1,000+ Units in a Niche Nobody Understands: How Jason Postill Built a Mobile Home Park Portfolio

On Accredited Investors Only, host Peter Neill sits down with Jason Postill to unpack an investing path that most people either misunderstand or ignore completely: mobile home parks.

Jason’s story is not the typical institutional real estate path. He did not come out of an Ivy League school, a family office, or a fund management background. He came out of professional baseball, worked his way into commercial brokerage, learned the mechanics of underwriting and deal flow, and then made the jump to ownership.

Today, he has helped build a portfolio of more than 1,000 mobile home park units, largely by targeting smaller communities in overlooked markets, solving operational problems that others avoid, and staying disciplined around one core principle: own the land, not the homes.

From Professional Baseball to Commercial Real Estate

Jason’s move into real estate started during his final season in professional baseball. Minor league baseball, as he explains, does not exactly create financial freedom. The pay is low, the career window is short, and every player eventually has to face the reality that the game may end sooner than expected.

One conversation shifted everything for him. At a pro camp, a former big leaguer told the room that he had not made his millions playing baseball. He had made them by owning thousands of apartment units in Detroit.

That idea stuck.

It reframed wealth in a practical way. Big real estate assets were not always owned by giant corporations. Sometimes they were owned by a handful of people using a proven structure and buying assets that produced income. For someone without a family background in real estate, that realization mattered.

Jason’s first step was not ownership. It was brokerage.

Why Brokerage Was a Useful Start, But Not the End Goal

During the offseason, Jason got licensed and explored real estate as a career path. He briefly worked in timeshare sales, learned the realities of commission-based business, and eventually found his way into commercial brokerage, including time with Marcus & Millichap on the multifamily side.

That experience gave him a foundation in:

• Sales
• Underwriting
• Deal analysis
• Investor behavior
• Market dynamics

But it also made one thing very clear: brokerage and ownership are fundamentally different games.

Brokerage can teach the business, but it does not automatically move someone into building long-term wealth. Jason quickly realized he was finding deals for owners, collecting a fee, and then starting over. The owners, on the other hand, were holding assets, compounding equity, and creating something far more durable.

That was the turning point. He did not want to just broker buildings. He wanted to own them.

How Syndication Made Ownership Feel Attainable

Like many aspiring operators, Jason initially faced the obvious problem: he did not have millions of dollars sitting around to buy apartment properties himself.

That is where syndication entered the picture.

Through self-education, mastermind groups, and books on apartment syndication, he discovered a model that made larger acquisitions possible without needing to fund everything personally. That opened the door.

He connected with an investor through BiggerPockets who had cash but struggled to break into multifamily deal flow. Jason had access to deals and the hunger to source them. The investor had capital. That kind of partnership was a revelation.

He also began hearing stories of people offering equity in exchange for finding the right deal. For someone coming from a commission mindset, that was a major shift. Instead of just earning transactional income, he could earn ownership.

At that point, ownership stopped feeling abstract. It became executable.

Why He Chose Mobile Home Parks Over Apartments

Jason came up through multifamily, but after studying different asset classes, he found himself drawn to manufactured housing communities.

His reasoning was simple and practical.

When you own an apartment complex, you own the units and all the headaches inside them. Repairs, maintenance, turnover, and operational intensity can eat away at margins quickly. With mobile home parks, there is a cleaner version of the model if structured correctly: own the land and have residents own the homes sitting on it.

That changes the economics in a big way.

The park owner collects lot rent. The resident maintains the home. Operational complexity drops. Capex exposure changes. Retention often improves dramatically because moving a mobile home is expensive and inconvenient, and residents with ownership tend to stay much longer.

Jason also liked the recession performance of the asset class. In his research, mobile home communities had historically held up well during downturns and showed relatively low levels of loan default compared to many other property types.

That combination made the niche compelling:

• Affordable housing demand
• Lower operating burden when residents own homes
• Strong retention
• Resiliency in weaker economic environments

Mobile Home Parks 101: What the Asset Class Actually Is

One of the biggest misconceptions in this space is that all mobile home parks are the same. They are not.

In places like Florida, you can find high-end, resort-style communities with premium lot rents. On the other end of the spectrum, you have deeply distressed properties in rough areas carrying the old “trailer park” stigma.

Jason’s company does not focus on luxury communities. It targets tougher, value-add projects, often in rougher neighborhoods, with a strategy built around improving the property while preserving affordable housing.

That matters because many cities would rather see these properties scraped and redeveloped into Class A apartments. But replacing low-cost housing with high-cost housing does not solve the affordability problem.

