Michigan Based, MHP Focused

[William Nance]

While I've posted a handful of times elsewhere, as I am now at the point of looking to make a first investment I wanted to formally introduce myself. Through a personal contact that has become successful with real estate investing, I started to dive into the subject last summer. This was a paradigm shift in my life. It was the start of a realization that the professional path left me deeply frustrated, unfulfilled, and as the dog chasing their proverbial tail. I was always going for the next best object or professional opportunity, thinking that would make me happy. Discovering BiggerPockets and what is possible outside of a "traditional" career was truly eye-opening.

I thought of myself as having a fair degree of financial literacy, but through coming here and then nonstop reading I realized just how much better I could be doing. True, I'd avoided bad consumer debt, worked on my 401K, and did some saving, but I never started building a snowball toward wealth and freedom from a cubicle. I saw income growth as the path to a "better" vehicle or "better" widget I'd barely notice was improved. The only snowball I'd worked on was toward a career where I'd get more and more work, less and less time, and always thinking "I'll be happy after the next promotion/raise/etc." Through coming full circle and understanding what we both really want in life, my wife and I have ramped up our savings rate and made a plan to gain independence in life from what "you're supposed to do."

While we were busy saving, I did all I could to learn as much as possible and determine where to focus. I understand that reading only goes so far, but even if it's just lunch with a seasoned investor I wanted to respect their time by knowing as much as I could about their field without having taken part myself quite yet.

This brings me to today, with capital and the knowledge I've been able to build, I'm looking at my first investment, specifically a mobile home park. While it's true that an SFR may be the more traditional starting point, all I've learned to date has brought me to MHPs. I know that I'm not exactly getting in at the best time historically, but as the best time to buy real estate was yesterday, and the second best time is today, it's better late than never.

With that, I would greatly enjoy the opportunity to take any current MHP owners in Southeast Michigan to coffee or lunch. Thank you again to the community and this site for opening my eyes.