DESIGN
MANUFACTURED HOMES
Investing in Mobile/ Manufactured Homes
THE COST OF MOBILE/MANUFACTURED HOMES IS LOWER THAN SINGLE FAMILY, AND RETURNS CAN BE PROPORTIONATELY HIGHER—MAKING THEM A GREAT INVESTMENT.
by Glenn Stromberg
’ve had a front row seat to nearly four decades in the man-
I
ufactured home industry. I started in the industry in 1982 by answering a newspaper ad to sell mobile homes at a dealership. In July of this year, I will celebrate my 40th anniversary in the industry! That first job was with the biggest mobile home dealership in Texas at the time. It was just like a car dealership. We had 30 or 40 mobile homes at a sales center, people picked one out, we would deliver it, and then we’d set it up on their land. I was promoted to sales manager within the first year. By the end of my second year, the general manager and I decided to partner and start a business ourselves. We opened our first sales center in 1984 and grew it
my franchise in 2006 and started my current business.
We buy an average of 10 prop- erties a month. We keep some for ourselves and turnkey the others to our investors. Currently, we operate in four states: Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. We are pushing 600 properties under management and have around 150 investors. Why do our investors like our model versus single-family homes? Because the land and home are real estate, they have a deed of trust or a mortgage on them, depending on the state. We get a title commitment on every property we buy. When a manufactured home is built at the plant, it comes with a personal property title just like a car. The owner has the right to keep it this way and keep the home separate
CURRENT BUSINESS MODEL In our current business model, we buy doublewide manufactured homes already set up on land. The homes average 1,400 to 1,800 square feet, and they are typically on a half acre to an acre of land. We acquire the homes and fix them up like new. When I say “new,” I mean new carpet, paint, appliances, air conditioner, septic, hot water heater—even a new roof, if necessary. Next, we put a tenant in the home. We have our own full-time property management company that manages the properties for us and our investors.
to 13 sales centers by 1987. My partner was a great guy,
but we had a difference of opinion about where we wanted to take the business, so I sold out to him in 1988. During that time, we also bought a mobile home park and developed a mobile home subdivision. Later, I had a Clayton homes franchise for 15 years. Warren Buffet bought Clayton Homes in 2003. Did you get that? The supposed best investor in the world wanted to get into the mobile home/affordable housing industry. Clayton Homes was and still is a great company—the gold standard of the industry. I sold
12 | think realty magazine :: may – june 2022
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