Why Adrian Smude Invests in Mobile Homes Instead of Traditional Rentals

Share via:

Subscribe via:

In this episode, Adrian Smude shares his journey from being a problematic tenant to a successful mobile home investor. He discusses the importance of integrity, community, and authentic relationships in real estate and life.

Resources and Links from this show:

Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

AdrianSmude.com (00:00)
Let me give a quick example because I know some people are like, hey, we’re to talk about mobile homes and real estate here, which this stuff is way more important. This how you make your money. I’ve had multiple sellers right as they’re signing, telling me they had offers for $2,500 more than mine. And they’re like, I wish that beep beep beep beep beep had to sit here and watch me sign it with you because they weren’t a very nice person. And they sold to me for less because I cared about them and I was a nice person.

Quentin (01:36)
Hello everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m your host Q Edmonds. You see this big smile on my face is because I’m excited to be here. I’m excited about my guest. I tell y’all very often, my guests have a way with firing me up right before we press record. And this is no different. This is like my brother from another mother. Like the way we think is kind of very, very similar. And so I’m excited. He’s gonna talk about motin homes, right? And he’s gonna tell you from an advantage.

Maybe some of y’all are used to and maybe some are not used to. I’m gonna leave more on the not used to side because the way he broke it down to me, I was like, wow, that makes so much sense. And so I’m excited to introduce you all to Mr. Adrian Smude. Mr. Adrian, how you doing today, sir?

AdrianSmude.com (02:20)
I am wonderful and I’m even more wonderful after we spoke a little bit before the episode. Like you said, I’m fired up. I’m excited.

Quentin (02:26)
Yeah. Oh man. Well, listen, you, you, already know it’s a lot we can talk about. So let’s dive in, man. I want you to tell the people what your main focus is these days. Adrian, I would love you to give us a little bit of an origin story. Like we love the hero’s journey. So kind of like, how did you get to where you are now? We would love to know that. And then man, tell them geographically where you are in the world. And so, sir, you have the floor, man.

AdrianSmude.com (02:52)
I’m keep it as short as possible because my story is fun and adventurous. I started out as a terrible, terrible tenant. You don’t rent a 20 year old Adrian and his friends. We got eviction notices for spaghetti wrestling parties, mud wrestling parties, wooden wrestling parties, parking a motorcycle in the living room. So again, don’t rent Adrian and his friends at 20 years old. What does that lead me to do? I bought a house because in my heart, I’m a problem solver.

Quentin (02:56)
Bye.

Mmm.

I’m sorry.

AdrianSmude.com (03:20)
And actually that’s what we are as real estate investors. get ⁓ paid to solve problems. I didn’t realize that yet. So I bought a house, I moved my same friends in, split up the mortgage between my friends and I. So what’s now called house hacking. I didn’t know it was called that. I just need to solve a problem. I’m living for free, 20 years old, not with mom and dad. Really cool. Love that. So a few years later I said, don’t I buy another house? I bought another house because the banks are all I know at this point in my life.

And they said, yeah, you can buy another house, but you’re probably gonna lose a little bit every month, but don’t worry. Real estate goes straight up. You refinance in a few years. So I listened. A few years later, real estate was going down. I bought basically at the top of that last market. It’s going down. I had the adjustable rate mortgage that you read about in the newspapers. So my payment actually went up. So I was going from losing a little bit every month to a little bit more every month.

And I eventually gave up that house as a short sale. I dinged my credit, but the bigger item was my integrity. I said I was going to make these payments and I didn’t. But fast forward, I bought some more houses and that short sale on the back of my head was always there. So I started looking for something different and something new, something that was safer on my numbers. And that’s one of the ways I stumbled into mobile homes. I started seeing the returns on them.

I sold off all of my concrete ranch style, beautiful Instagram picture, mobile or houses and bought mobile homes. Today, my business is in central Florida. I buy single unit mobile homes with the land and I rent them out really long term.

Quentin (05:55)
Adrian man brother. Thank you. Thank you for walking up to the store. You did you did it in a rise to sink concise way I was like, I know I even put this off but you did it. You did amazing man. But

AdrianSmude.com (06:05)
That’s

20 some 23 years of life in a short spurt

Quentin (06:09)
Yeah.

Well, listen, I’m about to dig, I’m about to pick at it a little bit because man, I love your humility. I love what I call like the gift of your vulnerability. I’ve never heard somebody say I was a terrible tenant. I ain’t heard nobody say that. And so man, obviously you’re leading with integrity and you even talked about your integrity when it came to the short sale. And I love how you say you’re a problem solver and real estate is like solving problems. And so man, you went through these journeys.

