In this episode of Money Talk with Tiff, host Tiffany Grant delves into mobile home investing with special guest Rachel Hernandez. Rachel shares her journey from single-family home investing to venturing into the often-overlooked niche of mobile home investing.

She offers insights into what mobile homes are, how she got started in the industry, and the process of buying, selling, and renting out mobile homes. She also discusses the importance of providing affordable housing and offers valuable advice for those interested in entering this real estate market. Plus, Rachel includes information on where listeners can find more resources and training on mobile home investing.

Join Tiffany and Rachel in this eye-opening discussion about mobile home investing and the opportunities it presents in the real estate industry.

Check out the full show notes: https://moneytalkwitht.com/podcast-show-notes/mobile-home-investing/

About Our Guest

Rachel Hernandez is an award-winning mobile home investor with over ten years of experience. As an author and blogger, her books have hit #1 on Amazon, and her blog has been featured as one of the |Top 20 Real Estate Investing Blogs." She is also the #1 Writer for Mobile Homes on Quora. She has been featured in MHVillage, Forbes, Experian, and various real estate publications and blogs.

Her podcast, Adventures in Mobile Homes, is recognized as one of 30 Asian American Podcasts to support and was nominated by the Asian American Podcasters Association for a 2020 Golden Crane Award.

Connect with Rachel

Website: https://adventuresinmobilehomes.com

Twitter (X): @mobilehomegurl

Instagram: @mobilehomegurl

Facebook: Adventures in Mobile Homes

Connect with Tiffany

Website: https://www.moneytalkwitht.com

Facebook: Money Talk With Tiff

Twitter: @moneytalkwitht

Instagram: @moneytalkwitht

LinkedIn: Tiffany Grant

YouTube: Money Talk With Tiff

Pinterest: @moneytalkwitht

TikTok: @moneytalkwitht

Timestamps

[00:00] Transitioned from single-family to mobile home investing.

[04:04] Real estate investments led to challenges, solutions.

[08:38] Mobile homes often overlooked as real estate investment.

[10:52] Locate mobile home parks locally, invest wisely.

[14:12] Curious about mobile home investing, ownership, land.

Key Themes

• Mobile Homes: Affordable Housing Solutions
• Real Estate Investing: Transition and Strategy
• Cash Flow: Maximized Income Potential
• Niche Markets: Finding Investment Opportunities
• Property Management: Park Owners and Lot Rent
• Stigma: Overcoming Negative Perceptions
• Resources: Training and Education Opportunities

Additional Links & Resources

• Making Money with Mobile Homes by Lonnie Scruggs

Support this Podcast

Copyright 2024 Tiffany Grant

You know what it is. That's right. It's time to talk money with your

money nerd and financial coach. Now, tighten those purse

strings and open those ears. It's the money talk with Tiff

podcast. Hey, everyone. I'm

so excited because I have Rachel Hernandez on the line now. Rachel's here to talk

to us about something we've never talked about on the podcast before, and that's

mobile home investing. So, hey, Rachel, how are now? Great.

How are you, Tiffany? I'm doing

excellent. Excellent. I appreciate you coming on the show to talk about this

topic, so let's just dive right in for the audience. First

of all, why did you get started? I guess, what is a mobile home? Just

in case we have people listening that have no idea. And then how did you

get started in mobile home investing? Sure, no

problem. Well, to answer your first question, what is a mobile home?

It's exactly just that a mobile home is a home

that is actually mobile. So basically that

means you can take a mobile home. They call them manufactured

homes now. They used to call them trailers back when they

first started getting manufactured. But basically, you can

take that mobile home and move it from one

place to the other. And that's one of the things I

like about mobile home investing versus single family

home investing. Other niches in real estate

investing, like commercial apartment buildings, duplexes,

I don't think you can move a regular home.

So that's what I like about mobile homes. You actually have

options. So hopefully that answers your first question.

The second part of your question is how I actually got started

in mobile home investing. Well, I basically got started in

mobile home investing because I was actually a single

family home investor, and that's how I got started,

which a lot of real estate investors get started in single family homes.

So I started out as a bird dog, first finding deals

for other investors, and I got paid to find deals for

other investors. And then I became a wholesaler in single

family homes. So I put single family homes under contract

and assigned my interest to my investor

buyers and got paid that way. And then I

eventually became a landlord doing a buy and

hold with single family homes. So that

is my journey as a real estate investor. How I got

into mobile home investing is basically from my

single family home journey. I took my entire portfolio

of single family homes. I decided to sell the entire

portfolio of single family homes as a landlord,

and I got into mobile home investing after

reading Lonnie Scruggs, the godfather of mobile home

investing, material deals on wheels and

basically as a single family home investor,

I was receiving income, but that income was

going towards paying other things first before me, say, as the

mortgage insurance homeowners association.

