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Show Summary
In this episode of the Investor Fuel Podcast, host Leo Wehdeking interviews Umaer Haq, a real estate investor specializing in mobile home parks. Umaer shares his journey through various real estate strategies, his innovative use of AI in the industry, and his commitment to addressing the affordable housing crisis. He discusses his unique approach to helping non-bankable individuals achieve home ownership and emphasizes the importance of mindset and networking in real estate success. The conversation also touches on learning from past mistakes and Umaer’s future goals in private equity.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Umaer Haq (00:00)
I’m leveraging ⁓ high-powered CRM systems with the proper data that enabled me to find the sellers and actually build a, ⁓ I call it a cosmic bond with the sellers because, you know, people don’t care what you know until they know that you care, right? And that’s the approach that I take with every seller.The other way that I’m providing value is I do a lot of rent to own or rent to buy opportunities. I don’t know if you knew this, but 90 % of Americans are not bankable.
Leo Wehdeking (02:02)
everyone, welcome to the Investor Fuel Podcast. I’m your host, Leo Wehdeking and today I am joined by someone I’ve been looking forward to chatting with, Umaer Haq, who’s been making serious moves in the real estate industry. Umaer, glad to have you here,Umaer Haq (02:18)
Glad to be here, Leo.Leo Wehdeking (02:19)
⁓ Umaer, ⁓ I think our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’ve been approaching your ⁓ mobile houses ⁓ real estate business.I know that you do it in parks, all right? But I think that they’re really going to take something away from this, from how you’ve been doing your business. So for people who may not be familiar with your world, ⁓ can you tell us what is your main focus these days?
Umaer Haq (02:51)
Yeah, I’ve done a variety of different real estate investing strategies since I started. ⁓ Notes, tax liens, deeds, flips, wholesaling, Airbnb arbitrage, you name it.But over the years I’ve landed on investing in mobile home parks, buying parks, and investing in raw land and putting homes on the plots. And it has been great. So I’m investing in mobile home parks, and I get to live off of the cash flow from the assets. And that was really important to me when I got started in this business.
Leo Wehdeking (03:29)
What markets are you operating in? ⁓Umaer Haq (03:32)
So I live in Virginia near Washington DC and it’s an equity market, very, very expensive. I knew if I wanted to create the cash flow or replace any type of paycheck, I had to be more in going to equity cash flow markets. So I’m currently, I invest here in Virginia, but most of my portfolio is in South Carolina and Georgia.Leo Wehdeking (03:59)
Umaer, something that actually caught my attention about you, it’s the way that you’re actually helping people, all right? And at the same time, ⁓ implementing new tools into your business. Can you be a little bit more specific into what you’re doing nowadays, implementing AI into your business?Umaer Haq (04:23)
Yeah, ⁓ well there’s a lot that we’re doing and so I am implementing artificial intelligence, ⁓ AI, into a lot of the processes and systems.I’m leveraging ⁓ high-powered CRM systems with the proper data that enabled me to find the sellers and actually build a, ⁓ I call it a cosmic bond with the sellers because, you know, people don’t care what you know until they know that you care, right? And that’s the approach that I take with every seller. So…
The other way that I’m providing value is I do a lot of rent to own or rent to buy opportunities. I don’t know if you knew this, but 90 % of Americans are not bankable.
Unfortunately, we’re not taught about finance and credit in the school system. So I wanted to approach my investing model with a strategy that can help others acquire ownership that wouldn’t have the opportunity to do that.
any without this. And I also noticed that right now we’re having an affordable housing crisis in America. People that are between 25 to even 36, they can’t afford their own home. They’re still living with their parents. And so when I started looking at my model and how I wanted to provide value to the marketplace, I was like, all right, I know I want to people because that’s a part of my personality. I know I want to make a ton of money.