Jason’s model is to buy those communities, stabilize them, improve operations, and create a cleaner, safer, more durable housing option for residents who need affordability.

The Core Distinction: Park-Owned Homes vs. Tenant-Owned Homes

This is central to the business model.

In a park-owned home setup, the operator owns both the land and the mobile home. That means more gross rent, but also more repairs, more maintenance, and more operational issues.

In a tenant-owned home setup, the resident owns the home and rents only the lot. The operator collects lot rent and avoids most of the home-level maintenance burden.

Jason wants the second model.

He does not want to create what he calls a “horizontal apartment complex.” The goal is not to own dozens of small aging homes that constantly need work. The goal is to own well-run land communities where residents have pride of ownership and the operator benefits from more predictable economics.

The First Deal and the Road to 1,000+ Units

It took Jason about 18 months from getting serious about ownership to closing his first deal.

That first acquisition was a 68-unit mobile home park structured with four partners, including Jason as an operator and two passive investors. It was enough to prove the model.

From there, the portfolio scaled quickly. Over roughly four years, the business grew to more than 1,000 units.

What is especially interesting is how they built that portfolio. They were not immediately buying giant 200-unit communities. Instead, they stitched together smaller deals:

• 18 units
• 33 units
• 43 units
• 50-unit range parks
• Eventually a 195-unit acquisition

That smaller segment became a sweet spot.

The Sweet Spot: Why Smaller Mobile Home Parks Were So Attractive

Jason found a strong opportunity in communities under roughly 50 units.

These properties often sat in an awkward middle ground:

• Institutions were not interested because the deals were too small
• Part-time local investors often could not comfortably execute a 40- or 50-unit acquisition on their own

That left room for a focused operator with hustle, operational capability, and a willingness to solve messy problems.

It is a classic inefficiency. The biggest capital is ignoring the deal size, and the smallest buyers cannot always absorb the complexity. If you can live in that middle ground, you can build a meaningful portfolio under the radar.

Why Financing Mobile Home Parks Is So Difficult

This is one of the most important realities in the mobile home park business: financing is much harder than many people expect.

Even experienced operators run into this issue, especially on small and mid-sized deals.

There are several reasons:

• Lenders often do not understand the asset class
• There is a distinction between real property and personal property
• The homes themselves may be titled more like vehicles than traditional real estate
• Many banks hear “mobile home” and immediately decline, even if the actual collateral is the land and lot rent stream

Jason described this as a very unique and often misunderstood asset class. Some lenders treat the homes almost like chattel, which creates confusion and makes underwriting less straightforward than with a standard apartment building.

How He Solved the Financing Problem

In the beginning, the answer was local banks and persistence.

The first deal was owner-financed, which gave the team a way to get in, prove the business plan, and create a performance record. After that, local Arkansas banks became more open once they saw:

• The deposits coming in every month
• The actual operating results
• A repeatable business plan
• Completed projects

That relationship mattered. Banks that might have initially said no became more willing once they understood the deposit base and saw an operator who could execute.

Later, the company refinanced roughly 500 units into a portfolio loan through Bank of America using CMBS debt.

But even with scale, Jason’s message was clear: financing in this asset class is still a challenge. Some operators end up buying too many properties in cash simply because debt is not readily available, which can limit growth.

For anyone entering the space, specialized loan brokers and niche lender relationships can make a huge difference.

How Mobile Home Parks Are Valued

Like other forms of commercial real estate, mobile home parks are largely valued based on income. But the details matter.

In Jason’s world, lenders care most about lot rent income. If a park owner also owns the homes and is collecting a much larger gross rent number, lenders may not fully credit that extra income the way an operator expects.

That creates an important underwriting distinction.

For example, if a park-owned home rents for $1,000 per month but the actual lot rent is only $400, a lender may anchor more heavily to the lot-rent component than to the full amount. That means operators who rely on inflated park-owned home income can run into issues when taking deals to the bank.

Jason’s team avoids much of that problem because they underwrite toward the lot-rent model anyway. Their plan is to convert communities toward tenant ownership, so lender treatment tends to align better with their long-term operating strategy.

Cap Rates, Cash-on-Cash Returns, and Rent Upside

Jason’s team buys in tougher areas, so they generally wants a higher cap rate on entry. He mentioned targeting deals in the 7% to 9% range in many cases, though actual day-one cap rates can vary depending on current occupancy and below-market rents.

Even more important to them than cap rate is cash-on-cash return.

