Best Ever Commercial Real Estate Show: Finding Your Edge in the Mobile Home and Self-Storage Spaces ft. Jeremiah Boucher
Listen to the Full Episode here.
Show Notes:
Young and hungry, Jeremiah Boucher got his start in commercial real estate by sourcing mobile home park deals during the Great Recession. Since then, he’s created his own management company and branched out into the self-storage space. In this episode, Jeremiah tells us how he found his edge as a young investor, what drew him to self-storage, and what advice he has for investors in both asset classes today:
Establishing value as a young investor.
After losing some houses in the Great Recession, Jeremiah had no money or credit to work with. One thing he could offer was his ability to source deals, so that’s exactly what he did to get his foot in the door with mobile home parks.
What attracted him to mobile home parks.
As a young investor, because Jeremiah didn’t have much capital or credit to work with, he sought deals that didn’t necessarily require either. In 2007, mobile home parks were largely financed through the seller — particularly with the Class C-type properties he worked with — which paved the way for him to begin landing deals.
Advice for mobile home park investors today.
Today, Jeremiah sees people overpaying for mobile home parks with potentially problematic business plans and budget expense expectations. Because of this, it might be a good idea to wait to buy until some of these newer owners are forced to sell.
Why he shifted to self-storage.
It’s a strong, recession-resistant asset class that’s scalable. Jeremiah has been able to manage, build, and acquire facilities quickly and obtain financing relatively easily.
Advice for self-store investors today.
Make sure you buy in a market where it is difficult to add supply in order to put yourself in a position where rent rates can increase as demand increases on a limited supply. Also, buy with a margin of error — make sure you’re conservative when it comes to rent numbers.
His Best Ever Advice: Find your edge.
Jeremiah recently wrote a book titled Finding Your Edge about what he has learned in the last 20 years in real estate. The most important thing, he says, is to identify your competitive edge in a space. Once you know what your strengths are, you can pursue opportunities where the deck is stacked in your favor.
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