[music playing]
- Frank Rolfe?
- Yes.
- Billy Mintz.
- Hi, Billy.
How are you?
BILLY MINTZ (VOICEOVER):
Frank Rolfe's company
is the fifth largest
owner of mobile home
parks in the United States.
BILLY MINTZ: Beautiful place.
FRANK ROLFE: Thank
you very much.
BILLY MINTZ: Wow.
Show you in here.
Our motto is kind of we provide
a clean, safe, affordable place
to live, just like it is here.
Micro-housing is hot.
You just have a whole lot
of people who just can't
afford to buy a house today.
It's almost
impossible for people.
So we're like, by far,
the least expensive form
of detached dwelling there is.
I mean, some homes you'll
see are like $2,000
for the entire home.
BILLY MINTZ (VOICEOVER): Here's
how Frank's business works.
He buys old mobile home
parks, makes basic repairs,
gives them a fresh
coat of paint,
and then puts homes
on the market.
Basically, you're
repositioning properties,
bringing them back to life.
And everybody's happy.
BILLY MINTZ (VOICEOVER):
He owns the land,
so whether he rents out
the homes or sells them,
residents pay a lot fee of
around $250 to $375 per month,
providing Frank with a
steady stream of revenue.
So this is a unit for sale?
It's for sale or rent.
Renting this is $550 a month.
But if you want to buy it,
we'll sell it you for $500.
OK, so hold on a second.
To rent it, it's $550.
Right.
But to buy it, it's less.
Yes.
Then how does it work for
you financially, though?
Well, on paper, it looks
pretty stupid, right?
Because I've poured thousands of
dollars into the house and I'm
going to take a
loss on this house
of probably $3,000 or $4,000.
But just to have
someone on this lot,
this lot is worth probably
$30,000 with someone in it
and it's worth nothing
with somebody not in it.
Our big focus is we want
to be in the land business.
Right.
So we're willing to take
hefty losses on the homes just
to be in the land business.
BILLY MINTZ
(VOICEOVER): It's not
much different from how the
mobile home business started.
[music playing]
During World War II, a slapdash
prototype of mobile homes
housed soldiers and
factory workers.
After the war ended,
small mom and pop shops
set out to make the rickety
World War II model a more
permanent, affordable housing
alternative, buying cheap land,
installing homes,
and then charging
lot fees to the residents.
But the difference was that
these mostly family-owned parks
usually didn't raise rents.
But after 2007, the
demand for cheap housing
skyrocketed and people like
Frank saw an opportunity.
Our industry has been a
contrarian bet on a poorer
America, and that
bet's been paying off
really big the last
eight years, right?
Whereas our customers are the
$10 to $50 per hour folks,
there's no other options
out there for those people.
