Leo Young is the founder and managing partner of Cornell Communities, a private equity real estate firm revitalizing manufactured housing communities across eight states. He studied finance in college, then moved into sales at Tesla to build the communication skills he knew he was missing, working his way up to top regional salesperson before leaving to pursue real estate full time.
After earning his real estate license, working in brokerage, and investing passively in apartments, Leo launched his own firm. Cornell Communities acquires and operates middle market mobile home parks, expanding access to affordable housing while delivering risk managed returns to accredited investors.
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Key Takeaways
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Stack skills deliberately, since finance, sales, and operations compound over a career
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Vet the operator harder than the pro forma, because execution drives returns
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Buy in the middle market where institutions with cheaper capital are not competing
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Underwrite infrastructure first, since older parks carry hidden CapEx risk
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Create value through expense discipline and rent normalization, not unit renovations
Topics
From Finance to Tesla Sales
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Leo studied finance but could not hold a presentation or speak in front of a room
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He joined Tesla to fix that weakness and became the top regional salesperson
Why He Left a Dream Job for Real Estate
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Sales income required constant output and did not build lasting wealth
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A first passive apartment investment and distribution check convinced him to go all in
Manufactured Homes vs. Mobile Homes
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Manufactured housing is the legal term tied to federal HUD construction standards
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Roughly 20 million Americans live in these communities, across a wide quality range
Buying in the Middle Market
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Institutions and REITs with cheaper capital absorb the top quality assets
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Leo targets workable properties where his team can execute a clear value add
What He Underwrites First
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Infrastructure leads: water, sewer lines, and roads on parks 50 to 70 years old
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Purchase price, location, and regulations follow, then his own team bandwidth
How He Vets Sponsors as a Limited Partner
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Most decks oversell the property and undersell the team
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He asks for case studies and how the sponsor responds when a deal goes wrong
Why the Economics Work
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Residents own their homes, which lowers the operating expense ratio and lifts NOI
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Heavy land improvement creates more depreciable value in a cost segregation study
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Lot rents sit at the low end of the housing market, so demand stays strong
The Two Main Value Levers
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Expenses: rebuild vendor contracts and move home and utility costs to residents
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Rent: normalize lot rents toward market while keeping the value proposition intact
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Site improvements like roads, fencing, signage, and lighting support resident relations
Why Homes Rarely Move
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Relocating a home can cost $7,000 to $10,000 and risks damage in transit
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Most residents sell in place and cash in the equity they built
Community and Retention
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Turnover runs near 5%, compared with roughly 50% in apartments
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Private yards and driveways make the setting closer to a subdivision than a building
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Round of Insights
Failure that set Leo up for success: His co-founder leaving the firm. It was a painful wake up call that forced him to build systems and put the right people in the right seats from the ground up.
Digital or mobile resource: Claude.
Book recommendation: Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson.
Daily habit: Listening to recorded mantras and affirmations after waking, on the view that the first thoughts of the day shape the day, the week, and the life.
#1 insight for investing in mobile home communities: Back the operator above everything else. Anyone can make a model or a pitch deck look good, but the operator drives the returns.
Favorite restaurant in New York City, NY: Rao’s.
Next Steps
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Learn more about Cornell Communities and join the investor waitlist
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Check out Leo’s website and connect with him on LinkedIn and Instagram
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Ask sponsors for case studies on comparable projects before you invest
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Underwrite infrastructure and deferred CapEx before you underwrite price
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Review which operating expenses belong to residents rather than ownership
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Benchmark lot rents against comparable housing in the same municipality
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