Mobile Home Park Investing Strategy That Built $72M Net Worth

Major Hillard IV (00:00)
Yeah, that so that fifteen hundred was every penny I had. And I was living in my parents’ house right after college, got a DUI and went to jail, couldn’t get hired. I was in commercial real estate and so I was working three jobs, one of them being a bouncer at a nightclub five nights a week. And so all I was able to save at that point was fifteen hundred dollars and I was in my father’s attic cleaning it up for some rent back rent that I owed him.

And found a box of real estate books and there was one in there. I picked up, dusted it off, and it was called Deals on Wheels by Lonnie Scruggs. And it spoke about flipping and making financing notes and seller notes on mobile homes. And I remember clearly reading the book that you could purchase a home for as little as a thousand dollars or less, and that was routine. And I thought the the book was total BS. There’s no way you can buy a home for thousands, like whatever.

But I read the book and I went out the very next week and within 10 days I purchased my own home for fifteen hundred dollars.

Meghan Escobar (02:35)
hey everyone, welcome to Real Estate Pros Podcast. I am your host, Meghan Escobar, and today I am joined here by somebody that I’ve been looking forward to all week to chat with. We have Major Hill, the fourth, is that right?

Major Hillard IV (02:50)
Major Hillard, yeah.

Meghan Escobar (02:51)
okay, I saw the the the numer Roman numeral there. I thought that meant Major Hillard the Fourth, okay. who’s been making some serious, serious moves in the mobile home industry. And I am super glad to have you here, Major. I think our listeners are really going to be able to take something away from how you’re approaching this industry. I mean

Major Hillard IV (02:56)
Yeah, Major Hillard the Fourth, yeah.

Meghan Escobar (03:15)
Just hearing a little bit of your story starting from the ground up, it’s it’s pretty incredible to know that you’ve started with fifteen hundred dollars in the industry. You said about fourteen years ago, nine years in the mobile home industry specifically, and now have grown your net worth to about 72 million. Is that right? Well, that’s that’s incredible. So let’s dive in. And so first off, for the people here who may not be familiar with your world, give us a short version of

Major Hillard IV (03:32)
Right, yeah.

Meghan Escobar (03:43)
What your main focus is these days and what markets you’re operating in.

Major Hillard IV (03:47)
Yeah, so I believe in investing with impact. So we like to purchase and acquire mobile home parks, manufacturing communities that have a large value add component, either being vacancy, infill, redevelopment, lack of management, and just lack of regulations within the community. Purchase them, refurbish them, pick clean them up into a nice safe

clean neighborhood that community that anyone could be happy to live in and then operate that for the continual cash flow. And we primarily are in the southeast United States. So we do go out further into the Midwest, but predominantly we’re in the southeast currently.

Meghan Escobar (04:29)
Amazing, amazing. And so when you say southeast, I know you told me you g you guys are pretty much in like Southwest Florida, North Carolina, the southern states. Is that up north at all or?

Major Hillard IV (04:41)
No, mostly in the Carolinas, Florida, Georgia, soon to be Texas. so that kind of area, the southeast US.

Meghan Escobar (04:49)
Gotcha. Now is the goal major for you to be able to expand throughout the US? Is that the bigger vision for you or?

Major Hillard IV (04:56)
No, we’re we’re we’re not as large as these institutional guys that have a few billion backing them. So we like to be in our markets that we like and we hand pick these markets because they are recession resistant. They have very stable jobs, good income paying jobs, and they’re in a path of progress for metro areas that are expanding in population. So we hand select our our areas, and that’s another reason for the southeast that we predominantly

invest in is also because of the culture and the climate. A little bit easier not having to deal with snow and freezing temperatures that wreak havoc on infrastructure and materials and homes, rather than the Southeast where it’s more humid and tropical and you don’t have those freezing temperatures as much. And the cultural side of it, the Southeast is is much more pro manufacturing communities than at least from our experience than we’ve noticed in the north and northwest.

