How Manufactured Homes Create Affordable Housing at Half the Median Home Price

Brent Bowers The Land Sharks (00:00)
100%.

Even investors are doing it now as well, like, because they get warranty, you know, for sometimes 10 years, like, why wouldn’t I just buy a brand new rental property that I can come in with 15 % down to a non QM loan, no income verification, no tax returns, and have warranty for a couple years on a brand new house, like, and I’ll rent it out. So the investors are when you start seeing investors pivot, that’s when a lot of people will pivot. But I think it’s already happening. Because like one of our markets, Greenville, South Carolina, I’ll give you the exact market.

median home prices, 440 to 460, give or take, on a fixer-upper 1955 home. Like, that’s almost 75-year-old home. I don’t care how good they fix it up, how good they renovate it.

Dylan Silver (00:40)
Yeah.

folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest returning guest, Brent Bowers is a land investing expert and educator focused on helping people create income through vacant raw land. Through the land sharks, he teaches practical strategies for buying and selling land, generating cashflow and building freedom through an often overlooked niche in real estate investing. And today we’re going to be talking about manufactured homes among other things. Brent, thanks for taking the time today.

Brent Bowers The Land Sharks (02:49)
Dylan, I’m super stoked, man. Thanks for having me on.

Dylan Silver (02:53)
Now, why do you think land investing and manufactured homes sometimes gets overlooked in the broader landscape of real estate investing?

Brent Bowers The Land Sharks (03:03)
You know, I’m not sure. think a lot of people think that there’s no way to make money with land because there’s nothing on it or it takes too long to build on it. I’ve been flipping lands since 2015 and I too used to think the same thing until I started buying like cheap, non-buildable, not accessible landlocked parcels of land. And then I started flipping them and making cash and then I did larger parcels. And then I eventually started placing brand new manufactured houses on these parcels. And it’s just

It’s amazing how high demand something that’s been developed and has a brand new home with warranty and it’s an affordable housing. mean, manufactured housing is cheaper than anything else out there. So sometimes we sell this stuff in a weekend. ⁓ I’m just, sometimes I’m thinking to myself, is this too good to be true type thing? Now there are some risks involved with it as well, but you know, it’s.

Dylan Silver (03:44)
That’s true.

Brent Bowers The Land Sharks (04:01)
pretty much the same thing on every single lot. You just gotta watch out for certain things.

Dylan Silver (04:06)
No question. And the too good to be true is probably where a lot of people are getting caught up in because they’re looking at the price of the land, they’re looking at the price of the manufactured home, and then they’re looking at, you know, what could it potentially appraise for as soon as it’s affixed to the land becomes real property. And I think that seems like a huge return just right off the bat. Walk me through how you got started in the manufactured housing space.

Brent Bowers The Land Sharks (04:33)
Absolutely. So the manufactured housing space, I looked at all the land deals that I was selling and I noticed that the ones I was making every time, like over $40,000, $30,000 profit, usually allowed a manufactured home or a mobile home to be placed on the land. it was actually 2020 was when I did my first one, 2020.

and I made $97,000 net profit and I made so many mistakes.

And I’d like to tell you Dylan that I just kept doing them ever since. I actually waited until about 2023 before I did another one because I had made so many mistakes and got my hands burnt on that first one, even though I still netted $97,000 on that land. Actually, me and my partner netted that.

He found the land for 30 grand. It already had the utilities on it because the house burned down. But we literally netted, we split almost 100K, but it was, it took me almost a year. Like it was frustrating. And this was actually a modular home. Really my contractor moved to Kentucky at the time and I was doing this from Colorado Springs. So it didn’t work out very well, but about 2023, it kind of like licked my wounds enough.

And I started another one and I actually partnered with two individuals that were using our Landshark strategy, the Landshark’s method to find these parcels of land. And they were doing it at such a high scale, they had created a step-by-step checklist and systems and processes. They also taught me how to get a dealer’s license and go directly to the manufacturer rather than ordering them from the side of the road, the retail market where I’m paying like $50,000 more.