know I want freedom in my life. And so after exploring all these different things, like I tried a flipping business and it’s like, man, she’s like, I was just always chasing the next deal. I tried wholesaling, but I’m not really building any wealth with that. So I’m like, how can I create both what we call operational income that I can use to live off of day to day as well as passive income? And so I landed on buying mobile home parks, right? And I know mobile home parks has a
stigma to it but it is it is amazing yeah I mean I’m able to buy neighborhoods
Leo Wehdeking (07:13)
I like them personally. Yeah, I like…Umaer Haq (07:20)
Leo for pennies on the dollar. They’re better than buying apartment buildings in my belief system because with apartments, people are surrounded by four walls. They don’t have a front yard or a backyard, no personal space. There’s no community. And so a multifamily investment might be, it might sound sexy to an investor, but there’s only one income strategy from that. If you own a mobile home park, you’re making money off of the lot.rent, you’re making money off of the mobile home if you own it, you’re making money if you take that home and you sell it on an installment agreement, now you’re being the bank.
So you’re sitting back and collecting more passive income. And then there’s value-add opportunities in mobile home parks. Like, like submetering the, if you have a well, like submetering the water, it’s a, there are so many ways that you can produce more income in a mobile home park as opposed to an apartment building. It’s amazing.
Leo Wehdeking (08:23)
ExactlyIt is is it is ⁓ Umaer ⁓ I want to ask you something. Okay. Now you said something about People from age to 25 to 30 not able to afford a house ⁓ You said that you like to people right? How are you helping? people that cannot afford a home nowadays
Umaer Haq (08:52)
That’s a great question. So I’m buying cheap land in rural areas. So this is the other thing. I’m leveraging what we call the great migration. Have you noticed over the last couple of years, people were living in New York, San Francisco, Washington, DC. They’re all wanting more space. They’re wanting a cheaper cost of living because of inflation. And many Americans are able to work from their laptops now, from home. There’s lots of these positions.What I’m doing is I’m buying land in cheap rural areas. This is one of the strategies, right? I’m buying the land.
I am talking to the permitting and the coding departments and I’m making sure, you know, it’s even better if it’s in city sewer and city water, buying land pretty cheap. Okay. Then I’ve built relationships with mobile home manufacturers. Okay. So we’re getting double wides. We’re bringing those double wides to the land, Leo. We’re taking the axles and the wheels off and we’re placing that mobile home on a peer and beam.
foundation.
When you do that, that property is no longer considered a mobile home. It is considered real property. You retire the title with the DMV, so you’re buying it already done. So I don’t have to go through any of the flipping process, any of the hard money lending, none of the stuff that I hated to deal with.
I put that piece of property on the land, now it’s worth double. And I’m able to sell it to your FHA, VA, USDA buyer that can get a 0 % down loan. So the end consumer is happy.
The jurisdiction’s happy because they’re getting that tax revenue. And if I want to sell it, I’ll make 40 to 90 grand in profit. This could be done anywhere in the country, by the way. But I’m focusing on the, so I’m making great money if I want to keep it. But I’ll be honest, Leo, I don’t like selling. I regret every asset I’ve ever sold.
because we live in a debt-based economy. And over time, asset prices are always gonna go up. You look at housing back in the early 80s to the 90s to the 2000s, in the economy, there’s always gonna be ups and downs. But long-term,
Leo Wehdeking (11:37)
was dead.Exactly.
Umaer Haq (11:57)
asset prices will always go up. Why do you think the S &P 500 just continues to go higher and higher and higher? And so I say all of that to say, Leo, if I don’t want to just make a big check and pay capital gains tax on it, I’ll keep that property and I will collect a down payment from my end buyer and I will be the bank for the end buyer.They want their own home. ⁓ Maybe they can’t get FHA, VA, or whatever. Well, there’s a whole customer base that is not bankable for a variety of different reasons. Even me. I’ll talk about me. So as a business owner, I take advantage of every tax strategy that I can. So my adjusted gross income, or my AGI, doesn’t always reflect what I’m able to pay for, if that makes sense.
