How Mobile Home Investors Balance A Job, A Family, And Growing A Business

Brandon and Lance are two rockstar students from our program who’ve been with us now for well over 90 days.

Brandon has been with us since mid-January 2020. He’s managed to create some residual monthly income from certain homes that he’s sold and some that he will be selling for cash flow.

He says mobile home investing has definitely been everything he thought it would be.

The biggest thing is he’s developed quite a few friendships through it and opportunities have been opening themselves to him. Like his joint venture (JV) with Lance.

Lance said he communed with God before getting into mobile home investing. He prayed about it before jumping in and since then everything has just been smooth. He built relationships, met Brandon, did a JV with him and closed his first wholesale deal last week.

They’ve done some amazing things, and in this blog post we wanted you to get an idea about the mobile home investing lifestyle and mindset that our students have. We want to share their experience with you, their journey and what they’ve learned by working together.

What their first 90 days as mobile home investors
has been like

We always highlight everybody’s success story, because that’s something people need to hear. Especially some people that are on the fence right now, looking at getting started.

So we asked Lance and Brandon about what their first 90 days as mobile home investors has been like.

Lance:

“My first 90 days was just like a hustle man. When I wasn’t in the oil field, I was just laying out bandit signs. 3 or 4 hours a day I was just laying bandit signs and then getting calls from people that are strangers.

They’re like, ‘Hey so you got any mobile homes?’

And sometimes you do and sometimes you don’t. Then you have to explain to them like ‘Well I’m in the business right now to kind of buy them. And this is what I’m doing with my business. So if you have any other people that you know…’

Sometimes the conversations can get confusing to you. But after some time you notice the same kind of response or the same kind of call. And you can organize yourself a little bit better.

You ease your way into understanding all that through repetition and experience. And I think that’s how my experience went. After about 90 days I was able to get a couple of deals in and just continue to grow.

As long you don’t give up basically, and you try to improve yourself, your business, and take care of the nuances that come with having a new business in general, then it’s going to succeed.”

Brandon:

“My first 90 wasn’t horrible, but that’s because I ended it strongly. That first 30 or 60 days was rough.

No, frankly it was me though. Especially once I joined the program, there’s certain expectations and certain things that are provided. If you do those things, especially now looking back, you’re gonna be successful. There’s really no way you can’t be successful if you do these certain things.

But for me, some of the parts and whatnot weren’t necessarily in place yet.
So basically within the first 60 days I had one deal and it went well. But later on I learned man, I could have done even better if I had ridden it out a little bit longer.

Like Lance said, just be consistent, be persistent and stay on top of it, keep grinding it out. Reality sets in and you understand like nothing comes for free. If it was easy, anybody can do it.

Once I reset my focus, reset my mind to be real about it, put my all into it to and forgot what everybody else was saying, that’s when things really started to change. That’s when everything just shifted and I’m sitting here now talking to you guys.”

Even for us when we first got started, the first 30 to 60 to 90 days was rough. Especially when you’re stepping out of your comfort zone. You’re getting into the territory that you know nothing about. For us, we didn’t know anything about mobile homes.

Just going through that process and actually looking at these as investments, instead of a house, is completely different for us. So those are all learning curves that you have to get over.

How Brandon and Lance met and collaborated on
their first joint venture deal

We’ve got 1700 members in Trailer Cash Academy and that’s where Brandon and Lance got connected.

They partnered up on a deal that Lance found because of the trust and knowledge sharing that gets built within our community among the members who are active and engaged.

Lance:

”So it’s a single wide, 4 bedroom. It’s a good home from what I can tell. There are a few things that we’re going to have to spend money on that we don’t want to spend money on. But it’s going to make it a good home for family when we get done.

“We are interested in a cash deal but we still have that option to do finances. If that option presents itself favorably for us we’ll do that.”

The home is in Brandon’s area, Dallas Fort Worth, while Lance is in South Houston. So Brandon is running point on this deal.

The home needed some major repairs on the roof that they didn’t notice during inspection. Turns out that the whole roof needs to be replaced.

Fortunately, they had acquired the home at a price where they would be in the green if they put it back on the market with no repairs done at all.

Brandon:

“With this particular home, that was one of those situations where we were in the green on day one.”

