Unlock 7 Powerful Real Estate Strategies for Mobile Home Investing Success

John Harcar (00:01.981)
Okay, guys, welcome back to our show. I’m your host John Harcar and I’m here today with Kolbie Graves and what we’re going to talk about besides her journey in business and real estate. We’re going to talk about, what she’s doing now with mobile homes. Remember guys, that investor fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers. I mean, all real estate entrepreneurs, two to five X your business. We provide the tools and resources to grow the business you want to grow to in turn, live the life you’ve always dreamed of.

Kolbie, welcome to our show.

Kolbie Graves (00:32.813)
I’m to be here. Thank you for having me.

John Harcar (00:35.285)
Yeah, man, I’m excited to talk to you. I’ve been talking to a lot more people, it seems like, about mobile homes. But before we get into all that stuff, why don’t you tell our audience a little bit about you, how you got into real estate, your background in business, and what brought you to today.

Kolbie Graves (00:40.428)
Really?

Kolbie Graves (00:51.244)
Gotcha. So my background in business probably starts the way most people’s background start in real estate as far as it goes. Back in 2019, of course, I read Rich Dad Poor Dad and I feel like everybody’s journey probably starts similarly.

John Harcar (01:04.577)
I was gonna say the purple book was all about I was gonna say but I wanted to hear you say first

John Harcar (01:13.651)
A lot. A lot.

Kolbie Graves (01:16.319)
But I think mine kind of took like a different path. But when I read the book, it just kind of gave me the outlook like, hey, anything is possible, right? I made like a lot of bad decisions in the beginning simply because I got kind of trapped in this cycle of like the get rich quick schemes. So it took me a little while to actually settle down and realize like, hey, I have a passion for real estate. I really, really like this. It’s the only thing that kept my attention this far. So I think I’m on.

put as much effort as I can behind it. So it took me a little bit to actually get to that point of realization. So it wasn’t until maybe 2020, mid 2020, know, we’re in a pandemic and everybody was inside. just kind of got stuck into the analysis paralysis of it all. I was reading and studying everything. But like I said, I really have a passion for real estate. So I think I’ve studied.

John Harcar (02:02.017)
Mm-hmm.

Kolbie Graves (02:14.377)
A whole lot, maybe too much. So it, um, I tried to go the wholesale route, of course. And then I just had to, you know, wanted to keep it honest with myself and just do a little self reflection. I was like, well, I think maybe I’ll get into the fixing and flipping space. I think it’s, it aligns with me morally. I feel like I would flourish in that area. Right. So I got into the 15 flipping and a little bit of buy and hold. And so.

the way to segue, I guess, like you said, we were gonna talk about mobile homes. That’s where I kind of found my passion for mobile homes in that period. yeah, but a little bit about me personally before, you know, the real estate shift. you know, from a small town outside of Savannah, maybe you know it, I don’t know if you guys are familiar, but it’s a small town called Pembroke, Georgia. went to, I joined the military, so I am a veteran.

John Harcar (02:52.395)
Got it.

John Harcar (03:13.119)
Well, thank you for your service.

Kolbie Graves (03:13.832)
Thank you. you. So after I got out of the military, I found took stock, brought a home in middle Georgia, and I’ve been here ever since. And I am in the take field and the military was where I got my start in that. And I’ve been in the take field for about 11 years now.

John Harcar (03:31.265)
Okay. So do you still work a full-time W-2? Okay. Well, no, I, I, I like when I talk to people that do that because I mean, a lot of the big belief for people is, I have a W-2. I can’t do anything. And that’s the farthest thing from the truth. So let’s touch on touch and top. Let’s touch on that for a quick second. How do you, having a full time, how did you learn to balance your time? What maybe books did you read outside of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, or like maybe what?

Kolbie Graves (03:34.606)
do.

Kolbie Graves (03:44.645)
Right.

Kolbie Graves (03:51.834)
Yeah.

John Harcar (04:00.331)
podcast or resources or strategies and things you did to help you manage that time.

Kolbie Graves (04:07.535)
So around the time that I started reading Rich Dad Poor Dad, I kind of took a deep dive into the mindset journey. So a lot of the mindset was just telling me, you know, a lot of things that you don’t want to do, you’re just going to have to do it and get after it. So I kind of took up the mantle. I have a slogan that I always tell myself that motivation is a myth. So what that does, it just kind of forces me to lean on discipline.