Meghan Escobar (06:42)
Okay. So you’ve definitely done your homework. I love that. And so what caught my attention when we were going through this little pre-call here before we hopped on the podcast was the way that you’ve been able to grow. I mean, that’s a significant starting point, right? Starting with such a low entry level of money, right? 1500 bucks and to have grown your network.

to 72 million in this space, that’s just not an easy thing to do, especially in this climate, you know? So what would you say, Major, is has been the key to helping you keep that machine running smoothly?

Major Hillard IV (07:26)
Yeah, the the the biggest thing I learned is I had to be a specialist and within a specialist. So mobile home parks, manufacturing home communities are a niche, a specialized niche within the commercial real estate investing category. And what I realized early on is that I because I didn’t have the financial backing, I couldn’t compete with larger competitors because they could outbid me on everything that I had.

so the only way I could really take down deals was to be creative and to become a specialist at renovating and redeveloping communities that were not financeable or hard to close. And what I mean by that is by vacancy and development, as I stated earlier. So I became a specialist in that because our competitors and so many in the larger institutionals don’t have the manpower with knowledge or just the time.

to process money and wait for the return to deal with these communities. Because of that, I’m able to get substantially lower prices off market that allows me to have some pretty substantial gains when we turn it around. So I realize being a specialist and taking over that category is really limited my competition and allowed me to be very creative and source deals that I normally that there’s no other way I could have.

Meghan Escobar (08:45)
That is an incredible story, and thank you so much for sharing that. I think that somebody listening in on this will definitely be motivated by that just little snippet alone. And you know what I’m feeling is you mentioned, you know, being outbidded by these big institutions and maybe that they have a higher capital than you. However

that passion that you’re speaking from, I don’t think that they could ever compete with that.

Major Hillard IV (09:15)
No, we we care about our tenants. We care about the communities we invest in and it’s something we’re proud to be to own and happy to go to and we’re not afraid of going there. but no, everyone does it a little differently. We we formalize on that and it’s been very good and true to us. And just understand anybody that invests that it doesn’t matter how well you underwrite, things happen and black swan events happen and things come out of the woodwork that we never thought be a problem, become a problem.

And so by purchasing our communities the way we do has such a large upside and cushion between market value and what we actually bought it for that when there were hook hiccups, because there always are, we it never really affected us at all or our bottom line because we bought was such a great deal.

Meghan Escobar (09:59)
Yeah. I wanna I wanna piggyback just a minute because I think it’s important for the listeners to to hear. When you say you got started with fifteen hundred dollars, I mean that is pennies today, right? Like I know 14 years ago f 1500 was worth a little bit more, but it’s still pennies, right? Like what did you do with that?

Major Hillard IV (10:58)
Yeah, that so that fifteen hundred was every penny I had. And I was living in my parents’ house right after college, got a DUI and went to jail, couldn’t get hired. I was in commercial real estate and so I was working three jobs, one of them being a bouncer at a nightclub five nights a week. And so all I was able to save at that point was fifteen hundred dollars and I was in my father’s attic cleaning it up for some rent back rent that I owed him.

And found a box of real estate books and there was one in there. I picked up, dusted it off, and it was called Deals on Wheels by Lonnie Scruggs. And it spoke about flipping and making financing notes and seller notes on mobile homes. And I remember clearly reading the book that you could purchase a home for as little as a thousand dollars or less, and that was routine. And I thought the the book was total BS. There’s no way you can buy a home for thousands, like whatever.

But I read the book and I went out the very next week and within 10 days I purchased my own home for fifteen hundred dollars.

And then I was able to flip that home, take the profit, and I went and bought two more and then flipped those, got my down payments and bought two more. And so within ninety days, I went from fifteen hundred dollars and no cash flow living in my parents’ house to owning five mobile homes.

with around three thousand dollars a month of cash flow and able to get into my first house.

Meghan Escobar (12:24)
Wow. Thank you so much for sharing. I think that’s gonna probably be the strongest piece of this entire interview here, Major. I mean, that’s that’s an incredible journey. And even though there was a small part of you that read that book, you you read through it, right? You didn’t just read and say BS, right? That and you even just said out loud, like, you know, a part of me thought that that was BS, but there was a stronger part of you that believed in it.