Leo Wehdeking (12:51)
Itdoes.
Umaer Haq (12:51)
So business owners need this because they need a way to get into their first house or their second house, but these banks are so stringent on their process with the debt to the the…the verifying everything, making you jump through hoops, having a credit. So if I don’t wanna sell it, I’ll take that same home, Leo, that, and I can be all in for very cheap. Like I’m all in for like 60, 70 grand. I’m able to sell sometimes for 180, 200 in some of these rural areas, lower markets. And so there’s a spread there if I wanna sell it, but if I don’t, I’m gonna hold onto it for cash flow. So now that I’ve improved the land and put the
there it’s gonna appraise for more. So I’ve built and this is what I recommend the listeners to do I’ve built solid relationships with small local banks that are willing to refinance me. So when I refinance I pull my cash out and I can do another little deal like this but then the people that are paying me they end up paying all my debt service taxes and insurance and I still have some cash flow left over.
And there’s different phases that investors go through. Like right now, I’m a young man. I am in, well, not that young anymore. I’m 37, but I am still Leo. Am I still Leo?
Leo Wehdeking (14:16)
You’re still young, trust me.Yeah, you’re still young. At 37, you’re still young.
Umaer Haq (14:22)
I’m in a growth phase, right? So I’m gonna be leveraging debt to build wealth. Now I wanna be careful to never be over-leveraged because we know what happens if someone’s over-leveraged. As we’ve learned from the 06 to 09 housing crisis. if I’m able, I’m in a growth phase, so I’m using leverage. But as I stop wanting to do this and as I just wanna have freedom and travel the world and do things with my family,I know that I’ll be able to pay down my debt and just live off of the cash flow.
Leo Wehdeking (15:41)
⁓ What’s been the recipe? Because you seem like a very smart person and because of everything that you’ve been doing, helping people, flipping houses, you’ve been in different areas. what’s been the key to keep that machine running smoothly? Your business running smoothly.Umaer Haq (16:08)
mindset.I mean, Leo, it’s everything. Because if you’re going to choose to be a real estate investor, look, it’s not sunshine and rainbows. You might hear people saying, I’m making all this money. I’m so happy. It is great. And it is great. And it is all worth it. But if you don’t have the right mindset, if you’re naturally a pessimist,
I don’t recommend this game for you, right? Me and my wife are opposite, right? I’m always like, yeah, it’s gonna work. We’re gonna make it happen. I’ve got a game plan. And my wife is naturally like, oh, I don’t know about this, right? So what I’ve noticed…
is it doesn’t, you don’t have to be a genius. You gotta know basic math, right? You don’t have to be some straight A student, right? I was a C, D, and F student. You just have to be flexible. You have to love learning and just be able to adjust. So I’ve met thousands of people, Leo.
Leo Wehdeking (17:04)
Exactly.Umaer Haq (17:09)
And the one thing that changes, the one thing is always mindset. It’s like either, and I don’t think you’re either born with it. I don’t think you’re born with it. Mindset is something that you can develop by being around, by being around even people like you, like me, like it’s environment, right? And that’s why when I decided to jump into the real estate investing space, I knew I needed to be around an environment that empowers me.Leo Wehdeking (17:21)
It is.It is, it is.
agree with you. ⁓ Actually, I believe that any person in any area that you’re working in, all right, ⁓ if you are with the right people, you’re going to be successful. All right. ⁓ And actually what you said about ⁓ no one is born, you know, being a pessimist or being, or having the right mindset, you know, that’s something that we develop through the years. ⁓
Umaer Haq (17:53)
Yeah.Leo Wehdeking (18:07)
And everything, again, I believe that the mind is very powerful. ⁓ The more you think of something, the more you become that way. ⁓ For an example, and I’m not going to say this is the example of your wife, but if every time that you bring her a deal like, ⁓We’re gonna be doing this or I’m gonna be doing this and that and she tells you like ⁓ I’m not sure about that, but you’re always you know with that ⁓ Positiveness like hey, you know
eventually, you know, you’re thinking in a way that You’re gonna be able to make it because your mind Changes the minute that you start repeating
So yeah, I totally agree with you on that side. ⁓ Now, Umaer, another question that I have for you. ⁓ I know that every operator at any moment, you know, ⁓
to face.