Discipline just kind of tells you, hey, I know how you’re feeling, but you have to do it. And so working a full time, nine to five, I’ve tried to, a lot of the decisions that I made, I tried to make it so that I can find as much free time as I can because my idea was that, okay, I have to make sure home is taken care of because I am a single income household. And so I was like, I have to make sure home is taken care of, but I’m not going to give up on my dreams. And I had to.

instill that in myself and, you know, repeat that to myself as many times as possible because I don’t want to give up on my dreams and I know that this is possible because success leaves a blueprint. So I just, you know, I kept reading into these mindset books and just constantly reading a lot of the quotes that stood out to me and resonated with me the most. So it’s, I can’t say it has been easy, but I can’t say it’s worth it. And the more that

comes to fruition and the more that presents itself, I’m just like. Yeah.

John Harcar (05:40.481)
Yeah, well, if it was easy, everybody would be doing it. You know what I mean? So do you think that a lot of the discipline and whatnot that you got from the military helped you maybe in this progression of growing and learning and being time disciplined?

Kolbie Graves (05:43.448)
That’s true, that’s very true.

Kolbie Graves (05:55.582)
Yes, definitely. have a we have a few sayings that we hit. We’ve been using the military, but a lot of it was just like, hey, just get it done right? And so I kind of took up that mantle is like you gotta get it done. Whether you do it tired where you do it exhausted, you it has to get done. You can rest. Don’t get the wrong prioritized. Rest is very important, but certain things I will let OK if I’m not going to get hurt or anything. If this doesn’t get done today, I can prioritize what.

you know what needs to be done today and I can leave the rest for tomorrow and that way can get my rest as well. But in the end it has to get done and so the military definitely promoted that in me when it came to trying to build a business outside of building somebody else’s business, which is what I call the 9 to 5.

John Harcar (06:44.801)
No, I 100%. So you got into doing wholesaling and then fix and flip is interesting to me what you said because fix and flip you felt more morally, I don’t remember the word you said after that, but there’s a moral issue maybe with wholesale. Explain that a little bit.

Kolbie Graves (07:00.246)
Yeah.

So. And it’s and it’s only pertaining to me. It’s how I feel about it, but a lot of the issues that I was running into when I was like attempting to host. So like I was finding the deals I was putting them together and then when it came to the point where you know the point aspect when they say find your team and so a lot of the. Title companies that I was going to in closing attorneys. A lot of them were saying we take the.

ethical route, which we don’t do them, but hey, this guy might do them, but then you call them, they won’t do it. And it’s just kind of like it, it jammed a lot of my deals from going through because I couldn’t find the individuals that’ll do it. Now, I know in the bigger cities, it was, they’re more common, but I would go into a lot of issues in the smaller cities, which is where I was trying to

John Harcar (07:52.289)
Mm-hmm.

Kolbie Graves (07:56.788)
prioritize, like they said, it’s gold in your backyard. So I was trying to, you you know, I was trying to stay local. And even when I got into, and I was learning about virtual wholesaling, I was still kind of running into the same issues with individuals, just like, well, we don’t really do it. They might. And so, that’s why I was getting into like the moral aspect of it. Like I was just running into a roadblock block because a lot of the closing attorneys were just saying that we take the ethical route and we just don’t think they’re ethical. So I was just like, okay, you know, I can’t force you to do anything. So.

John Harcar (07:59.521)
Yeah.

Kolbie Graves (08:26.707)
That’s kind of…

John Harcar (08:26.793)
Yeah, that’s kind of weird. mean, there’s nothing unethical about you’re providing a service, you’re bringing a seller to a buyer and a buyer to a seller, and you’re getting paid for service. It’s like if I bring a handyman in and I get a referral fee, how different is that? I mean, it really… So what did you find is some of the struggles that when you first got into fix and flipping, right? So now you made the move to taking them down.

Kolbie Graves (08:32.126)
I have

Kolbie Graves (08:44.061)
Exactly. Exactly.

John Harcar (08:55.073)
Doing the repair. So what struggles did you find with that?

Kolbie Graves (08:59.167)
So at Fixing and Flipping, the main struggle that I found was trying to find that sweet point of how much to actually put into a home to renovate it. So I did some training and he just gave me like a pro tip. He was like, hey, if there are homes selling in the area for a good price, he said, all you have to do is look and copy. And I was just like, okay. So then once that kind of like pulled the wool from over my eyes, I would lean more heavily on my contractors.

Okay, want this material, but of course with my layout of how I want the homes to be and then they were able to give me a more idealistic example of what prices I’ll be looking at, how much this will cost and XYZ. So that helped me a lot, but the fix and flip segue from trying to wholesale to getting into fix and flipping, of course you have to raise a lot more capital to actually purchase the home.

So, so that was.

John Harcar (09:57.771)
Sure. Well, did you seek out a mentor or someone to teach you how to do the flips? mean, that’s kind of a lot of different steps, extra steps outside of just wholesaling.