The target is roughly:

• 12% to 14% cash-on-cash by year two or three
• Achieved with moderate rent increases, not aggressive spikes

A good example from the conversation was a 58-unit acquisition purchased for $1.3 million, or about $22,000 per pad. It was mostly occupied, but lot rents were only $220 while market rent was closer to $400.

That means a deal that looks like a 7 cap at purchase can become significantly stronger just by bringing rents closer to market over time. Jason is not talking about extreme overnight rent hikes. He is talking about obvious operational inefficiencies where the current owner has simply left money on the table.

That built-in upside is where a lot of value is created.

At the same time, he noted that in major markets like Los Angeles or Miami, mobile home parks can still trade at 4% to 5% caps, even in a higher-rate debt environment. That pricing, in his view, is hard to make sense of.

The Hard Part: Transitioning Park-Owned Homes to Resident Ownership

On paper, the strategy sounds simple.

Buy a park with park-owned homes, sell those homes to the residents, reduce maintenance burden, and improve retention.

In practice, it can get messy.

Jason was very candid about this. In one community, when they tried to force residents into buying their homes with a down payment requirement, roughly half the park left. It was a painful lesson and a strong reminder that even when an offer seems objectively better, people do not always respond the way owners expect.

Some residents simply do not want ownership. They do not want responsibility. They may distrust the change. They may not have the cash. Or they may just prefer to leave rather than commit.

That experience forced the team to become more flexible.

The Current Transition Model

Instead of forcing one path, Jason now uses a mix of options:

• Keep some residents in place temporarily
• Enforce payment discipline with a strict no-pay, no-stay policy
• Convert vacant or turnover units into rent-to-own structures
• Use low-money-down lease options to move residents toward homeownership

The rent-to-own model helps preserve income while still shifting maintenance responsibility away from the operator. A unit that might have rented for around $1,000 as a park-owned home could transition into a structure where the resident pays close to that amount but takes on ownership responsibilities over time.

That means the operator gives up some simplicity in the short term to get better long-term economics.

Jason estimated that a transition can often be implemented within about 90 days, though difficult parks can take much longer.

Why Resident Ownership Matters So Much

Once residents own their homes, retention improves dramatically.

Jason cited average tenancy in the neighborhood of 14 years once people are in that ownership model. That kind of stickiness is one of the strongest advantages in the business.

People do not want to move. They have a home they own, a lot they rent, and a relatively affordable place to live. That creates stable occupancy and more durable cash flow.

Rules, Enforcement, and Turning Around Tough Communities

Because Jason often buys rough properties in rough areas, operations cannot be passive.

Community rules are a major part of the turnaround strategy. Residents sign leases with clear expectations, and those expectations are enforced.

Examples include:

• Keeping skirting intact on homes
• No scrap metal or junk accumulation
• No inoperable vehicles sitting in lots
• Restrictions on dangerous dog breeds, subject to insurance requirements
• No drug activity
• General property upkeep standards

Jason shared an example of evicting a resident who was effectively operating a scrap metal business out of his home lot. Even if someone is paying rent, repeated violations of community rules can still be grounds for removal.

The philosophy is straightforward: if the goal is to create a safe, stable, and respectable affordable housing community, standards matter.

How He Built the Acquisitions Machine

Jason’s brokerage background became especially valuable in acquisitions.

In the early years, much of the growth came the old-fashioned way:

• Cold calling owners
• Direct mail
• Using brokerage databases and relationships
• Calling around existing acquisitions

The approach was simple. Buy one deal, then call nearby owners and say, “We’re your new neighbors. If you ever think about selling, we’d love to talk.”

That strategy worked, especially in a market where owners were not constantly being hit with offers.

Jason’s business partner, who was on the ground in Arkansas, handled many of the local meetings. That was important because many sellers wanted to meet face to face and preferred dealing with someone rooted in the area. Jason handled much of the sourcing and initial conversation, and his partner helped convert those contacts into real relationships.

Over time, that led to another shift: inbound deal flow.

As the company became the largest owner of manufactured housing communities in Arkansas, sellers and brokers started bringing opportunities directly to them because they had a real track record of closing.

Why Arkansas Became the Focus Market

One of the more interesting parts of Jason’s story is geographic. He is based in Florida, but the portfolio was built largely in Arkansas.

Why?

Because Florida was too competitive.

When Jason and his partner started seriously pursuing deals, they were seeing aggressive buyers place huge nonrefundable deposits on mobile home parks at pricing that made no sense to them. They could not compete rationally in that environment.