“But going back to the exit strategy like Lance spoke about, that’s the good thing about understanding various ways to exit these homes.

Because if we only thought of one way to do it, then we would probably be a little more panicked. But because we’re confident in our abilities, our knowledge and the various ways we can get out of it, so to speak. I think we’ll be fine.”

That’s why we educate our students on many different exit strategies.

Because if you’re just focused on one and then you have a $2000 or $3000 roof repair that needs to get fixed, it can blow up a whole strategy. And then you’re just stuck.

We followed that up by asking Brandon and Lance how they were able to establish a trust without actually physically meeting beforehand, how they decided the profit splits and all of that.

Brandon:

“In the TCA community, just like a lot of people, we go back and forth and talk about various things.

Especially when people are very active, you start to notice they’re actually out there working. Doesn’t matter if they’re doing deals or not. The point is they’re actually out there getting things done.

So me and Lance had gone back and forth quite a bit on messenger or through phone calls and things like that.

Lance actually hit me up about this particular one. We decided, alright, let’s do it. And of course it was going to be both of our first time doing a joint venture (JV) with someone. So just to make it easy, we just did a 50/50 split.

And I will say, I commend Lance. He took a big step. He actually booked a flight and came out here to Dallas, Fort Worth, to come see the home, to come help me move and everything like that.

Most people probably wouldn’t have done that. He actually put his money where his mouth is. He came out here.

This JV has been smooth sailing completely. At this point, I’m fairly comfortable with him. I hope he’s comfortable with me and whatever. We’re already talking about more, once we’re able to unload this bad boy.”

Lance and Brandon say the cost of the repairs is going to be somewhere in the $5000 range but they’re still working out the exact details.

They believe if they can fix it up to the standard they have in mind then they might be able to find a buyer for anywhere between $30,000 to $35,000. That works out to about $10,000 gross profit.

What keeps them engaged with the TCA community?

Brand and Lance are completely invested. They’re completely engaged with the community. They’re networking.

Building relationships is so powerful in this business. And they’ve been really great at doing that. We asked them to give us their thoughts on the community and what keeps them so engaged.

Lance:

”My ‘Why’, my goals… they’re lofty. I’ve got a place to be. I’ve got a thing that I want to accomplish in my life.

When it’s all said and done, my baby, she’s young, I want to be able to give her something of substance. Whenever she’s able to talk and walk and start understanding what I’m talking about I want her to be impressed.

I know that sounds selfish, but I want her to look up to her parents and be like, ‘This is how I need to do it. This is how my lineage, going forward, need to do it.’”

Brandon:

”From a different angle, I guess I’d say I’m looking for more expansion or more growth. And just opportunities.

You can’t do everything by yourself. It takes a village basically, right? So I look at it like, if that’s the case, then if I work with ABC, whatever people, we can all get money together. We can all work together. We can all eat together and we’re just helping each other build.

There’s some times where people will throw you deals from the community or within the industry. They’ll just give you deals. They’re not looking for any type of money or any type of JVs or anything.

They’re just like, ‘Hey, I can’t handle it’ or ‘Maybe you’re better equipped to deal with it’ or whatever the case may be. But that comes through networking. That comes through having worked with people and them understanding your capabilities and having some type of relationship with them.

And it comes through doing good business. If you’re doing bad business, nobody’s really going to work with you. Nobody’s really going to deal with you. Networking is key.

And for me, if I want to do more then I’m going to have to talk to more people and I’m going to have to put myself out there a little bit more.”

We see it on applications all the time, the word ‘Shy’ and being afraid to get up out of that comfort zone.

But, with mobile home investing it is all a people business. And it really starts with getting involved in some type of a network. Whether it’s our community or a different real estate community. It’s about not being afraid to get your voice out there.

How Brandon and Lance balance their family life
with mobile home investing

A question that comes up a lot from new members and people on the fence about mobile home investing is the amount of time it takes to find success in this business.

So, we wanted Brandon and Lance to describe how they spend their time and balance things with their family life.

Brandon:

“I can’t quantify it in hours. The biggest thing I would say for me though, was understanding the bigger purpose of what I was doing. Most of us, have a full-time job, we work 40 hours a week.