You sold off your doors and went into the mobile home. So I’m going to ask you this. I say this probably every podcast, Adrian, destiny has no wasted moments. Meaning no matter what we go through in life, destiny has a way of moments compiling and make us who we are today. And so, man, through your journey, brother, I’m loving asking you this question. Through your journey, what has it taught you about you? Has it increased your integrity? Has it taught you humility?

AdrianSmude.com (06:49)
Mmm.

Quentin (07:08)
Like what are the things that this journey has taught you about you?

AdrianSmude.com (07:12)
I love the two words you just said, integrity and humility. I would say those are might be the two biggest ones. I already have a very strong sense of integrity. That’s how I was brought up by parents. And then when you start sharing with other people, jump on a podcast, teaching on stages, all the different things that I do, I feel even a higher sense of integrity. I’ve gotta be walking the walk.

But then the humility part comes in as well. Like, well, I’m still just a normal person. I screw up every day. I my title company, 20 some years, and I still screw up on the paperwork almost every time. And you would think I would have figured it out by now, but it is what it is, you know? And that’s why you have a team. And that’s why you have a community. I know we’re going to talk about community. And you go to them and you’re like, hey, I screwed this up again. What do I do? And so just the…

Quentin (08:05)
Yeah.

AdrianSmude.com (08:10)
The humility to be able to say, screwed up. That’s okay, long time. If I could have gotten through that faster, personal life and business life would be so much further ahead.

Quentin (08:21)
⁓ Man, I love it, man. I love your integrity. I love your self-awareness. I tell people, and I learned this, that there’s a difference between being self-aware and self-confident, right? When you self-confident, you don’t care who you wreck around you. I’m confident, I’m self-confident. Everybody get bulldozed, right? But when you’re self-aware, you are aware of yourself as the consciousness of awareness as everybody else as well.

Right? You realize when you’re self-aware, it’s like, yeah, this is what I’m aware about myself. And I’m aware that this affects people, even in a negative or a positive way. And so I love your self-awareness, brother. I love your integrity. And I’m going to be honest with you, man. You said something how you’re on stages, you’re a leader, you’re out there. So you have to really walk with you talk. Adrienne, you and I both know everybody ain’t doing that.

AdrianSmude.com (09:02)
Thank you.

Quentin (09:18)
We got people on the biggest stages that ain’t backing what they preach. They ain’t talking it, but they ain’t walking it. And so I wanted to double down again and saying, man, I appreciate you. I appreciate you doing this. And that takes a level of humbling yourself, not waiting for a situation to humble you. You take it in control level. me wait. Let me watch my ego. Let me watch to make sure I’m the same person when I’m knowing nobody can see me as when people can see me that I’m the same person. So I appreciate that, man. ⁓

AdrianSmude.com (09:47)
Thank

you. Can I share a short advice for people? This is what I do and this is what a lot of my friends do before you’re hiring a coach or entering a community. Ask them questions of like, when’s the last time they actually completed one of those transactions? Are they teaching them what they do today or they did 10 years ago? And that should help you figure out where they really are in their journey themselves. And there’s nothing wrong with what.

Quentin (09:48)
Yeah, please.

Yes,

AdrianSmude.com (10:13)
was 10 years ago, it’s just, I kind of want to know what’s today and are you in touch with today’s market and just the laws and how things are working right there.

Quentin (10:58)
You said something again so powerful. So I believe in therapy. I believe in therapy, having a therapist. Me and my wife, we just narrowed down on a counselor. And I tell people all the time, you need to interview your therapist. Ask your therapist questions. You need to come with questions to ask them because if you’re trusting this person, if you’re building community with this person, unfortunately, you just can’t give them a pass and just say, well, you know.

and just believe that they’re the person that should be coaching you. So when you talked about coaching and asking those questions, I know these people, some are, they have more experience than you, but still, this is your life. There has to be commonality here. So just, like you said, ask the questions, like take control of your own narrative. Like you can’t just leave it at a whim because everybody’s not a right fit for you. Everybody’s just not a right fit for you.

AdrianSmude.com (11:52)
Yeah.

And it doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with that person. It’s just we have different personalities. Like you just said, you know, I am not the let me do 100 deals a year guy. That’s not me, my personality. So I don’t want to be coached by someone because I’m not going to be a good student for them. So I’m not a good success. I want more life than 100 deals. I just want a few really, really good deals and set my business up to serve my life. So that’s who I’m able to help. I can’t help the person that wants 100 deals a month.

a year. You I have friends that do a hundred a month and I’m just like, I’m tired listening to you talk, but I love it. I love it for you, you know?

