Mobile Home Park Investing with Kevin Bupp
In this episode, I am honored to interview Kevin Bupp, who is the Founder & CEO of Sunrise Capital Investors, which invests in mobile home parks, parking lots, apartments, offices, and single-family homes all across the US. He has 16 years of experience in educating investors to locate, acquire, and create “higher than average” returns from the widely misunderstood niche of mobile home park investing. He shares his expertise through the Mobile Home Park Academy and also as the host of The Real Estate Investing for Cash Flow and The Mobile Home Park Investing podcasts, which have become two of the hottest real estate podcasts on iTunes.
Kevin told us about his background and how he first came to real estate investing. He talked about his family’s humble beginnings and the various things he did to make money so he could buy the things he wanted. Kevin described the relationships that first lead him to real estate investing, going to his first boot camp, how he felt coming out of it, and how he made his first deal at the age of 20.
I asked Kevin what he looks for in a good deal and he talked about the importance of sound economic fundamentals in a particular market. He also looks at the area’s policies concerning landlord and tenant laws to make sure they are win-win for both sides. His financial goals include the ability to hold each property and realize a certain level of return on investment initially and throughout the life of the investment.
I wanted to get the details about investing in mobile homes, so I asked Kevin specific questions about this niche of the real estate market. He said they own properties all over the country and normally purchase the entire mobile home complex, but a small percentage of their overall portfolio are individual units, as well.
Kevin discussed his history in real estate investing, starting with single-family and multi-family investments before the housing market crash in 2008. After his business was severely hit at this time, he took a couple of years to re-evaluate the type of property he wanted to invest in going forward. Kevin developed a relationship with a very successful mobile home investor and it really influenced the direction he decided to go next.
Kevin then talked about the specific advantages and challenges of being in the mobile home space. The points he makes about the perception of mobile homes, the issues involved with communities building new communities, and the progression of surrounding developments are super compelling and informative. We discussed some of the details concerning new investors and this type of investment, too.
Kevin described how mobile home parks are remotely managed, either from an office on the property itself or if the community is smaller, from a manager’s home office. These managers perform similar functions to managers of more standard types of properties - collecting rents, handing out late notices, and sometimes representing them in court, if necessary. They then have a district manager who the individual managers report to who regularly visits each property.
Having invested in all different types of real estate, this episode with super successful and exciting investor Kevin Bupp provides a ton of actionable and practical wisdom and I hope you join us!
Notable Quotes:
“Real estate found me - I didn’t find it. I am very blessed and grateful for that coming into my life because I don’t know what I would be doing otherwise.”
- Kevin Bupp
“A real paycheck gave me a taste of that freedom, of paving my own way..”
- Kevin Bupp
“I did whatever I could to hustle and make a dollar.”
- Kevin Bupp
“At my first boot camp, I met a lot of people that I didn’t feel were any smarter than me who were doing big things in the real estate space.”
- Kevin Bupp
“The quickest way to get ignored is to ask for something without giving anything in return.”
- Mike Simmons
“Learning by first giving.”
- Mike Simmons
“We need to know we are comfortable with the worst-case scenario.”
- Kevin Bupp
“If you want to scale a business, you have to be open to where the deals are.”
- Kevin Bupp
“I went on a journey examining what went wrong, what don’t I want to do again, and how can I rebuild.”
- Kevin Bupp
“I don’t have that big of a stomach - I would rather buy something that is more tried-and-true.”
- Kevin Bupp
“It’s all about getting educated - you need to learn the intricacies of that investment vehicle.”
- Kevin Bupp
“Go network, get to know others that are in your space.”
- Kevin Bupp
“The seller objections for a mobile home park purchase are not that dissimilar to any other type of real estate.”
- Mike Simmons
“It’s a really weird transition where you say, ‘We need more people, but we can’t afford more people.’”
- Kevin Bupp
“I like to be proactive with my hiring.”
- Kevin Bupp
“The companies that get smarter and leaner and stronger will come out of this pandemic better.”
- Mike Simmons
Links:
Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months
Real Estate Investing for Cash Flow with Kevin
Mobile Home Park Investing Podcast with Kevin
