Ryan Groene

Big things often have small beginnings. Though fairly new and a couple of years into his mobile home parks career, our guest today made good progress on amassing several mobile home parks and is currently growing his affordable home business.

Ryan graduated from the Farmer School of Business at Miami University, Ohio in 2012 with a BS in Finance. During his academic career, Ryan played four years of collegiate baseball on the side. After graduation, he worked in the finance industry prior to getting into the mobile home park industry fulltime. Currently, his portfolio has grown to over five mobile home parks, spreading across 230 lots in the Midwest and Southeast Ohio. Ryan also serves as the director of operations for Buckeye Communities, where he oversees operations on over 500 lots, spreading across 8 parks in Ohio and Michigan. Ryan has been involved with almost every aspect of finding, running, turning around, re-financing, and selling mobile home park communities.

In this episode, Ryan shares his practices and advice which he gained through a lot of hands-on experience; from acquisitions to property management, and to capital expenditures (capex). He also gives us a detailed overview on how he runs his mobile home park business. For some, it might be a small investment, but Ryan is a big dreamer, and with his focus on his business, who knows? Ryan might be the next biggest owner of mobile home parks in the US.

Let’s read and listen to Ryan’s story.

Important Points in This Episode

• Ryan shares how he started off in the mobile home park business
• He talks about the first park he bought in late 2018, and how it launched his career
• What led Ryan to focus on mobile homes
• Reasons why Ryan prefers mobile home parks rather than other asset classes
• Why mobile home parks are very unique asset class
• Other asset classes than Ryan would consider
• What it takes to run a mobile home park; the people involved to run the business
• How Ryan finds a mobile home park deal for his business
• Finding a reliable onsite and offsite manager that Ryan can trust
• How close to major cities are the mobile home parks
• Why affordable housing, such as mobile home parks, are ideal for people who are looking for reasonably priced homes
• The 3 steps that Ryan needs to do to be able to acquire a mobile home park
• Ryan gives a brief overview on how he runs his mobile home park
• Ryan talks about the large capital expenditure items that he needs to make sure that he understands thoroughly during the due diligence phase
• Why scoping the sewer system and knowing what the water lines are made out off are beneficial to the mobile park owner and the residents
• How Ryan collaborates with other investors who are into the same business as he is
• Ryan’s take on active joint ventures versus syndications
• How has COVID19 and the pandemic affected Ryan’s mobile home park business operations
• Advice for incoming investors who are also interested in the same business style as Ryan
• Best part about being a real estate investor according to Ryan is flexibility in his schedule
• Ryan’s ideal business partners and clients
• Mistakes that he made and lessons learned

Resources

• Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter book by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson
• Rich Dad, Poor Dad book by Robert T. Kiyosaki
• Buckeye Communities website
• The Mobile Home Park Investor website
• Ryan’s Facebook and Instagram
• Ryan’s LinkedIn
• Email Ryan at: ryan.groene55@gmail.com

Quotes

• “I still rent an apartment, I don’t even own a single family house to this day, so the only assets that I own are mobile home parks.”
• “What led me to mobile home parks was the returns, and the overall economics of it. Because there’s a huge demand for affordable housing, and there’s a low supply of it.”
• “At the moment, a mass of opportunity hit me in the face, I solely focused on mobile home parks. Because it’s kind of chase and everything at once, and then catching nothing.”
• “Another reason I like the business is that it’s affordable housing.”
• “Wholesaling is a way to get started in the mobile home park business.”
• “Wholesaling is a good strategy for acquisitions because you can use multiple people and then pay them, and then help them get started and build their business as well.”
• “Just because people live in mobile home parks do not mean they’re dumb.”
• “After all, they’re home owners. We want them to see it as it’s their house. It’s their lot.”
• “Whether it’s big or small, or whether the return is 6 cap or 20 cap, every deal has to fit your lifestyle.”
• “You have to figure out what works for you as an investor and your lifestyle, and get really clear on what you want, because larger is not always better, and smaller can work in certain situations as well.”
• “If you don’t invest in yourself, then you’re never gonna be a good partner to anybody else, and you’re never gonna have an ideal client. So you always have to invest in yourself first.”