Editor’s Note: Welcome to the companion article to Episode 16 of the MHP_IRL podcast! The purpose of this article is to expand your podcast listening experience with additional content. Companion articles will unpack larger concepts that we talk about during each episode that will give you practical and most importantly, actionable advice that you can apply to your MHP investing journey.
It’s human nature to be greedy.
Looking back, I am truly amazed at what Ian and I accomplished over the years. The dedication we put into mobile home parks and the painful sacrifices we made—there’s nothing comparable to that feeling.
But, somehow, in that moment, I still felt slighted at what I actually got to keep compared to the others involved.
From my perspective, it was like this…
Ian and I did everything. Worked our fingers to the bone. And in the end, this was all we got to keep? It felt like FOMO but on steroids. But, here’s the thing, I agreed to the terms. I signed on the dotted line. It was my fault.
Why am I publicly admitting I felt I undercut my own compensation? Because I want you to realize that even when things go well, you and those you partner with will feel this way at some point and to some degree.
But, it’s up to you to figure out how everyone’s incentives can be aligned while also making sure you get paid.
In this article, I’m going to walk you through how you can monetize your business from the deal itself.
I’d like to take the time to credit my friend, Andrew Keel, for inspiring the episode 16 podcast and this article, as he once said, “a deal is like a table with three legs. If any one leg is removed, the whole table falls apart.”
The three legs of a deal include:
The willing seller
The money
The operations
Given that the absence of any one of those legs would kill the deal, each leg comes with inherent value due to its essentiality. In other words, you deserve compensation for bringing any one of these to the table.
Now, let’s take a deep dive into each leg.
The Willing Seller
As one of my closest mentors says, “you can’t force someone to sell you their real estate.”
Without a willing seller, you have nothing. But, having a willing seller is worth something.
Getting someone to let go of something they’ve owned for years, if not decades, can be excruciatingly difficult, and time-consuming.
Whether you wined and dined someone for a few years, or found an opportunity on LoopNet, there are several appropriate ways to compensate yourself or those responsible for making it happen.
This includes:
Finder’s fees
Front end equity promotes
Back end equity promotes
General partner participation
Finder’s fees are the easiest and simplest way to get paid. Finder’s fees come in the form of a percentage of the purchase price to just a flat fee. Ian and I have cashed out finder’s fees, we’ve left them in deals, and we have foregone them altogether. It all depends on the deal itself.
As an offshoot of a finder’s fee, let’s say you obtain a broker’s license and you have a deal that doesn’t fit your strategy. If you can connect that willing seller to another buyer, you can say hello to a nice referral fee from either the seller or the buyer.
Front end equity promotes is essentially leaving a finder’s fee in a deal rather than cashing it out. With a front end equity promote, you’ll put your own money in the deal, but it counts for more toward equity than others. Sounds too good to be true, right?
Here’s how it shakes down: If the capital raises $100,000 and you put in only $25,000, instead of you having 25 percent, you could receive a front end equity promote that boosts you to 50 percent of the deal. Your $25,000 really counts as $50,000 and the investors $75,000 only counts as $50,000.
You may be wondering why an investor would want their $75,000 to decrease by $25,000 on day one. Simple, the investor is compensating you for finding the deal and/or for doing the bulk of the operation.
Back end equity promotes is compensation in the form of an equity boost after a certain return or internal rate of return (IRR) is achieved. Be warned like a waterfall structure, this type of compensation can be complicated. If done right, it can also come down to basics.
Here’s a basic example: If you put up 25 percent of the equity raised of the deal and if you can deliver 15 percent internal rate of return (IRR) in the next number of years, while supporting a boost of your equity to 50 percent, then your equity gets promoted to 50 percent upon delivering those returns to your investor.
General partner participation is when a general partner takes on more risk and is thus entitled to more compensation. If you are also starting with nothing you may have to welcome someone into your GP pool.
Now be warned: A LOT of people want to be GPs, but not add any additional value to the deal. This is not legal according to the SEC unless it is a joint venture which that party will have to justify some reasonable level of involvement.
I encourage everyone to pay up for a good attorney to make sure you’re in accordance with the law rather than winging it and hoping you aren’t doing anything illegal. (YIKES!)
Now, let’s get real….
All of these compensation packages come with short and long-term benefits, disadvantages, and implications.