And what I learned from Lonnie Scruggs material was that

I can purchase these homes, mobile homes, for cash

without having a mortgage. It's less of an entry as

a beginning real estate investor, less cash involved. And

then all that cash flow comes to me as a real estate

investor. So that's pretty much my journey from real

estate investor to mobile home investor. Wow.

And I know that takes a lot of courage,

probably, to just say, you know what? I'm going to sell this whole entire

portfolio in one swoop, and I'm going to do something different.

So take me through that thought process, because I know you

said that you thought about the cash flow and things like that,

but was it difficult for you to take that step? Was it

scary? How were you feeling? I'm just curious. It

was scary for sure. But it was a point

where as a single family home

investor, you can only purchase so

much under your own name, and then you

actually have to bring in partners, you have to do

owner financing, because when you

purchase real estate

under you, it's only limited to you. But then you'd

have to do other creative ways, which I've done.

But I always found that the income coming

in would get paid to the bank, to the insurance,

to the homeowners association. And then there was a point

where I was like, okay, let me free up my time and hire

property management. But even when I hired property

management, I had to manage the managers, and then it's another

portion of that income coming in. So I'm like, there has to be a different

way to do know as a small investor. So

that's where I got into Lonnie Scruggs material. Read about mobile

home investing. It is definitely a niche in real estate investing.

Not many people hear about mobile home investing.

And what attracted me was that I

would actually be basically, essentially receiving all

that cash flow coming to me and I wouldn't

have a mortgage. It's kind of scary purchasing a

home all with cash, but it was a less

investment of my money versus a single family home and

also less risk as well, too. I see. Okay,

so how does this work? Because I hear you

saying that it's less overhead and all of that.

So for the audience, how does buying mobile homes work?

I know you mentioned that they're mobile. Are you moving houses across

the country? Like, what does this look like? Sure, no

problem. Well, actually, I'm based in Texas. And I actually

don't buy out of state. Actually, I stay within my own

state. But I have moved mobile homes from

community to community. So basically, I work in

mobile home parks, mobile home communities, and

usually I purchase them the homes, and I leave them

there, and then I basically rent them out,

owner finance them for cash flow. That's basically the entire

model that I have. So, for example, I'll tell you

about my first deal. My first deal way back when I

started in 2007, I found a motivated

seller in a community I was already working with mobile home

park. The park manager told me that I could work in the

community. That's one of the things that, being a mobile home

investor, you have to make sure you're allowed to work in the community. And there's

an art to doing that, which I teach. But basically

she said, yeah, you can do deals in this park. There's no problem.

So basically, I found my first motivated seller. It was a

family that had been living there for ten years. To make a

long story short, they needed to move out of the community

because they were getting into another home in the area. Actually, it was a

single family home, and they had no for sale by owner sign.

They were not advertising the home, none of that. They

actually found me through a flyer that I had passed out in the neighborhood,

which was okay by the park manager. And they just

didn't want a bunch of people going through their home. And they said, we need

to work with someone who's honest up front, who will buy this

home, do what they say they want to do. They knew exactly what they

wanted. And let's get to know you. Let's

negotiate. So I negotiated that deal. I bought that home

for $3,600 cash. They even cleaned it for me.

Tiff and, yes, I actually sold it

in two weeks to a nice family. It's a starter home as a two bedroom,

one bath. And I sold it, owner financing

for $10,000. I got $1,000 down and $250

a month in cash flow for the next four and a

half years. And that was my first deal. Oh, wow.

So when you say $250 a month, I'm like, whoa,

this is super affordable for people. So if there's, like, people on the other

side that are looking for affordable housing,

how important is that for you, being able

to offer affordable housing for people? It is very

important, especially since

a lot of things in the marketplace, you only

see single family homes. As a real estate investor, it's pretty much

the entry point for people. But to see

something like mobile homes at a lower entrance point.

There actually is a stigma with mobile homes, a

negative stigma with, I guess, society in general.

But also real estate investors, they tend to look down on mobile homes

because they see what's displayed and portrayed in

media. The best thing I can tell you do an example

is that movie called eight Mile

where you think that's a mobile home. And those are the types of

people who live in mobile homes. But yes, that exists,

but it's only one portion of the population.

