Would you like residents who stay for 10+ years, handle their own repairs and find new renters when they do leave? Consider investing in mobile home parks. Kevin Bupp has spent the last 5 years investing in mobile home park communities and explains that this misunderstood niche is more about affordability than quality. Kevin is the host of two top real estate podcasts, Real Estate Investing for Cash Flow and Mobile Home Park Academy. Today, he talks about housing affordability and massive returns in the only real estate class that is seeing a diminishing supply.
Key Market Insights
- Started investing at the age of 19 after being invited to a real estate bootcamp
- Asked his mentor if he could help him to learn more about what he did and became his assistant and protégé
- Owned close to 500 apartments, along with offices, strip malls and land before focusing on mobile home parks for the last 5 years
- Mobile home parks are small communities where individual mobile home lots reside
- Owning the communities means owning the lots, roads, plumbing**, rent the space to owners
- Mobile park homes are more about affordability than quality
- When seeking markets for mobile homes, look at housing affordability
- Mobile home parks range from high-end lifestyle communities in to low-end trailer parks
- What to Look for in Mobile Home Markets: median home price needs to be $100k, median 3-bed apartment rents of $800, median income of $40k or above, economic stability, diverse employers, and at least 100k population
- Only real estate class that has a diminishing supply
- Local municipalities have no interest in building mobile home communities
- Only 50,000 mobile home parks in the country, want 60 lots or larger
- Evictions force them to move the home, or many people abandon or try to sell the home back to the owner
- Average tenant stay is 10+ years, typically sell if they want to move
- Responsibility is all on resident to find a new renter and pay lot rent
- Less upkeep than apartments, less overhead costs
- 3rd party management is not the norm, so you have to build a PM
- Plans for 2018: Ramp up marketing efforts and double the portfolio
Bull’s Eye Tips:
Winning Your Market: Put the time in and master the market, spend 50-60 hours researching the market
Tracking Market Changes: Become apart of key associations
Daily Habit: Exercise, healthy eating habits
Resources:
Mobile Home Park Academy Podcast
Real Estate Investing for Cash Flow Podcast
Best Business Books:
Mastering the Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish
The Making of a Blockbuster by Gail DeGeorge
Digital ResourcesGoPro Camera – Provides GoPro cameras to onsite management to drive through the community weekly
Tweet This:
“Look for markets where there is a lack of affordable housing”
“Some mobile home parks are nicer than B class apartments”
“Only real estate class that has a diminishing supply”
Places to Grab a Bite:Tampa Bay Brewing Company
Connect with Kevin:KevinBupp.com
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