You know what?
has to face like a real situation in life, you know? ⁓ Maybe a deal that went sideways or maybe a time that they had to pivot real fast. Do you mind sharing one of those moments?
Umaer Haq (19:43)
When I had to adjust really fast, you know, I consider myself very very conservative I Don’t take a lot of risk. In fact, the reason I invest in real estate is I believe it’s too risky not to SoI’m trying to think of an example, nothing comes to mind. mean, for me, very, I have like a mixed martial arts background. Before I got into real estate investing, I actually did boxing and studied jujitsu and did some pro, I’ve done it professionally. I won some, I lost some, but I approach my life and business.
the same way. And in jiu-jitsu, which is grappling basically, you’re not thinking just one move, you’re thinking three, four moves ahead of time. So if you have a triangle choke on someone and they escape that, you’re being flexible, you’re moving, you’re adjusting. hmm.
Leo Wehdeking (20:40)
exactly.Umaer Haq (20:53)
I’m trying to think of a time, well, I can tell you about a traumatic time. This just came to mind. So before I really decided to go all in and join a mastermind and start learning and really learning first before doing,I was just excited about trying to make money and help my parents. And so I just blindly trusted someone that I thought would help me. so I, and I thought I was helping my parents. So my parents lent a hundred thousand dollars to this investor who didn’t really know what they were doing. And they lost my parents hundred thousand dollars.
And so I didn’t know, Leo, about properly structured promissory notes, getting things notarized. I wasn’t familiar with a first lean position, and that cost me big time.
And so since that time, I’ve been able to personally pay my back, my parents back 100 % because we didn’t come for money. We’re foreigners. We, my mom and dad worked at convenience stores for years and I just, wanted a different life. That’s why I got into real estate investing, but that was a traumatic experience. But through that pain came a lot of growth because I committed, I took the thing is I didn’t even blame that investor. had to take 100 % responsibility for what
happened in my life. I allowed that to happen. And so after that moment, Leo, I was like, this is not going to happen again. And that was 12 years ago.
Leo Wehdeking (22:34)
Well, you know what they say, an errornot an error if you don’t do it again. If it happens to you the first time, whenever you learn, sometimes people think like, no, I failed many times. But why did you learn from those failures? I’d rather be taught by a person that…
has had failures in the past than one that has never had failures. Because what am I going to learn from a person that had never lose? All big minds. So this is actually not ⁓ the right example, I would say. But rejection. Do you know how many times the writer
Umaer Haq (23:33)
yeah. Yeah.Leo Wehdeking (23:33)
than 312 times.Walt Disney, he was rejected more than 300 times. Look at where they are right now.
Umaer Haq (23:40)
Mm-hmm.Leo Wehdeking (23:44)
So it happens the same thing, you know, when you are, I wouldn’t say naive, but maybe, you know, you were not at that level yet, all right, to deal with the investors. But again, you know, thank God, okay, that you turned the wheel, all right, and after 12 years, look at where you’re standing right now, all right? So cheers for you.Umaer, okay, so let me ask you something else, okay? What are you most focused on solving or scaling next? What is the real next goal for you?
Umaer Haq (24:29)
in this soI’m wanting to get into the private equity space.
