The Inspiring Mobile Home Investing Journey Of Trailer Cash Academy Coach Mark

We had a very special guest on our channel in January 2021. This guy has been doing just some crazy things in Trailer Cash Academy man. Recently he closed a big deal. We’re talking about $152,000 plus profits in 5 days with mobile homes.

This is Mark Anthony. He’s not only a student, but he’s also part of our first cohort of coaches at Trailer Cash Academy.

We met Mark way back in 2016 in Phoenix, Arizona, where he is from. This was at the first mobile home investing event we put together. The story of how he got his start in this business is really inspiring.

So in this blog you’re going to learn how Mark really hustled to get to where he’s at. You’re also going to learn the key to Mark’s success in securing deals like these 5 to close out the year. And you’re going to learn about Mark’s abilities as a coach in Trailer Cash Academy. We’re so grateful to have him with us and our students.

From sleeping in his truck to winning at
mobile home investing

We met Mark in 2016 at one of our first mobile home investing conferences and seminars. We asked Mark to talk to us about his growth from then until now, where he’s able to secure deals to the amount of $150,000 in a matter of days.

”At the time I was a young entrepreneur. I just started my catering business with Terry Matthews who was out here in Phoenix. And I was also into real estate.

I went to school for architecture and interior design and construction management. Didn’t finish that because I lost my scholarship. So I was doing all kinds of online network marketing, multi level marketing companies and things like that.

I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I knew I wanted something to do with architecture or real estate. And I was trying to do wholesales traditionally.

Phoenix is just crazy. There’s millions of wholesalers. It was impossible. And one day one of my friends was like, ‘Hey, let’s go to a meetup.’ We were just bored one night. ‘Let’s go to a real estate meetup and network.’ And I ended up coming to your event.

And I saw one of the speakers there saying that they were doing $55,000 a month on their 18th month in the business. And I was like what kind of real estate businesses is this? Turns out it was mobile homes. And the next day I went out and bought one.

I talked to Jay and you guys right away. Had a meeting and started talking to you guys and used your strategy. Got a home the next day for $200 and sold it for $5000. And it was on from there.

Never thought it would get this far. I thought it’d be a few wholesalers and some rent-to-owns. I didn’t think I’d be moving homes. That was like, the number one rule. That homes can not be moved when we started.”

Salute to Mark, man. A lot of people don’t know this but in those early days Mark was living out of his truck at the time. He was just hustling so much we remember thinking that this guy is special.

”Yeah. I had just went there. When I first moved to Arizona, I was completely homeless.

I came out here just to get started. Back when I was in Boston, I was working for the city as a garbage man. And it was cold. It was snowy.

And there’s people who are doing that job too, they’re about 60 years old and have been garbage men for 40 years. And I couldn’t see myself standing on the back of a truck picking trash for 40 years.

I was like, whatever it takes, man. I bought a car the next day. I drove to Arizona and I lived in my car until I figured it out. So I’ve been going hard ever since.”

How Mark got those great deals and made $150,000

Here’s the meat and potatoes of this interview. We asked Mark how he managed to find homes worth $150,000 and close all those deals in 5 days.

He says he’s got such a great relationship with the park that they give him notifications of evictions in advance.

They were 3 different mobile homes of almost $50,000 in profit. He didn’t spend much more than $10,000 on any of them. And he sold them wholesale.

”Through the park. Through eviction lists. I’ve done a lot of work with a lot of parks and I’ve been connecting with them. I’ve got it to a personal level where we text each other on a person to person basis whenever we need help in the business.

And so they’re always updating me with all kinds of deals that they get, whether they’re homes that need to be moved, or people that are getting evicted in homes that are being sold.

So they let me know when these types of things happen. I usually stay up to date already.

So I had another listing for December and I went out there. I didn’t get all the homes. Some of the homes the parks kept. Some of them are really good. And then some of them, I was able to hold onto myself as well. So I got lucky on those.”

“I’ve done at least 10 deals in these parks. So they know my reputation, they know the quality of work I do. They know when I say something, I’m going to do it and I follow my word. And I’ve repeated that process multiple times.

So there’s immediate trust at this point because we’ve done so many different types of deals. Either I’ve removed homes for them, or I’ve brought homes into the park for them, or I’ve found buyers for homes that need to be sold. We worked in different ways. And different capacities. And the trust is built through just working with each other more than once.”

“Essentially working with the parks and letting the parks know that I always have buyers. And fulfilling that.

Many times before I was basically doing test runs with them on other homes that they needed either fixed up or sold. Just proving to them that I can supply a service and follow through and bring them buyers.