Major Hillard IV (12:49)
Yeah, I just wanted to prove it wrong. Like I the book had pictures in it and the words weren’t real big, so it wasn’t a big deal for me. It it was only like 150 pages. And I wasn’t a big reader at the time because I think like a lot of us, we’re forced to read stuff we don’t want or would ever use in college or school. So it was like not a big deal. Now I read man, I read two, three books a week, right? I love it. But but yeah, I read it and I thought it was just BS. Here’s somebody else trying to sell me something.

But let me go try it. I got nothing to lose. Let me go try it out. And yeah, just put it down and it worked out. And after those six homes, I realized why am I purchasing just one or two homes? Why not just buy them all at one time and buy a whole park? And that’s what naturally led me into purchasing mobile home parks.

Meghan Escobar (13:34)
Wow. Wow. What a great story. And I know every owner, every operator that I’ve ever spoke to has had a moment where things got real for them. Now, maybe that is a deal that went sideways or maybe it was a time that they just had to piv pivot really fast. Do you mind sharing one of those moments for you?

Major Hillard IV (13:58)
man, just about every deal was like that. Especially when I was being, you know, when you don’t when you don’t have money, you you can’t be stupid, right? You gotta be creative. So the second deal, the second park I ever bought, I ended up getting it under contract and buying it because I traded a clam boat for it, in Chesapeake Bay. So it’s this and you know, just talking about creative. This this guy owned

Two million dollar mobile home park, 55 pads, and I only had about 20 grand in my name after owning my first park, a little 12 unit park. And the only reason he wanted to sell it, I took me six months to close them, was because he wanted a clam boat. And I said I would trade him a boat for the park, and that’s what did it. And so he signed off on it and I ended up finding a boat. We were gonna trade it. He didn’t like it, so he ended up just financing it.

a portion of the sale so he could go buy his own boat. And believe it or not, because of the way I structured it and I did some other c unconventional debt, at closing I actually got a check for 20 grand to buy the park and I didn’t have but twenty grand in my name. So I doubled my liquidity and I guess five times my net worth by simply figuring out why this guy wanted to sell and facilitating that need.

And being creative.

Meghan Escobar (16:00)
Wow. Wow. And that’s the kind of stuff that people don’t hear, right? Behind the scenes, the going through the mud type of stuff. And honestly, you know, it I firmly believe that it’s what separates folks who are dabbling in the industry versus the ones who are in the game long term. I mean, Major, you’ve definitely proven over and over again you’re in this for the long term. And so

Let me ask you this, like what do you feel right now is your biggest focus or scaling next? Like what is the next real big goal for major Hillard?

Major Hillard IV (16:36)
Yeah, so we we have our acquisition fund, our stabilized income fund. And so what I realized, we’re extremely good at purchasing these undervalued communities, redeveloping them into a stabilized cash flowing asset that’s extremely valuable. However, in order to get out, we would sell those communities, pay off my partners and investors with all their returns.

And then I would have my leftover returns as well. We would all make out very, very well. But what I was losing was that cash flow and even more importantly, the promise and stability I had with our tenants to give them a livelihood and a community that they were happy to be in, and giving that to one of our competitors just to see all that hard work drained within ninety to 120 days days of selling because they just don’t have the

the skin in the game per se or care. So rather than do that, we have our stabilized income fund that investors can invest in, get stabilized monthly cash flow checks every month so we can retain and hold this asset well into the next 30, 40 years and just continually get that cash flow. So it’s great. That’s the biggest thing is I I see that we have a portfolio of already 12 parks that we’re selling over.

to this new fund that are already stabilized and cash flowing. That way we c myself included, as well as all our investors, can get continual recession resistant cash flowing checks each month in an asset class that only increases in demand each year.

Meghan Escobar (18:11)
Wow. So you’ve got some big visions here. That’s huge. Especially when you’ve already established s already established such success in the mobile home industry. Right. So that next move, it’s it it it sounds big. It sounds like you’ve got a a a strong a strong foot in. so can either, you know, compound things for you or potentially create some

Some chaos, right? So depending on how it’s played, but it’s sound like yeah, go ahead on that.