So they looked elsewhere and found Arkansas.

What stood out:

• Lower barrier to entry
• Less competition at the time
• A metro like Little Rock with real scale
• Positive long-term trends in the state
• Major investment activity tied to the Walton family and broader regional development

Jason described Arkansas as something of a sleeper market. Five years ago, many park owners there were barely getting called at all. Compared to oversaturated Florida, that was a huge difference.

In other words, Arkansas offered exactly what strong operators look for: inefficiency, room to build relationships, and pricing that still left room for execution.

Why They Built In-House Property Management

Jason is very clear on this point: he does not love property management.

In fact, if he were buying apartment complexes, he would likely use third-party management every time. But in the mobile home park space, he found that third-party management was often either unavailable, too expensive, or not aligned enough with ownership.

That forced a strategic decision: build it in-house.

The Main Reasons for Vertical Integration

• Control over rent collection, rules enforcement, and contractor oversight
• Efficiency in solving problems quickly without waiting on outside managers
• Cost management in a lower-rent asset class where standard management fees can be harder to justify
• Operational continuity instead of relying on a third party that might leave or underperform

The team built the platform from the ground up. That includes:

• On-site managers
• Contractor coordination
• Use of Rent Manager software
• Virtual assistants
• Systems for rent collection and tenant communication

They also moved away from cash and checks changing hands with managers, which had been common in some communities. That kind of system may be typical in distressed mobile home park operations, but it creates unnecessary leakage and confusion. Standardizing digital processes brought more professionalism and better oversight.

Importantly, the property management arm is not being treated as a profit center. The internal management fee is designed more to cover costs and support the portfolio than to become a separate third-party management business.

How Jason Structures Deals With Investors

On the capital-raising side, Jason’s company has used a mix of structures depending on the deal and investor base.

That has included:

• Owner financing on early acquisitions
• 506(b) offerings for smaller raises and existing relationships
• 506(c) offerings as the track record matured and the company became more comfortable publicly promoting opportunities
• Joint ventures with operating partners and aligned investors

Early on, 506(b) structures made sense for small raises involving a limited set of investors. Later, as the business built a track record, 506(c) became a more natural fit because it allowed broader promotion and solicitation.

Jason also explained one practical reason for keeping 506(b) in the toolkit: some investors may have strong net worth or liquidity but not cleanly meet the accredited investor income test in a given period. In those cases, a pre-existing relationship and a properly structured 506(b) offering may still be useful.

So far, the company has primarily focused on single-asset syndications rather than a blind-pool fund.

That decision was partly strategic. Launching a fund without a track record can be difficult because investors naturally want to know what the operator has already done. After building a portfolio and performance history, a fund structure becomes more realistic.

Why the Long-Term Vision Matters More Than the Quick Exit

One of the clearest themes in Jason’s approach is patience.

He is not building the business around quick flips. The goal is long-term ownership.

That has not always made capital raising easier. Some private equity groups want a defined three- to five-year exit and are focused on a specific multiple within a short period. Jason has had groups interested in writing checks, but only if the strategy aligns with that shorter timeline.

He has chosen not to bend the business model just to match that capital.

Instead, the strategy is centered on buy-and-hold ownership, long-duration cash flow, and steady portfolio growth. That does not mean assets would never be sold. It just means selling is not the default plan.

The broader target is ambitious: 10,000 units.

That kind of scale does not come from constantly resetting the portfolio. It comes from disciplined acquisitions, good operations, and patience.

What This Business Really Teaches

Jason’s story is a great reminder that some of the best opportunities in real estate live in corners of the market that most people either misunderstand or dismiss.

Mobile home parks are not easy. Financing is harder. Operations can be gritty. Tenant transitions are not always smooth. And the stigma around the asset class can keep plenty of investors away.

But those same factors can create real opportunity for operators willing to specialize.

The core lessons from his approach are hard to ignore:

• Barrier to entry can be a competitive advantage
• Owning the land is often better than owning the structure
• Small and overlooked deals can compound into large portfolios
• Strong lender, broker, and seller relationships matter as much as spreadsheets
• Long-term wealth usually comes from ownership, not just transactions

For investors exploring affordable housing, niche commercial real estate, or syndication models outside the mainstream, Jason’s path offers a practical case study in building something meaningful by staying focused on one lane and learning it deeply.

Connect With Jason Postill

To learn more about Jason’s work in manufactured housing communities, visit MHCI Group.

He also shares insights on LinkedIn under his name, Jason Postill.