I have been a real estate investor for a while, but for the last few months, or even I guess maybe two years, I’ve been studying, ⁓ because real estate is a business. It’s a pretty simple business. But now, ⁓ just because this is my game, I love this, I’m passionate about it, I’m learning about…
buying ⁓ and selling businesses or buying like business. Like I want to buy businesses within the real estate space, like maybe a roof trust manufacturer, right? Like a roof trust company. was looking at their numbers and they have amazing margins. want to, cause like I said, there’s lots of baby boomers retiring and their children don’t necessarily want their businesses. And I see massive, massive opportunity right now, especially with how technology has grown and AI.
in automations and so you could take a business from someone who’s just stuck in their ways you can buy that business and you can grow it by buying like businesses and then reselling to a larger PE firm or just keeping those businesses ⁓ in your portfolio and so you can you it’s all about learning how to have good employees hire the right people systemize some things and so that’s
the next game or the next chapter of my life I guess I would say and I’m really I’m excited about just I’m just excited about what I’ve been learning I’m like whoa like when I first found out that I could do deals without using my own money or credit in real estate I was like there’s no freaking way this is real you know and and then it turned out that it’s real and and and I’ve done lots of deals with no money no credit ⁓
But now that’s like the next, I think, thing that I’m excited about.
Leo Wehdeking (26:32)
Okay, all right, that’s cool, man, that’s cool. Now, I know that a lot of people listening here are either early in their journey or sometimes they’re just looking to level up and I think they will definitely benefit from hearing ⁓ this. Now, when it comes about building relationships and growing up your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?Umaer Haq (27:01)
Again, I could do better at building relationships.That’s something that I want to get better at. One of the best decisions I’ve made in my life was joining a real estate investing group back when I was 25. And paying for that, you know, is the best money I’ve ever spent because not only was I able to learn real estate investing, I was able to build the relationships and acquire the knowledge and be around like my, know, Tony Robbins, I love Tony Robbins. He’s helped me in a
Leo Wehdeking (27:29)
exactly.Umaer Haq (27:36)
ofways but I’ll never forget he said this and it’s just something I never forgot he goes our lives are a direct reflection of the expectations of our peer groups
He goes, our lives are a direct reflection of the expectations of our peer group. And so I was like, if I can start hanging out with people expecting me to make millions, if I can start hanging out with people expecting me, it’s just expected in the environment, then by default, will keep, like humans keep up with their environment. So I was like, hmm, one of the most important things, like man, I gotta get a part of a group in an environment.
Leo Wehdeking (28:07)
Yeah.Umaer Haq (28:19)
that’s pushing me so that… But you know, and still, I need to get out there. I really want, not need, I want to go out and do more networking and I’m gonna, after this meeting, I’m glad we’re talking about it, I’m gonna make it a point to go out and attend some of these either RIA groups or these networking groups and things like that. ⁓ I’m going to something.October 22nd in Salt Lake City ⁓ and I’m sure that there’s going to be some good networking there but I’m yeah I got to do more of that.
Leo Wehdeking (28:56)
Alright,alright, yeah, definitely man. Being in the right environment is what’s gonna, you know, push you up, okay, to where you wanna be. ⁓ Alright, that’s cool man. Now, before we wrap up, ⁓ if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, or maybe collaborate, or learn, or even learn more about what you’re doing, what is the best way for them to reach out to you?
Umaer Haq (29:22)
text, Facebook, social media, anything. I mean, I’m not a difficult guy to reach. ⁓ My Facebook page, I guess the younger crowd doesn’t do Facebook anymore, I’m noticing, but my name is Umaer Haq, U-M-A-E-R, last name, H-A-Q, and ⁓ I’m on all the social media stuff, and that’s probably the best way to contact me.Leo Wehdeking (29:48)
Alright, Perfect. ⁓Listen, Umaer, I really appreciate your time, your story, and your perspective. ⁓ We actually need more people like you in this space who are actually doing it the right way.
Thank you very much for being over here in the show, man. And for those of you tuning in, if you got value from this, just make sure you’re subscribed. All right. We got more conversations with operators just like Umaer, ⁓ who are out there building real businesses until then we’ll see you on the next episode.
Umaer Haq (30:23)
Thank you.