Quentin (12:26)
Come on.

Absolutely. ⁓ man. There’s so much I want to say about that. But like you said, we’re going keep going against things you know. We can talk for the life. So let me ask you, What is your next real goal? Like, what are you looking to solve with scale next? And maybe it’s not gold. Maybe it’s just standards. like, what’s next for you? Like, what’s the next standard? What’s the next thing you’re looking at?

AdrianSmude.com (12:34)
Yeah.

I’m really building community and that community is everywhere. It’s something I’ve realized I’ve been doing for a while, but now I am. That’s my theme of 2026 and I’m putting a lot more intentionality in it. So within my, we’ll say my buying side, I’m supporting the community more. do my quote unquote marketing is supporting my old high school’s football team. You know, that’s a community thing. If I get a deal, I get a deal. It’s, it’s a community there.

I am in the community. talk to people. I was just on a zoom call yesterday with a realtor and some sellers. I told them not to sell it to me. I think they should sell it another way. But I’m just there. The Zig Ziglar quote, if I help enough people get what they want, I will get what I want. I live by that quote. I have my own mastermind community. I have my own online community, more on the mobile home side. I’m just all in community. I’m huge in the yoga. So I have my yoga community.

I have all these different communities and I want to go deeper in those versus just go real wide and surface level with having a bunch of people.

Quentin (13:54)
No, man, and I’ve said it to you, people who watch me, they know I said, healing happens in community, And healing means to be made whole. And so there’s financial healing, there’s mental healing, there’s social healing. And I believe when you get around people that are of the common unity of the same mindset as you, you create an ecosystem that is regulated. That’s not, you know, that’s not.

If there’s tension, there’s healthy tension because we know we different and we approach to things like mature adults and we talk about things, but it’s not like this backstabbing. It’s not like this. So, so I always say, man, healing happens in community. And when I say community, I’m just not talking about a bunch of people around each other. No, like you said, deep interactions, people of the common unity, the same mindset. You can’t help but be whole because like you said, some going to do a hundred.

I don’t want to do a hundred, but we bring healing to each other because we can balance each other out. So you go with one and then I can be here and do what I do at the same time. So yeah, man, I love healing. I mean, healing, I love community, man. And so I’m going to ask you about the word relationship. I know we talked about community, but I want you to tell me how do you go about building relationships? Like what’s your strategy?

AdrianSmude.com (14:55)
Mm-hmm.

Quentin (15:19)
Talk to me a little bit because I’m talking to you. This is like gold for me. Cause I tell people all the time, relationships, we know relationship and business is important. But I think hearing from you, somebody that take it so deeply, talk to me about how you build it. What are some of your strategies?

AdrianSmude.com (16:16)
Yeah, you’re using the word strategy and I will get to what that is, but really is, I don’t have a strategy. I genuinely care and genuinely interested in you and genuinely curious. So let’s go to a seller’s house. I’m at a seller’s house and I’m gonna like sit down and talk to you guy, not a phone call, text guy. I wanna sit down and you’re gonna do.

Quentin (16:32)
Mmm!

AdrianSmude.com (16:43)
We can walk around the house. I can pick up 10, 20 things to talk about. Everyone loves travel. I mean, there’s so few people that know. There’s something in your house that has to do with traveling. I can pick that out and I can ask you, I am genuinely interested in it. The Monopoly guy behind you. I love playing Monopoly Deal. It’s the card game version of it. I can sit there and question you all day about that game. So it’s just genuinely being curious and caring about the other person.

I think when we first go into it, nervous. We’re like, all right, we have to ask great questions or I have to tell them all about me. You people, you ask questions over and over and over again and you feel great, sometimes you’ll leave and you’re like, I don’t know anything about that person, but I love them. It’s because they made you feel safe. They made you feel heard. And I’m just all about that. How can I help? And I’m not always a solution for people. It is how can I help you? And if I help enough people.

I will get what I want and I truly believe that I have proof of my life. So that’s how I build relationships. So somewhere tactical. Let give you a tactical thing or two because life is busy quote unquote. So how do I keep connections with it? You’ve sent me a bunch of texts reminding me about this call. But how do I, let’s say it might be another year, two years before we talk again. I’ll scroll through my phone. I’ll scroll down real quick and I’m like, ⁓ haven’t texted that person in a while. How you doing? Happy Thursday.

