228 - Investing in Mobile Home Parks with Jefferson Lilly

What do you do when a tornado’s on the horizon? You crack open a
cold one and watch it, of course! Jefferson Lilly, the founder
and managing partner of Park Avenue Partners and host of the
Mobile Home Park Investor’s podcast, shares his mobile home park
manager’s surprising tornado response. Listen in to hear how
Jefferson got into mobile home park investing, why he runs all
his purchases by his advisory board first, and a lesson he
learned about government operations - and learn why he believes
he’s in the best niche in real estate. 


Please subscribe to this podcast in iTunes or in the Podcasts App
on your phone, and never miss a beat from Leigh by visiting
leighbrown.com. If you’re tired of doing real estate alone,
enroll in  Leigh Brown University and be sure to use your
special “CSIRE” discount code at checkout for $10 off your
subscription.


Time Stamped Show Notes:


01:30 - Introducing Jefferson

03:50 - Jefferson’s story: He got into the business 13 years
ago and looked into mobile home parks

04:50 - He believes it is the best niche; every city and
county outlawed new construction of mobile home parks, which
affects the supply curve

05:15 - The supply curve is shrinking 1% a year and
demand is increasing 1%; almost all tenants own their own
homes, so it’s only the land that they have to worry about

06:15 - The economics make sense; he bought 33 mobile
home parks and has 5 others under contract



06:35 - The biggest challenge and his evaluation model

07:10 - He is independent thinker; once he was at a
cocktail party fundraiser and a woman scoffed and walked away
when he told her what he does

09:25 - He put together an advisory board of people who
own trailer parks; he runs deals past them before he buys



10:20 - How he got his group of advisors

10:30 - He put himself out there and told people what he
did; he started getting linked up with other people

10:54 - He found people online, too



11:05 - His most impactful lesson 

11:15 - You can’t trust the government; his first park
had a sewage lagoon, the local government said it was built
to code but it wasn’t 

12:45 - He paid about $500,000 to bring lagoons back up
to code; now he doesn’t buy properties on private utilities



14:00 - They focus on buying mobile home parks; they
rent-to-own some trailers; they don’t want to have a boneyard of
parts and don’t have the bandwidth

15:20 - He’s a principle, not an agent; his podcast is called
the Mobile Home Park Investor’s podcast

15:35 - Jefferson’s CSIRE story

15:40 - He has a park in Tornado Alley in Oaklahoma; he
asked his manager there what they do when a tornado comes

16:17 - He said, “We watch them” and explained when they
aren’t a concern

17:00 - A couple of weeks later, he got an email with the
subject line “Park Destruction” and he thought they had
gotten hit

17:20 - It was to fix a broken lock to a well house that
kids had broken for $30



18:30 - On tech and the mobile home industry

18:40 - They don’t take cash and applications are done
online; they’re trying to be automated

19:00 - They use Rent Manager software, work with on-site
managers for on-the-ground work, use box.com, and have
regional managers, too

20:40 - His role is to raise capital and find deals



21:00 - A tidbit for the audience

21:05 - Get an unofficial advisory board; learn from the
experience of others who have been there, done that



22:05 - Get in touch with Jefferson at Park Avenue
Partners 



3 Key Points
Be wary of judgy people.  Get an advisory board. Focus on
what you are best at and outsource/automate the rest.