved throug