Eventually they’ll start opening up more and more to you and giving you more opportunities. To the point where whenever they have a thing you’re the first person they call. Because they know that you’re the professional and the expert in the area, and you can get it done and handled right away easier than they can.

They’re really just like an office manager that works for a leasing company and they just work in the office. So if they can work with another professional who specializes in doing this justice, it’s easier for them to pick up that phone and call us than it would be for them to figure it out themselves.”

Networking with park managers, so often it’s like the lowest hanging fruit to start getting deals.

It’s about building relationships. If they trust you they can reach out to you when they have these types of situations where they need to get rid of these homes or these evictions come up and people really need help.

But a lot of the time the park isn’t able to give away that eviction list.
Mark was able to get access to that list and go to the auctions for the homes. And we wondered why the park managers didn’t just outbid him and keep the homes in their community.

”So I cherry picked which homes I went to. Some of the homes that was the case, the parks did take them.

But in the cases where I was able to get mine the park had no problem with homes being removed because they’re putting in all brand new homes in the park. So whatever wasn’t there, it’s fine. They let it go and they’re replacing them with brand new homes.

So I knew that going in. I knew I had a good opportunity to get some of these really nice newer homes that aren’t brand new, because the park is going to replace them with brand new homes no matter what happens.”

Mark was actually providing value to the park here because he was removing two of the homes from the park. One of them stayed.

The starting off bidding amount for these homes was what was owed to the park. It was the owed Lot Rent or fees to the park that the people were getting evicted for. Either the park could buy out that position, the person getting evicted could buy out the position, or a 3rd party which is Mark in this case.

That’s why Mark was able to get these properties for such a low price. The first home he bought for $4800, the second for $11,000 and the third for $8800. That was how much was owed to the park.

”Two of the homes, I’ve dealt with similar models and makes in the past. And so I really sold them for the price that I sold them at before.

And I went back to all those old leads that I had on those homes that messaged me about it but didn’t buy because somebody else ended up buying it.

The fortune is in the follow up. So I followed up with them and they were happy for that home to come back up on the listings. And they went and grabbed it.”

This is the benefit of a well maintained buyers list guys. Mark explained that he works on maintaining a presence in the minds of his buyers list. This is a gem right here.

”Absolutely. I have a Facebook group that some people may know about.
So after I talk to everybody I funnel them into my Facebook group so they can see all my inventory that way.

If I do miss their message, they can see it there. Or I go back to my recent postings and message all the buyers who messaged me before and blast it out to everybody saying ‘Hey, I got a new home. And here’s the details. If you want my pictures just message me back.’“

It’s super impressive. And this is why we knew we had to have Mark as one of the coaches at Trailer Cash Academy. He got it all done so fast, closing those deals and getting cash in hand just 5 days before Christmas. He says it was definitely challenging.

”Oh man, pretty challenging because the ones that were the evictions, they have to be paid for the same day when they are at the sale.

Getting all those buyers that I had passed, and rounding them all up so they got there by 5:00 PM because I had to be paid by 5:00 PM.

I just created the sense of urgency that, ‘Hey, these homes will be gone tomorrow or today. I know you looked at a home in the past and you missed that one. You probably want to drive within the next hour. I can be there waiting for you because they will be gone by the end of the day. And I don’t want you to wait in another few weeks or a month for another home. Very rarely do I get homes this nice and a size that works.’

So really just created a sense of urgency and scarcity.”

What made things even smoother for Mark was that the homes were all in decent condition. Since they were from a 55 plus park those homes tend to be kept really well.

Mark told us about the 3 main things that influenced his decision making when buying these homes off the auction.

”Things that I needed to make sure right away was that all taxes were paid and there were no other liens or mortgages on these homes.

Since these homes are younger than 30 years old, there’s a good chance that there’s still a 30 year mortgage on them. And maybe part of the reason why these people are losing the home is because they can’t pay for their Lot Rent and the mortgage. And they get behind and start to slip.

So the first thing I look for is whether there is other money that I’m going to have to pay if I get this.

The second thing is damage to the home. Especially with sales like these that have to be paid the same day. Is it something that could be turnkey that is moving ready right now? Otherwise it’s going to be a lot harder to be able to sell this in the same way.

And third is having a pipeline or a waiting list of ready cash buyers that you’ve already talked to, already built rapport with, and already know how much money or what they want.

Maybe they’ve already come and seen a home or talked to you in person. You’re not doing the first introduction right there at that home. You’ve already talked to the buyer before and they’ve already come and looked at a home. You guys have already had some type of relationship built there too.

So when they do come and see this home, they know that, ‘Hey, the person that is selling it is serious and I’m ready to take action. There’s nothing I need to think about. I need to get this before it goes.’”