If you are starting with nothing, I encourage you to gravitate towards front end promotes and compensation packages that allow you to eat in the short term but cap your upside in the long term.
Now, if you have liquidity, the big money is in the back end promotes.
Thinking about your end game, and what you’re trying to achieve. This will help guide your decision.
The Money
You’ve convinced an owner to sell to you, that’s great! Now, the seller is expecting money in exchange for their asset. If you don’t have access to capital, the deal is off the table.
What can you do? Capital can come in two forms:
Debt
Equity
Now, we’ve all heard of zero down seller-carry options and all cash deals, but the majority of deals come down to a combination of debt and equity. Usually between 60 percent and 85 percent loan to value, AKA LTV. If you do the math, you clearly see why you want to maximize LTV.
Now, just because you have a deal doesn’t mean the bank is going to loan you money. First, they’re going to look at the size of the deal.
Smaller deals are more expensive from both the debt and equity side. Simply put, smaller deals are riskier. You’re exposed to a similar amount of risk from things like infrastructure failing while taking in less cash flow.
Because of this, your equity partners will deserve more compensation for this additional risk. And unfortunately, banks are going to offer worse debt terms to compensate for the elevated risk. Expect to grind out call after call to smaller more local banks for these types of deals.
Believe me, I am familiar with this. On our first deal, we called over 40 banks and received 40 nos. We had to have our investor-partner pull a favor to get the deal funded.
With that said, larger deals are no walk in the park. And, your regular investors may not be able to fund them. That’s where private equity shops come in. They can be helpful, but come with their own pros and cons.
Remember this, where there is difficulty, there is value.
If you can secure debt where others can’t or you have a Rockstar investor no one else has access to, then that’s worth something.
And how do you compensate yourself? The same per usual—finder’s fees, referral fees, etc.
The Operations
Despite how this industry has been branded, this isn’t a passive investment.
Someone needs to run the park or be there at a moment's notice when something happens. And, if it's anything less than a clean, stable, smaller opportunity, you can’t expect a $10 an hour occupied lot manager to have the motivation and skills to get the job done.
Worse, if you opted for a hairy deal, in my experience, you can’t even expect a $30 to 40,000 a year experienced manager to successfully turn the park around.
You’ll either need to do it in-house, like we do, or find a third-party company to manage the park for you.
Third party management companies do exist, but let me tell you, they are way more expensive than you think. And again, if your deal is hairy, you should expect to pay up.
I have some seriously good news for those who are starting with nothing. Of the hundreds of people I’ve met in this industry, I can count on one hand the number of people I’ve met that truly enjoy being on-site turning their properties and being knee-deep in operations.
What does that mean for you? Since no one wants to do it, you can do it and for a price.
What are some ways you can compensate yourself or someone else for the operations?
Asset management fees: a percentage of gross revenue, net operating income (NOI), or distributable cash flow.
Front end or back end equity promotes: the thought of exchanging my sweat equity for deal equity kept me motivated to consistently put in 12 hour days on-site, hundreds of miles away from my wife, living in a double-wide with nothing in it for over a year. When structured properly, these can prove extremely effective.
Salaries: you can straight pay someone a flat rate. While this makes budgeting and forecasting easier, you also have to open up the door for an employee not consistently going the extra mile and leaving right as the clock strikes 5PM.
Here’s the thing, incentives are everything. Even a profitable, successful deal can go south quickly if everyone’s incentives aren’t aligned properly.
You’ve really got to cut to the core of what motivates the management and be willing to adjust on the fly if you make a mistake. This even applies to yourself and your own motivations.
*Cue my time to tie up the story from the beginning.
If you remember from the beginning of the article, I said I felt slighted. Somehow, I had undercut my compensation. FOMO, but on steroids.
That is all true, BUT those feelings were short lived. I got over them once I remembered I started with nothing.
I had no experience, no network, or money. I was a 20 something with big dreams and little to back it up.
The individuals we partnered with took HUGE risks on Ian and I, signing full recourse loans, and stroking big checks of their own money. They deserved every penny for stomaching our rookie mistakes and growing pains as a new company.
Better yet, they’ve continued to be instrumental in our ongoing growth and development.
It might be human nature to be greedy, but I personally don’t regret a damn thing about what I agreed to in the past. Let my fleeting moment of greed and weakness serve as warning to you.
You must put in the time and pay your dues all while maintaining character and humility. And the best part? It is all within your control.