Kolbie Graves (10:07.78)
Yeah, right. know I did a lot of so a lot of my training that I’ve done have been online. So I buy into a course and of course do a lot of that training. But as far as like a one on one mentor, no, I haven’t bought into any of courses like that.

John Harcar (10:17.6)
Hmm?

John Harcar (10:25.675)
So you just took it to the school of hard knocks.

Kolbie Graves (10:28.475)
The school of hard knocks.

John Harcar (10:30.293)
Learn on the go. Learn on the go. No, that’s awesome. So what does your business look like now? I know you mentioned you transitioned into mobile homes. Now, before we talk about the mobile homes, what does your team and your business look like?

Kolbie Graves (10:44.231)
So I’m still one man in it right now. it because it’s just kind of hard right now. I don’t mind sharing the knowledge and information that I know, but anybody that I have on my team or am soon to have on my team, I just want them to have at least some idea of real estate or have some interest in it. I don’t want to just kind of employ anybody because I want to make sure that I’m managing and managing my business well. So I want to be able to trust the individual that I.

I put in that.

John Harcar (11:15.969)
OK, so you’re basically looking to expand and grow your business as we speak. OK, very cool. So let’s talk about mobile homes. Now, you’re doing the fix and flips. I what says, hey, I’m cool on fix and flips. Let’s get into mobile homes.

Kolbie Graves (11:30.553)
Yeah, so with the mobile home aspect, because when I was doing wholesaling, I was focusing on single, of course, single family. And then I also learned about wholesaling the commercial as well. So I have, you know, knowledge. And so when I got into mobile homes, I was at a time where I was doing a lot of self reflection and I had to.

Take a look around and take inventory of where I am, right? So I’m based out of rural Georgia. So the mobile homes kind of outrank the single family residences almost, you know, I don’t know the statistic behind it, but we have a lot more mobile homes. So, you know what I mean? So I was like, I feel like I’m leaving. I’m overlooking an opportunity. So I read up on mobile homes. I purchased into another course and

John Harcar (12:12.341)
That one, yeah.

Kolbie Graves (12:25.658)
it just made sense, right? The price points were a lot different than the single family residence is, a lot lower. And I was like, I can do this. So could still purchase the home, have the money to renovate it, and still, you know, sell for a good profit. And I’m serving a affordable housing community. And then one of my second-ever passions is helping others. the purpose of mobile homes was big enough to move me.

and then the statistics, the numbers behind it was definitely just made sense.

John Harcar (12:58.394)
Nice. Are you converting the properties, the mobile homes, or are they converted already to real property?

Kolbie Graves (13:06.215)
So, yeah, so most of the ones that we have to do for fix it must be converted. So the title has to be retired because most lenders, because I got into brokering as well. So I am a broker. So I got the background and all the information that was necessary for lending. most lenders, especially hard money and private money lenders, and I feel like official lenders as well, they won’t move home unless they are online.

A fixed foundation, so a lot of them are the only ones that aren’t on fixed foundations that I deal in is if I’m looking at mobile home parks and. Yeah, so the ones that can stay in the part, they don’t necessarily have to be on fixed foundation, but they also aren’t necessarily getting official lending. To.

John Harcar (13:45.835)
Okay.

John Harcar (13:55.623)
Right, you’re not getting traditional financing for those. Yeah, okay. Yeah, that was gonna be one of my questions. I you’re talking about bubble homes. Are you owning a park? Are you buying individual ones? I mean, what does that look like?

Kolbie Graves (13:57.908)
Okay.

Kolbie Graves (14:09.183)
So like I said, the ones that aren’t on fixed foundations, I will buy and hold those, rent them out to others, do kind of like the Lani deal, I know you’re probably familiar with that, where you buy it in the park and just sell it to someone else. And then I also recently, I 22, I brought a deep value and mobile home park with just kind of like a small one.

and just to kind of get my footing into like the bigger, the higher volume. a higher volume. So it’s like I said, it’s a deep value add project. So I’m learning a lot, but it’s been fun. So it’s only a few, maybe like four or five mobile homes in this small park. And then I’ve just been renovating those and know, renting them out.

John Harcar (14:41.493)
Yeah, of course. Yeah.

John Harcar (15:02.089)
Okay. Is that all you own right now or do you own other mobiles?

Kolbie Graves (15:07.613)
So that’s what I own right now as far as the mobile homes. I own all those in that part and then I actually have a deal under contract now that I’m getting ready to close and the plan for those is to fix and flip all of them because they’re all in fixed foundations. So the multi-part is what I’m trying to get it together.

John Harcar (15:23.073)
Oh, nice. Okay. So are you gonna rent these out or are gonna sell or finance them or what are you gonna do?