It was truly incredible because I was already getting the land at a discount through our land sharks method. And then I started getting the mobile homes and the manufacturer homes at a discount. We combine those two and pretty much we can have an assembly line now of, you know, two a month. I try and sell two a month. They take me about four months for the process from the time I buy the land to the time I get paid on the sale. But selling to a month net and 45 K each, you know, it’s a, it’s a, can make a million dollars a year very easily doing this with the

a team, got one office manager. That’s my team.

Dylan Silver (07:47)
Basic

question here for you, Brent. When we look at manufactured versus modular, what are the main differences there? in any cases, are those terms interchangeable?

Brent Bowers The Land Sharks (08:01)
Yes, such a good question, Dylan. my goodness. So many people are confused on that.

But the difference between modular, okay, modular, they bring it in. They bring it in in two halves usually. Sometimes there’s multiple.

Sometimes there’s three or four or five of them. But they usually crane it onto a permanent foundation, an actual real foundation with the stem wall, like the one I did in Colorado.

I actually had to heat that foundation. I had to condition that foundation, keep it heated. ⁓ Now a manufactured home, they roll in on wheels. You roll it up to the pad on wheels. You remove the frame and the tongue, and then you tie that thing down. You pretty much bolt it down to the ground.

Sometimes it’s literally with like six foot rods and you tie it around the things never moving again the manufacturer home But it’s not sitting on a real foundation sitting on a dirt pad That some sometimes they’re they’re on footers and you tie it down to the footers Sometimes like Florida believe it of all places, Florida. We can just strap it down and it’s rated for you know, 120 mile an hour plus winds like her cat five hurricanes Actually, it’s funny story

Side note, I was talking to an insurance, we were out at a manufactured home show, we had an insurance guy. There was about half the claims on manufactured housing as there were on single family, stick built, concrete block structures. And one can argue, well, maybe they weren’t ⁓ insuring those. No, they did a side by side comparison and noticed that there was less claims on manufactured houses rather than.

concrete block structures and stick built homes, which I was blown away by that. So the insurance does the same price.

Dylan Silver (09:44)
That is mind blowing.

So when you’re looking at manufactured versus modular, is there a price jump from manufactured to modular? Is that the main reason why people would go with manufactured or is it some other factor?

Brent Bowers The Land Sharks (10:31)
Yeah,

Modular is a little bit more expensive. It’s a little bit like sturdier, you know, how do I say it? A little bit sturdier. It’s not much more. It’s a few dollars a square foot, but you also have to pay for that foundation, which is usually around 20 something thousand dollars. So it does add some expenses. You also need a general contractor for it rather than a setup crew. So there’s a couple, there’s a lot of pros and cons. It’s a lot.

more affordable to do a manufactured house plus faster. Now you could still order them from the plant just as fast, ⁓ you know, a modular home than a manufactured. They’re both about the same timeframe.

Dylan Silver (11:15)
Now, this is interesting because when we talk about affordable housing, one of the things, and I mentioned this to you in the green room, Brent, I’m surprised that being in Texas where I’m at, that I’m not seeing more opportunities like this. And I’m not sure exactly why it is. I’m not sure if it’s kind of the connotation of a mobile home park and they say there’s no more mobile home parks being built. And then is that carrying over into the manufactured space or is it because the demand for, you know, stick built

new homes and subdivisions is so high that people aren’t looking at this. But it does seem to be a lost opportunity from a lot of angles.