Just like single family homes. Mobile homes are no different. There's

low end, middle of the road, and high end communities, and most people don't

know that because they're not in the niche. So basically,

that's an advantage in terms of weeding out

competition, other real estate investors. So I think

it is definitely an advantage for that. Got you.

So if someone is thinking about getting into this,

how would they go about finding the neighborhoods that

they're looking for? Do they just ride around?

Exactly. That's what I did when I first started out. Now I am in

Texas. There's a lot of mobile home parks, a lot of mobile home communities,

but you'd be surprised in your own neighborhood

the types of mobile home

communities that are there, because it's actually part of american

culture. So a lot of these parks, they've been

there for a while. I'm talking a lot of them that I work

with have been there ever since the 50s.

So it's just one of the things that you may not

have noticed it before because you were not interested

in it or you didn't look into it, but the best thing to

do would just be to kind of start in your own area. Get

a list of all the mobile home parks in your area. Some mobile home

parks are not listed, so you would actually find

them just by driving your neighborhood. And I really

advocate being a local investor. That's how I've been

successful as a local investor, versus trying to

do things virtually and trying to see what

communities are in there, and then from there, getting to know the

park manager, the park owner, and to see if these are the types

of communities you want to work in. Because what I advocate is

you want to work in a community that you feel comfortable, that works with

your personality, and attracts the type of clientele that

works for you. For me, I have a corporate background as a business

to business sales executive, so I tend to work

more in corporate owned parks and

higher end parks versus lower end parks that are not

corporate. Gotcha. Gotcha. So when you say

because I heard park owner, park manager. So if

you own the homes, are you paying for the

lot space, or how does that part work? Yeah, that's a good

question, Tiff. Yeah. There are two parts for it. There is the

home itself, which I own as the

investor, and the homeowner pays me,

just like a bank or renter. And then there's a

second part. I don't own the land. So basically,

wherever that home sits on, someone needs

to pay the landowner. Usually, since I do business in these mobile

home communities, mobile home parks, basically,

they pay the park owner, park

manager, the community a space rent, and it's

called lot rent. So there's two parts to it. And the way I do it

is they pay me my portion, the residents, and then they

pay the lot rent to the park, to the community.

If there are any issues, then the park manager, the park

owner, lets me know, and then I have to talk to the

resident. I see. Okay, so the resident is responsible

for paying the lot rent? Yes. Got you. Okay. All right. And

is that pretty affordable, too? Yes and no.

I mean, it depends on the area. But

as we are in 2023,

going into 2024, there's not many

affordable options left. And I think

manufactured housing is like, the last affordable

housing option. It depends on the area.

I'm sure these values go from country to country. I mean, state to state,

country to country. But I think in general, yes,

manufactured housing, it is pretty affordable. So it

is something that, and I'll be honest, the people who actually are

in the space, residents, buyers,

even investors, they've actually grown up with manufactured

housing, so they know the niche. So we're talking about Tiff.

Generations upon generations of families

know, have grown up in manufactured housing, who have family

members and friends who have bought mobile homes in the

past, and they may have lived in it, too.

So most people in it, they're already familiar with the.

You awesome. Well, this was very insightful.

I've always been curious about mobile home because we have quite a bit, I'm

in North Carolina, so we have quite a bit around, and I always

wondered, how do these know, who owns

know, how does the land work? All of these different things? So

this was very insightful for me and hopefully for the audience as well.

Now, Rachel, if people were interested in learning more about mobile home

investing or more about you, where could they find you?

Sure, they can find me on my website. It's really easy

to remember. Adventuresandmobilehomes.com

and on my website, right on the landing page. You can't miss it. I have

a free training class if anyone is interested in learning how

to invest in mobile homes. Perfect. Well, I will

make sure all of that information is in the show notes. So thank you so

much again for coming on the show. This was so interesting and fun and

I appreciate you. Thank you so much, Tiff. Appreciate it.

Bye bye. Thank you for listening,

joining and being a part of the Money Talk with TIFF podcast this week. You

can check TIFF out every Thursday for a new Money talk podcast,

but if you just can't wait until next week, you can listen to previous

podcast

episodes@moneytalkwitht.com

or follow TifF on all social media platforms at

moneytalkwitht. Until next time, spend wise

by spending less than you make a word to the money wise is

always sufficient.