Mobile Home Investing, the organization structure I am building for management

[Logan M.]

I believe one of the most difficult parts of real estate is scaling your purchases and management. It feels like a constant cart before the horse but I have become better at scaling over time, today own and operate 194 units mainly in the manufactured home space but we have more than a dozen single-family homes, a motel, and an apartment complex.

I have myself in a CEO position but I also fill the position of sales and acquisitions. I deal with development opportunities where I can and synergies between local businesses.

Then I have my operations manager who handles most of the day-to-day management of the properties, and they manage some of our contractors and managers.

Our model is a little different than large parks because we have regional managers that cover multiple communities vs a single one.

The pain point right now is mainly having consistently qualified contractors and filling vacant spaces as quickly as we can. I have some investors who have bought homes to be sold in a few of my communities that I need to sell and unfortunately, that falls on me.

What other structures are we seeing that allow for effective scale? 

What have you done to make effective hires?

Any other feedback would be great!

[David Avery]

I would hire another person that has construction and real estate background.

Take your  annual Salary.  Subtract what you would pay someone and hopefully give you 15-20 hours more to do other things like working with buyers and selling those properties.  Freedom to have lunch with people and not so much pressure. 

Good  old wisdom here.

[Matt McCurdy]

Quote from @Logan M.:

I believe one of the most difficult parts of real estate is scaling your purchases and management. It feels like a constant cart before the horse but I have become better at scaling over time, today own and operate 194 units mainly in the manufactured home space but we have more than a dozen single-family homes, a motel, and an apartment complex.

I have myself in a CEO position but I also fill the position of sales and acquisitions. I deal with development opportunities where I can and synergies between local businesses.

Then I have my operations manager who handles most of the day-to-day management of the properties, and they manage some of our contractors and managers.

Our model is a little different than large parks because we have regional managers that cover multiple communities vs a single one.

The pain point right now is mainly having consistently qualified contractors and filling vacant spaces as quickly as we can. I have some investors who have bought homes to be sold in a few of my communities that I need to sell and unfortunately, that falls on me.

What other structures are we seeing that allow for effective scale? 

What have you done to make effective hires?

Any other feedback would be great!

I’ve been successful in hiring 1099 contractors to do specialized work, so the team is bigger, but more effective. I’d also think about creating a sales position that is based on commission. If he/she sells great! If he/she doesn’t, they don’t make money. I have some good success with having one guy be part time in that position.