The other thing is that one of the homes was a ground set home. So, with Mark being a mover as well he had the added cost of getting it out of the ground.

“It cost about $5000 in profit to get that home out of there and get the tree removed in front of it.

So one of the first things I do is I look if there’s concrete around the home because it needs to be removed to get the home out. And if there’s any trees and things, those are going to have to be removed to make an easy exit out of the park.

In this case, there was concrete all along the side, some in front, and then a tree. So we had to dig all of that out by renting equipment. Then get all that dirt and all that concrete removed and brought to the dump. As well as cutting up the tree.
So there was definitely some extra costs.”

Coaching and partnering with students in TCA

We can talk about mobile homes all day long with Mark. He just has so much advanced knowledge and he’s like an open book.

Mark’s coaching game is on another level too. And you get access to him as well as our other coaches in the Trailer Cash Academy facebook group. Our coaches are actively out in the field and they’re even ready to partner with students because boots on the ground are always welcome.

These deals weren’t even the only deals he did in December. He actually partnered with Matt, another TCA student, on a couple of more deals.

”Matt’s been doing a great job. He’s got some mailers out there and online ads. He’s been doing a good job getting us leads.

Basically, because we’re so busy moving houses we don’t have time to find houses. So he’s been doing a great job, helping find houses for us.

And he partnered up with APS, which is a local utility company. Because APS has these like channel stations where they just put mobile homes before they build a big neighborhood or a big development.

They put a little mobile home so it can be an office there while they build. And Matt had worked it out with APS to get all their homes from them when they’re done with them as long as they can be removed.

So he got one of those homes. He also got another home free that was pretty good down in Tucson from a mailer. And we got those sold right away for them. As always, we just never have enough inventory.”

Mark also partnered with another student, Ken. Ken had no idea what mobile home investment was. He flew in from Hawaii. Never did mobile home investing in his life.

Got on the phone with Mark about a 1 bedroom 1 bathroom park model home that he didn’t know what to do with. And with Mark’s help he turned $3000 to 25-30 grand. And it took just a couple of days.

”I honestly didn’t know how to do it. Because we only sell 3 and 4 bedroom double-wides. So for him to come to me with a park model, I was like ‘Oh man, just, I don’t even know.’

But it was a 2016 home, brand new. So I was like it’s gotta be worth something. And he was having trouble because the owner had passed away and her kids were left with it.

And he was trying to figure out how to get the paperwork done, essentially. Because the kids were powers of attorney and they were out of state and they really just needed money for the funeral services.

We’re able to talk with them and work with the park on how to get the title and how to put a buyer in there without having to do all the park applications and all that. So he was able to really get a good deal and get that 2016 home for about $3000 and then he sold it for 25 or 30 grand.”

Ken gave a lot of the credit to Mark for just being himself and helping him. Giving him the confidence to go through with that deal and to actually know the numbers and know how to do the paperwork.

This is what we love about the TCA community. It’s crazy because it’s like we’re all winning together. Mark is doing deals with multiple students and doing deals on his own. But we’re all partnering together. So that’s like a blessing to have in this community

His goals for 2021 and advice for new investors

In the community Mark is like our Yoda. He never ceases to amaze us, as you can tell. And he’s got some big plans for 2021.

”We’re working on getting our factory-built building licenses as well as our authorized 3rd party DMV license.

So we can do some of our own title transfers, do or our own bonding and do some of our own building. That way we can control a lot of the different processes that slow this business down in some ways. Then we can get more control of the time that it takes to do all this stuff.”

Before we left Mark we asked him to share his advice as a TCA coach for anyone who’s been on the fence about getting into the mobile home investing space, or is doing deals right now but wants to take their game to the next level.

“I would say learn your market, learn what people in your area are looking for, and what they need and what they’re willing to pay for that.

And really getting to understand who your customers and clients are going to be and how you need to market and communicate with those people in order for them to build rapport and trust with you. That’s what will make you that phone number they call whenever anybody else in your area thinks of a mobile home. They’ll call you first.”

“Keep networking. Keep getting your name out there. All of this is essentially word of mouth. I’d get a lot of my stuff from people calling me with stuff that they got and they’re coming to me for help.

Just letting everybody know that you’re in this business, what you can do to help them, what services and value you can provide.

Let everybody know around you. And then just building that consistent word of mouth will just end up creating that snowball effect and momentum where it will just keep building and building and just never stop. Just don’t stop. Just keep going.”

Want To Become a Successful Mobile Home Investor?

If this video and post have you interested in becoming a successful mobile home investor, you might want to check out our free case study.

It’s about a student of ours who made a $10,000 profit in 48 hours selling a used mobile home.

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