401. How to Buy Your First Trailer Park

Check out the free Deal Analyzer: www.tylercauble.com/analyzer

Everybody in commercial real estate is fighting over the same apartment buildings at 5 caps. Frank Rolfe went the other direction and built one of the largest mobile home park portfolios in the country out of the one asset class most investors won't touch.

The mechanics are nothing like apartments. You own the land, the tenant owns the home, and moving that home costs more than the home is worth, so almost nobody leaves. Average tenancy in a park is 14 years. That one detail is why investors love this asset class, and it's exactly what critics point at. We get into both sides, including the Waffle House quote that landed Frank on John Oliver.

Frank also gets specific about the numbers: 30-40% expense ratios against the 45-50% most apartment operators run, why the industry is actually shrinking (roughly 100 parks redeveloped every year, fewer than 10 built), how he underwrites off the spread between cap rate and interest rate, the five-point checklist he runs on every deal, and what he'd tell somebody with $250,000 buying their first park.

If you've ever wondered why this asset class quietly outperforms and why almost nobody talks about it honestly, this is the episode.

Sponsored by www.CRECentral.com