Brent Bowers The Land Sharks (11:52)
I’m seeing a lot of people catch on, like Clayton actually just lowered their prices on some of their models. When everything else is going up, diesel fuel is like $5.57 a gallon. Right now, it’s pretty wild when you actually have manufactured housing prices go down,

because they’re figuring

out ways to make these processes more efficient. There’s something in Congress right now, I don’t know if that’s the correct word for it, that they’re trying to…

eliminate the massive frame and turn it into more of a plastic frame. That way it’s cheaper to transport cheaper. Cause we leave these massive frames on there that are not needed. ⁓ Florida actually January 1st, this is already written. It’s going to go into effect January 1st that any residential lot, single family SFR, they will now allow a manufactured home. ⁓

as long as you abide or pre-built home or modular ⁓ factory built home or modular or manufactured on any lot, as long as you abide by the county setback rules, the PUD rules, like if it has to have a garage or a driveway or set like certain looks, ⁓ as long as you follow those, you can place a manufacturing home now come January 1st on any lot. So I think other states like Texas will catch on. I mean, it’s absolutely huge in Florida, South Carolina’s

Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama. think maybe, you know, things are just slower to catch on and Texas. And maybe you don’t have the builders out there. Maybe it’s just more of a Southern thing. But, you know, I see these in California, I them in Arizona. Maybe just Texas is just, I don’t know.

Dylan Silver (13:35)
It

could also be red car theory, Brent. Maybe now that I’ve talked to you, I’m going to go out and I’m going to see all the look. They’re everywhere. I just wasn’t seeing.

Brent Bowers The Land Sharks (13:41)
That’s true.

That’s so true. Now that I mean, ever since I started placing manufactured homes, I see them everywhere. And I’m like, that one should have did that. Like, you know, because when I build them, I try and put the nicest product on there. Because, you know, we all have the stigma, I have this stigma from the 1960s mobile homes that I’ve walked through.

And I’m not putting mobile homes on land, I’m putting manufacturer like I picture that brown, dark panel board, like I want mine open, light and bright. I want people to walk in and be like, wow.

Dylan Silver (14:12)
And that’s a huge difference. And I think when people are thinking about where to innovate next, one of the things that people are looking to is these types of land plays. And I’ve seen a lot of people who are buying ⁓ mobile home parks, even though there are not any new ones being made. I’ve seen people going into RVs. I’ve seen tiny home communities. And now I’m talking to you about manufactured housing. Do you see that there’s going to be maybe some type of

I don’t want to say migration, but some type of movement for people who may be shut out of the traditional single-family home stick-built market, and they may be looking now into purchasing these types of alternative investments as their residence.

Brent Bowers The Land Sharks (15:39)
100%. Even investors are doing it now as well, like, because they get warranty, you know, for sometimes 10 years, like, why wouldn’t I just buy a brand new rental property that I can come in with 15 % down to a non QM loan, no income verification, no tax returns, and have warranty for a couple years on a brand new house, like, and I’ll rent it out. So the investors are when you start seeing investors pivot, that’s when a lot of people will pivot. But I think it’s already happening. Because like one of our markets, Greenville, South Carolina, I’ll give you the exact market.

median home prices, 440 to 460, give or take, on a fixer-upper 1955 home. Like, that’s almost 75-year-old home. I don’t care how good they fix it up, how good they renovate it.

Dylan Silver (16:19)
Yeah.

Brent Bowers The Land Sharks (16:27)
And most of the time when we were flipping houses, like, we weren’t doing the best jobs renovating. We were like slapping lipsticks on pigs. But the ones we’re selling,

The manufactured houses on land that we’re selling in South Carolina are 220. So compare that to the median. We’re half the median home price and they get a brand new home with warranty. It’s a 2026 model. So it’s just a no brainer for someone that can’t, first of all, can’t even afford a $400,000 house. Plus, they live in it for like my house I moved in in Florida. Oh my gosh. We paid top dollar because we moved here in 2021 when everyone else was.

Dylan Silver (16:44)
Yes.

Brent Bowers The Land Sharks (17:09)
fleeing Colorado and California. We came back to Florida where we’re from, paid top dollar for a 1980 home that had never, like both air conditioners, the roof needed replaced, the house needed complete re-plumbing, ⁓ all the

walls needed painting, the carpets, like everything had to be replaced. The pool

patio, my gosh.

So we now just overpaid for this home and then we had to put another.

$50,000 into it and we’re still not done. It’s still not done.