But when you think about it would you rather spend 40 hours there or would you rather spend 40 hours building your own future? That’s how I had to look at it.

Granted, I don’t put 40 hours in mobile home investing at all. But I know once things turn over and I do make that jump to do this thing it’s going to be over with. Because I know what I was able to do just part-time.

Thankfully my family is very lenient. They work with me a lot. My kids understand. And really, it’s just one of the things of having balance and understanding your time.

Building out time throughout the day or throughout the week, or certain days of the week, where you don’t commit it to the business, you commit it to your family. Or certain times you have to commit it to the business, but then you’ll be back with the family.

It’s really just understanding where you’re spending your time, how you’re spending it and just being judicious with it, I think is the biggest thing.”

Lance:

“We have a new baby and she is definitely taking the bulk of my day. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I think it changed drastically for me because I was working in the oil field. But then I got laid off.

Since I’ve been laid off, I’ve been able to put a lot more time towards it, but then COVID happened. And now I’m trying to still schedule my day appropriately. Whether I’m doing it right or not, there’s still progress being made, but I’m hard on myself when it comes to certain things.

I think scheduling wise, it’s not terrible, but it could be better.”

When you’re in this game and you’re always expecting more and more from yourself, but realistically there’s only 24 hours in a day.

Trust in yourself, but really just trust in your calendar.

Time blocking your schedule out so you can really see like ‘Hey, I’ve got 6 hours allotted for work. I know exactly what I’m doing. I can only work this 6 hours at a time. I can’t expect 12 hours out of the day. So let me just be as intentional as I can with my time.’

What advice would they give their past selves?

After being 6 or 7 months in the mobile home investing business we wanted to know what Brandon and Lance would tell their past selves. What piece of advice would they give themselves?

Brandon:

“I would tell my past self from day one to put like 100% into it.

Not 90% or 85%, put a full 100% into it. Like your life depended on it. And 90 days after that, you’re guaranteed to be an expert.

And if you’re not an expert…I mean I don’t know what to tell you because to me it’s virtually impossible to fail. It’s fail-proof quite frankly, in my personal opinion. If you just do what the guys teach consistently.

I would tell myself get to it. If you want to accomplish the goals that you set for yourself. Put down the PlayStation, put down the cheeseburgers and the food all that. And get out there and get to it.”

Lance:

”I would tell my younger self to diversify more.

I think I was really pushing towards one or two things to do within my business.
And I think I should have really started by focusing on multiple avenues as opposed to just a couple of things I was focusing on.

I think I would have been further along if I had done that.”

Best questions from the Q&A session

What was the most challenging part of y’all starting out?

Brandon:

“The hardest part was understanding that this is the real thing.

I had the whole stigma, like ‘Trailers, man? Who? What’s going on with that?’
That was the most challenging part for me, really wrapping my head around it. And then even once I did get into the program and everything like that just realizing that it’s a different type of real estate. That’s it.

And pretty much for me, I just had to understand what I was trying to accomplish and where I wanted it to go. Then once I started to see some of the fruits of labor that’s really how I overcame it.”

Lance:

”For me at the time it was my job.

I was working in the oil field. So I was gone 28 days at a time. Then I’d be home 14 days at a time. So whenever I came home, I just had to use those 2 weeks to hustle and build relationships.

Luckily, I was able to meet guys like Jason Gully. He was doing things that I would do if I was here. Like he wasn’t putting my business as second fiddle to his own. He was there, you know what I mean?

That’s important whenever you get in the business, you want to build relationships with people, find people who are on your team, that understand your goal. And be willing to go talk to them as well.

So that’s how I was able to overcome me not being able to be home.”

How much did you have to put in when you got started?

Lance:

“I was thinking about doing the no cash strategies at first. Just YouTube my way through it and learn, things like that.

But the way I looked at it, I was gone a lot of the time and I wanted to make sure I had the right support.

So I invested a decent amount in two great mentors – Jay and Samera. You’d have to get in the course to really understand what I’m talking about.

Anytime you have any questions, any time you need support, need somebody to talk to, you’ve got all of that there. So that was where my cash went.