Major Hillard IV (18:44)
just compound because we’re we’re vertically integrated. So right now we already have our acquisition fund which allows me to purchase and redevelop these communities. Then we have our management company that I’ve been operating since day one, 10 years ago, in communities. And then we have our dealership which will buy and sell manufacture homes directly from the manufacturer. And then our finance company that will finance the sale of these homes to our tenants. So you know whether we you know

Trans simply transferring is is really not a big deal because the operations and everything stay the same. So I don’t foresee it having any large complications. All I see is just better returns for our investors.

Meghan Escobar (19:25)
I love that. Like you said earlier on, like you learned how to get creative because you couldn’t compete with those big institutions. So it sounds like you are just somebody who constantly finds the I don’t even want to say loopholes, but the paths, the paths of that need to be taken for it to just everything align and y you guys to just keep stepping forward. So yeah. Incredible. Can’t fake that. So

Major Hillard IV (19:48)
Right, definitely.

Meghan Escobar (19:53)
I know a lot of people listening are either earlier in their journey or they’re looking to level up. And that’s typically who our listeners are, right? People who are looking to get into the real estate industry and hear from some experts that we have opportunities to interview. or you know, people who have been in the industry and maybe maybe are at a point where they’re stuck or they don’t know how to get to that next level. And and I think that they would really benefit from hearing this, but when it comes to building relationships here, major.

And growing your network, what has made the biggest difference for you in this industry?

Major Hillard IV (20:26)
in the industry, I would say the biggest thing is we do what we say and we mean what we do. and that we always follow up and persistence is where we got to. So building out networks and and meeting individuals is if you promise or say you’re gonna do something, actually do it and show up and actually be genuine. There’s a lot of salesmanship out there today, a lot of fake hood, a lot of AI. So taking that extra minute, like for example, I had a friend of mine, he

We have a company outing each year and we go to the Coca-Cola 600 race and NASCAR race in Charlotte and we rent out a suite. And he showed up and he was the first time I got a handwritten card mailed to me, like handwritten with blue ink. When’s the last time you receive a handwritten card? Like it’s that little extra stuff, that little extra showing of engine of authenticity and that you actually care really goes a long way. And so I really recommend everyone just

Actually care, be yourself and follow up and do what you say do what you say you’re gonna do.

Meghan Escobar (21:29)
That was such a solid little snippet of advice that I can not agree with more. Human connection is something that can never be replaced. And showing up with integrity and authenticity, I think, is the most important thing in this in today’s society, especially because we’re so surrounded by, you know, the social media of the the the fake presence of the world, you know? you know, really just being authentic and showing up and

Talking about your struggles and creating the right relationships is everything in this space. And that’s something you cannot fake. So thank you for sharing that. Thank you for sharing that. I really appreciate it. Before we wrap up here, Major, if someone listening in really found value in your story and wanted to reach out and connect with you for just maybe potential partnerships or collaborations or even just to learn a little bit more about what you’re doing, if you’re willing to share.

What would be the best way for them to reach you?

Major Hillard IV (22:28)
Yeah, so I would recommend go to our landing page, mhestates.com. you can go there, sign up. We do a lot of email, consultant letters, news updates, as well as webinars that we do weekly for education and and and learning. you can also look us up on our socials. I’m on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, as well as LinkedIn. And you simply just look up Major Hillard.

I’m there or MH Estates. we have a bunch of YouTube videos out right now that we’re s that we’re actually posting and going through I’m actually shooting another five next week. A lot of educational series on what we do. so highly recommend go there. It’s at MH Estates and Major Hillard on YouTube. So check those out. you can learn those as well as our website. That’s probably the easiest way to get a hold of us.

Meghan Escobar (23:19)
Awesome. Perfect. I’m super inspired. So you might catch a new follower right here. So listen, Major, I really appreciate your time, your story, and most importantly, your perspective. We do need more people in this space who are doing things the right way. And and I really love what you said, that last piece of advice, just showing up as yourself and doing it the right way. And when you say you’re gonna do something, do it. And that is the right way. So

Thank you again so much for being here. And for all of those, all for all of those that are tuning in, if you found any value from this, please make sure you subscribe. We’ve got more conversations coming with owners and operators just like Major Hillard here and who are out here building real businesses in real time. So we will see you on the next episode.