Quentin (17:50)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

AdrianSmude.com (18:10)
after 25th, whatever it is. Just nothing in exchange. I just want to say, hey, I’m still here. How are you doing? And that just keeps that little connection going. So then maybe in three years, I’m like, hey, I need something from you. Can you help me? It’s not a cold call.

Quentin (18:16)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

I’m looking something up, because I want to read this to you. Because you talked about, so I’m going read this to you and you let me know if it makes sense or it kind of synthesize what you just said. Some of the things you just said. A generous person will prosper. Those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.

AdrianSmude.com (18:43)
I love that. You know what makes a really good podcast for me? When I leave with notes. And I’m gonna leave with notes because of that. I love that. That’s wonderful. Thank you.

Quentin (18:48)
Mmm.

Bro, you just,

I mean, that’s, you just said it like, you know, you didn’t necessarily use the word refresh, but you know, helping people in return, you’re going to be helped. it’s just, it’s your, it’s like your, your seed and reaping kind of, we’re not going to, let’s get away from the word strategy, but you just, you’re reaping what you sow. Like that’s what you’re basically doing. You, you put it out there and you, and you’re in return reaping it. And so, man, I love it, bro.

AdrianSmude.com (19:17)
Yeah.

Let me give a quick example because I know some people are like, hey, we’re to talk about mobile homes and real estate here, which this stuff is way more important. This how you make your money. I’ve had multiple sellers right as they’re signing, telling me they had offers for $2,500 more than mine. And they’re like, I wish that beep beep beep beep beep had to sit here and watch me sign it with you because they weren’t a very nice person. And they sold to me for less because I cared about them and I was a nice person.

So that’s, you for the people who are still like, yeah, I want to make some money here. How do I use this? That’s how you use it. You be a good person and people will help you out and reward you with their properties.

Quentin (19:58)
And I don’t, I try to shy away from like shame approach when I say stuff. Cause I believe, you know, shame kind of just put us in like this constant like cycles. I never like try to make people feel bad. But the interesting point of what you just said is people will hear you and they still won’t try. They still won’t get it because you know, they they’re still trying to do it some type of other way. I mean, do you, you know this, there was a time when

AdrianSmude.com (20:08)
Mm-hmm.

Quentin (20:27)
deals was done on a handshake. There was a time like when your name was, and I know we talk about credit, but your name was literally your credit. Like your name is what got stuff done. And so I tell, and I learned this from one of my guests is that everybody has a brand, it’s your character. But unfortunately, everybody’s not protecting their brand the way they should be. Everybody’s not protecting their character the way they should be.

AdrianSmude.com (20:37)
Mm-hmm.

And I believe that is a very short-sighted thing when we get such in a scarcity mode. And I’m susceptible to it as well. I’m not gonna try to say I’m not. I have to fight it sometimes. No, that’s a very short-sighted thing to think, Adrian, or do. Let’s not do that. Are you gonna be happy with that decision when you’re 80 and you’re looking back at life? And so it’s a very short-sighted, I do believe, long run you win by helping people. If someone…

You know, I sign all the paperwork for the properties I buy, but if you really need out and I’m going to just let you out, I’m not going to keep your earnest money or anything. If you’re just getting out because you want to sell the other guy or something, that’s maybe a little different. But if you, your life changed and you need to keep this home, I’ll give you everything back. I’m not going to take the home from you and force you.

Quentin (21:41)
Yeah, man, listen, I love it. I could talk to you for hours. I’m gonna ask like this one last question. For the people out there, is there anything else you want to say about mobile homes? Like, there anything you just think about that maybe you want to say? ain’t fucking fooling you or nothing. But I’m just saying, is there anything you want to say about mobile homes?

AdrianSmude.com (21:56)
Yeah!

Let me say two things that I’m making as precise as I can because there are two big ⁓ misconceptions on it. One, trailer trash. mean, people, there’s at least half the people listening are thinking about that. It’s not always true. There’s some country songs and Netflix specials that make fun of it. It’s funny to poke at, but it’s not true. It’s where you buy, how you fix it up is who you attract there. So you do have to look at the location. Most of the people live in our properties.

are blue collar handyman and handywomen and they take pride in their home. And many times, I just did a least review this morning before jumping on here with you. And we had the people, they’re like, hey, can we plant plants out front in that planner? We want to really fix it. I’m like, of course you can. That’s who we look for is someone’s going to take pride in it’s their home. So don’t think of trailers as only this trailer trash. And the other thing I want, I do want to quickly break down cause some people

don’t understand mobile homes, mean mobile home parks or so there’s three different ways to invest in mobile homes. You have the whole mobile home park. So you own everything, all the homes, the land, or you own just the dirt and you rent the mobile home to each person. Sorry, you rent the lot space to each person. You could just invest in just that lots, that mobile home and you’re paying the lot rent every month to the mobile home park owner. And then the third way that you can invest in mobile homes is kind of in the middle.