You don’t need to be afraid to invest money that ain’t going nowhere else except to your bank account. I was one of those people, and it was just sitting in a savings account.

Put it towards something that’s going to improve your life.”

We think that was a very powerful statement that Lance said. Instead of your money just sitting there, literally making the bank more money, he chose to take that money, invest it and grow the money himself.

That’s the mindset that you’ve got to have. The biggest investment you can make is not your business. It’s ultimately yourself.

Brandon:

”I’ll tackle the other side of it. So he talked about the program. I’ll talk about actual deals and everything like that.

Like you said, definitely a great no money strategy is wholesaling. A lot of people do it. There’s people who’ve been doing it for years. That’s all they do is wholesale. It requires none of your money, and so that’s a good one.

And also some people do brokering. These strategies vary state to state as far as the legalities and whatnot. But it requires no money, it’s really straight forward and anybody can do it.”

What type of capital would I need to start with?

You have to get the knowledge first. If you go out there and buy a property, even if it’s just $1000, you could be losing money because you don’t have the knowledge. Be ready to make an investment in yourself.

Second of all, utilize the no money down strategies. You don’t have to have a big lump sum of cash to be able to create these opportunities and make money. Then once you make the money use that money in your business as a reinvestment.

When you’re just starting out, focus on leveraging your time and leveraging your knowledge to build your revenue as fast as you possibly can.

Because it doesn’t make sense to take so much of your time and money and focus on putting thousands into a fix and flip. Or even focusing on getting your license as well.

You might have that license, but you don’t even know how to find inventory. Or you might have that fix and flip, but you’ve just put thousands into it.

You could have just saved all of that money and had your business working by itself, generating as much revenue as possible.

It’s about getting out of the mindset that you have to use your money to buy these homes in order to make money.

We want you to actually NOT use your own money, but use your knowledge and your time to be able to create money. And then use that money to build your business. It’s all about the knowledge you have, not necessarily how much you have in your bank.

Once you closed that first deal was it a game-changer for your mindset?

Brandon:

“For me it was a huge game changer. Like I said, when I came in I knew nothing about mobile homes. I didn’t know what to look for. I knew nothing.

After that first deal closed, It wasn’t anything crazy like that, but it was a humongous confidence booster. And all the knowledge and information that I gained from that first deal, just like catapulted me into the stratosphere.

At this point there’s no deal that I don’t go into confidently. When I first began I knew nothing and now, sky’s the limit.”

Lance:

“I’ve only been in for about 6 or 7 months. But my first deal was…to me, I thought it was a home run.

And I think that that was just a huge confidence boost for me. I was like, yeah, ‘I’m about to go out there and get this money. It’s not a game.’ So that’s where my mindset was at.

Also understand that the difficulties don’t go away. You have to just understand that the confidence boost creates momentum, and you’ve got to keep that momentum. It’s easy to lose confidence if you don’t keep that momentum.”

It’s really you versus you. It’s always about you discovering more about yourself.

One thing that we’ve learned or heard a while ago was that our ability to succeed or be successful is directly correlated to how much stress we can handle. So the more stress you can handle, the more you can expand your capacity and the more you can succeed.

There will be a lot of chaos around you especially in the beginning when you’re hustling and you’re trying to get this going.

And so it’s this about the internal work that it takes to actually be able to be in the eye of the storm. To be able to stay focused on what’s informing those revenue generating activities. And keeping your ‘Why’ at the forefront of what you’re doing at all times. That’s how to not get lost in the chaos.

What is your biggest piece of advice for new investors when it comes to wholesale deals?

Brandon:

”When it comes to wholesale deals, frankly, you could get any house under contract, but it doesn’t matter if financially the numbers just don’t make sense.

So understanding your market. And then outside of that, understanding the type of buyers that are in that market.

There’s a difference between people in Texas who are looking for homes and people in California or people in Phoenix, Arizona. There’s just a different type of person, different types of homes.

Understanding your market and understanding the buyers. Because ultimately that’s going to reflect your demand.”

That’s really great advice. If you don’t know your market, and you get something under contract, It doesn’t mean you could sell it. So you really have to understand what your buyers want and what their price points are.

And that gives you so much more leverage when you’re going to help somebody actually sell their home in a quick amount of time.

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