Dylan Silver (17:40)
Yeah, in order to get it up

to fad. And, you know, when you talk about this renovation process, it’s like, well, we could go that route, or we could buy in a tertiary market and maybe get a new home. Or, you know, let’s explore some of these alternative asset classes. When you see people making that decision, hey, we’re going to go buy a manufactured home, hey, we’re going to go, you know, potentially buy an RV and do that type of thing, or hey, we’re

Brent Bowers The Land Sharks (18:09)
Yeah,

Dylan Silver (18:10)
Well, do modular.

Brent Bowers The Land Sharks (18:10)
we’ve done that. That’s

Dylan Silver (18:12)
How do people come to their decision? Like, what’s the mental arithmetic they’re doing to decide which asset class to buy in?

Brent Bowers The Land Sharks (18:20)
Yeah, I don’t know if we’re having a lot of thinking going on like that because a lot of, I mean, nine out of the 10 of these brand new manufactured homes on land that I’ve sold in the past, I don’t know, year and a half have been FHA buyers. So they’re usually first time home buyers. They’re buying their first house and most of the time we’re paying all their closing costs, seller concessions. So they’re walking into these houses like no money out their pocket. they’re…

Dylan Silver (18:35)
Hmm.

Brent Bowers The Land Sharks (18:48)
I don’t want to say that. mean, these are probably like these are the lowest ⁓ price houses they can potentially buy. They only qualify for this. And I got to be very careful when I put these in not to go too crazy. Like I can’t do like a concrete driveway up to the door and all this patio and these massive decks and landscaping because that adds another $10,000. Now I just priced, you know, 55 people out of the market.

Dylan Silver (19:18)
That’s very interesting. You mentioned FHA and I’m

Brent Bowers The Land Sharks (19:18)
I want the highest amount of buyers. Say that again. I’m sorry. I was talking right over you.

Dylan Silver (19:28)
actually glad to hear this because I’m a realtor in Texas and I hadn’t thought of going FHA for manufactured housing. And I think there’s probably a lot of people who are in the same boat where they’re not thinking about that for their clients. When in actuality, hey, if folks want to get into the on-ramp of real estate homeownership,

Let’s look at manufactured housing and knowing that they can go FHA, that’s huge.

Brent Bowers The Land Sharks (19:51)
Yeah, not just FHA, but like

we’re selling one right now in Florida, a conventional buyer. Oh my goodness, so easy. They’re putting 30 % down. have USDA buyers can qualify for these USDA loans. VA loans, VA loans are probably the easiest. Well, conventional is actually way easier. And then I already talked about to you about the non QM loans where basically income, no income verification, no tax return,

15 % down.

So investors are teaming up with realtors in one of my areas, and these realtors are like creating the inventory because there’s nothing on the market. So they’re going to find a piece of land that’s been on the MLS for 180 days. They’re selling them the land.

Dylan Silver (20:22)
It’s a game.

Brent Bowers The Land Sharks (20:38)
And then we’re teaming up and placing the manufactured home on that land. they’re actually getting,

you know, the three, or they’re getting the, the 3 % on their land that when they get the, the realtor commission, and then they get

another 3 % on the whole build out. So they’re like where they wouldn’t have gotten any commission, cause there was no inventory. They just created it and they still made the same amount of money. And you know, it’s, it’s been incredible working with some of these realtors that just see this.

Dylan Silver (21:04)
That is a game I’m thinking about this for myself out here

now in Texas. We are coming up on time here Brent,

any new projects that you’re working on or anything you’d like to push out to our audience.

Brent Bowers The Land Sharks (21:17)
Yeah, if anybody wants to chat more, pick up, I hate to say that,

pick my brain or discuss what we’re up to. ⁓ We coach a couple people on what we’re doing. Head on over to thelandsharks.com and then we’re always looking for more capital partners where we can do these on a larger scale. Maybe we’ll come into Texas,

you know,

and actually I’m doing a Guadalupe County, Texas right now. We’re doing a land subdivide right now.

Dylan Silver (21:43)
Terrific. Brent, thank you so much for joining us today on the show. Thanks for your time.