It’s a single family world and it’s a mobile home with land. So I own the home and I own the dirt. get all the control. And this niche within the niche of mobile homes seems to be the most forgotten one. And I buy them and I rent them out long term and there’s way less competition. So I’ll leave it there with that. At least give some people some more spark about mobile homes. And I guess we’re have to talk again, man. We can talk about all these topics for so long.

Quentin (23:50)
Yeah.

You ain’t learned about it. So let’s do this. If people wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they reach out to you,

AdrianSmude.com (24:05)
You can go to Amazon and get my book, How to Buy Mobile Homes. It’s yellow, just like everything in my life. I just did my second updated edition. You can go to lifestyle-rei.com. My contacts there, I’m on most of the social medias. I’m personally the most active within, my VA helps me get on some of them that I don’t know how to even log in. But I’m the one most active within Instagram and Facebook.

but all the questions do come back to me regardless of where they come in at and I’m the one that answers it or gives it to someone to answer. So I’d love to connect you. I’d love to help you however I can.

Quentin (24:43)
Yeah. Man, so let me say three things to you. First, let me thank you for your time, right? You could have been anywhere in the world doing anything. You and I both know you can put a premium on your time. So thank you for me. Thank you for getting us your time. Secondly, man, bro, thank you for your story. I personally put a premium on stories. I believe everybody has the power to tell their own story, to tell their own narrative. But I also believe stories have a way.

of planting seeds and other people, you may never see the growth of that seed, but you planted it. And later on, something that you put inside somebody, it may just start to get stale and may get watered and really sprout up to be something and just be like, moments to people. So thank you for your story. Thank you for the gift of your transparency and vulnerability. Lastly, thank you for your perspective, like your mindset, man, the way you think. Thank you for bringing that mindset to this platform. I greatly appreciate you being here,

AdrianSmude.com (25:41)
You’re welcome. Thanks for having me. That is what I look to do is to help if I can help some people not make the same mistakes I have and just be an inspiration to others and learn from my mistakes so you don’t have as many painful mistakes. That’s what makes it feel a little bit better about talking about them is I’m hoping other people learn from them so you don’t have to make the same mistakes I’ve made. That’s why I pay my coaches so I don’t have to make the same mistakes they did. One of my coaches I joke around them all the time like, you figure that out? Cause I’m right behind you on that step in life.

Quentin (26:05)
Absolutely.

Mm, mm. Man, so I do this a lot within my circles, because I have a strong brotherhood. I have strong accountability brothers. And whenever somebody’s being vulnerable and transparent, it’s like, listen, I ain’t going to leave you out here. Like, if you going put yourself out there, I’m going to put myself out there. And man, just want people to know, you know, I do this podcast. And I don’t know if I have been transparent enough, but ain’t none of us perfect. Like, we all have things. Like, my.

My word for this season, for this year is curious to be curious. That’s my word. But last year, you want to know what my word was? Envy and jealousy. I found myself being envious and jealous of other people. And I had to deal with that. And I found myself comparing myself to other people. And I really had to sit with myself and be, now I’m curious, why are you jealous? Why are you envious? Why are you upset? Where does this anger come from?

AdrianSmude.com (26:46)
I love it.

Quentin (27:07)
And so I say that man, because you have been so forthright and say, Hey, you’re not perfect. And I want everybody to know, like we all have something that we’re trying to overcome, but we can overcome it. And I think the key is just to be. Leave with integrity, be honest, be humble. so I know, listen, I don’t want to take the last word from you. So is there anything else you want to say? I’m gonna let you drop the mic. Is there anything else you want to say,

AdrianSmude.com (27:29)
I feel like we can just keep going back and forth. You inspired me to tell people what I didn’t say. I wrote a book, I mentioned that. But I learned while I was writing my book, I’m dyslexic. So if a dyslexic guy can write a book and a dyslexic guy can go buy mobile homes, so can you. And that’s not to poke fun at you. Things can be hard, but you can still do it.

Quentin (27:50)
Listen, y’all, y’all got the value. Check the show notes. Check out Adrian. Get the book. Definitely make sure you’re subscribed here because I promise you, I promise you, we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people just like Mr. Adrian. So, sir, thank you again. And everyone else, listen, man. Y’all have a fantastic day.