Kolbie Graves (15:31.827)
So the ones that I have under contract now the plan is to fix and sell them. So the funds will go towards some land that I purchased a while back and the idea is to develop those, get those sold and I have. I have an order in which I want to get the develop the land and so once. These get sold, I can be able to do everything else that I have to do.

John Harcar (16:01.355)
love it. That’s so awesome. What do you see? Are you seeing any trends in the mobile home space or anything like that that’s going on right now?

Kolbie Graves (16:10.342)
The I could see like a lot more people are getting into the mobile home space because I think the main reason is like I said, the profit margin is kind of large because although they’re starting to get more expensive, it’s still a lot more affordable than traditional housing. I think the stick built single family residences. Other than that. What I’m finding with the mobile homes is.

Hmm, I feel like a lot more. Just civilians are able to get into that that landlord space with the mobile homes because just to get them that bit of income to help with, of course, the inflation rate and everything like that and just get them little bit more money. In their pocket, so I think I think it’s creating a lot more investors. If I can say it say that.

John Harcar (17:04.417)
And then for people you do see getting into mobile homes or things like that, what are some of the mistakes that people make or you see people make when they’re trying to get into that mobile home space?

Kolbie Graves (17:16.397)
I’m not taking the time to learn about it. What I can say is that you have to put a little bit effort into getting an understanding of what the do’s and the don’ts of a mobile home, because it’s not the same as a single family, like the residential single family or the up to the quadruplex, it’s not the same. Permanent options aren’t the same. Lenders look for a lot.

John Harcar (17:39.265)
Mm-hmm.

Kolbie Graves (17:43.986)
of different things versus, you know, whenever you’re trying to get approved for a loan on a single family home. So that was probably that’s probably the biggest mistake that I see is just not taking the time to get somebody or just take seat that camp council for some from someone that has been before.

John Harcar (18:01.525)
Right. That makes sense. That makes sense. What do you think are some of the keys to your success, to what’s kept you going? mean, you’ve made pivots. You went from wholesaling to fix-and-flip, now to mobiles. I mean, what are some of the things that have helped you kind of just keep towards your path?

Kolbie Graves (18:21.293)
Well, you mentioned it right there, not being afraid to pivot. I know where I want to go, where I see my business going, and I just kind of keep my eye on that ball. And so the time it takes from now to then, that dash is going to teach me so much. I’m going to change a lot. can’t, or am not being attached to a plan either. Like I said, it aligns with.

the pivot because there’s no one way to do things and we can have an idea of how we want it done all day. It’s not going go away.

John Harcar (18:57.633)
No, no, let’s just call it space.

Kolbie Graves (19:01.893)
don’t think it’s not gonna go as planned. So just the ability to not be afraid of the change, not be afraid, let the nose roll off your shoulder. It’s an O at the end. So I think of the O as a wheel, let it go. Just let it roll off and just keep going and be adamant to prioritize, discipline and be attached to achieving your goal.

John Harcar (19:24.651)
That’s awesome. That’s awesome. What is the goal for your business for the next 12 months? How many mobiles do you want to own? Are we looking at multiple parks?

Kolbie Graves (19:32.24)
So the next 12 months the the goal is to get these So like I said the deal that I have on the contract now is a multi-parcel deal So I’ll be pretty much busy renovating those for at least eight months of that toy So the goal is to actually get those renovated and sold and then immediately after that we’ll go into developing the other properties that

John Harcar (19:45.59)
Yeah.

Yeah.

John Harcar (19:57.793)
Nice, sweet. Well, I appreciate you coming on here and talking about all things you and mobile and all that. If there’s folks that are listening to this and they like your story, they want to talk to a little bit more about maybe just your time management, your pivot, whatever it might be, I how do they get in touch with you?

Kolbie Graves (20:04.399)
Thank

Kolbie Graves (20:18.008)
So I have a few socials. The company’s social media profile on Facebook is Amethyst Holdings. And that’s Amethyst Like the Stone and then Holdings LLC. You can find that on Facebook. On Instagram, I think it’s the same, Amethyst Holdings. If it’s not Amethyst Holdings by itself, it might be Amethyst Holdings 19, but I believe it’s the first one. For me personally, you can find me at IM Gravy. That’s with three Y’s on Instagram.

Then, like you mentioned earlier, also have a podcast so insider thread TV, you can find a follow me there too.

John Harcar (20:55.617)
Thank you so much, Colby, for coming on here. Great story, I love it. I wish you the best of success in getting all that stuff done and growing your parks. Guys, if you guys enjoyed the time as well and you wanna reach out to her, do. put the notes in the show or stuff down in the show notes, but Colby, thank you again. Guys, hope you had a great show and we’ll see you on the next one. Cheers.

Kolbie Graves (21:14.091)
Yes, thank you.