In the ever-changing world of real estate investing, asset classes rise and fall with shifting markets. Yet, according to real estate veteran Kevin Bupp, one asset continuously proves its value, resilience, and scalability: mobile home parks. On a recent episode of the Raising Private Money podcast with Jay Conner, The Private Money Authority, Kevin Bupp shared his extensive experience, including raising over $250 million in private capital, and revealed what makes mobile home parks a standout investment opportunity.
The Unexpected Journey to Mobile Home Parks
Kevin Bupp’s real estate journey began at age 19. Like many, he poured his energy into single-family rentals, building an impressive portfolio of 22 properties by his mid-20s. He tasted success but also felt the sting of the 2008 market crash, when he lost nearly everything.
Reflecting on that pivotal period, Kevin noted how inefficiencies in managing scattered single-family rentals, compounded by the inefficiency of technology at the time, exposed his business to excessive risk. The crash forced him to reevaluate, rebuild smarter, and ultimately, seek out asset classes offering not just cash flow and efficiency, but also resilience. This search led Kevin to mobile home parks.
Why Mobile Home Parks Offer Superior Investment Benefits
- Recession Resistance
One of the central appeals of mobile home parks is their stability during economic downturns. Historically, demand for affordable housing rises when the economy struggles. Mobile home parks cater directly to this need, providing low-cost living options that are in constant demand, regardless of market cycles.
As Kevin explained, even during periods when single-family home rents fell, mobile home parks remained relatively stable. Residents of these communities rarely leave; replacing or moving a mobile home is expensive, creating natural “stickiness” and consistent occupancy for park owners.
- Operational Efficiency & Scalability
Unlike single-family rentals spread across a wide geographic area, each with its operational quirks, a well-managed mobile home park can comprise dozens or even hundreds of income-producing units on one property. Kevin cited his company’s experience, scaling from a 34-lot park to properties holding over 700 sites, allowing rapid expansion without proportional increases in overhead.
Operationally, many residents in mobile home parks own their homes and simply rent the lots, reducing maintenance costs and management headaches for the investor. This model allows investors to focus on the land and common infrastructure, not individual unit repairs.
- Barriers to Entry and Limited Competition
Municipalities often resist the development of new mobile home parks due to lingering social stigma and zoning challenges. This makes existing parks more valuable over time, insulating owners from the risk of market oversupply. As Kevin put it, many parks were built decades ago and are still held by the original owners. Buying these properties often means acquiring from “mom and pop” operators, frequently below market value.
- Attractive Financing and Creative Purchasing Options
Kevin detailed how long-term relationships with owners and a reputation for fair, reliable purchases lead to creative financing opportunities, including owner financing with favorable terms, further improving margins and investor returns.
The Role of Private Money and Building Investor Relationships
A core theme of Kevin’s discussion was raising and leveraging private capital to fuel growth. He emphasized the importance of sharing real results transparently, whether in networking groups, social media, or his podcast, as a magnet for investor interest. Kevin’s approach is simple: prove success, speak openly about your business, and organically attract interest from those seeking passive real estate returns.
Events such as investor appreciation gatherings, frequent direct communication, and sharing live case studies ensure investors feel like true partners, not just silent financiers. As a result, referrals from satisfied investors have become his company’s most consistent source of new capital.
Conclusion
Mobile home parks may not be the flashiest asset in real estate, but as Kevin Bupp demonstrated, their blend of recession resistance, management efficiency, high demand, and funding opportunities makes them a top choice for building long-term wealth. Whether you’re an active investor or seeking passive income, this “underdog” class holds powerful potential, especially when guided by experienced operators and a proven, people-first approach to private money.
10 Discussion Questions from this Episode:
- Kevin Bupp discusses the transition from single-family rentals to mobile home parks. What do you think are the main advantages and challenges he faced in making this shift?
- How does Kevin’s experience with the 2008 financial crisis shape his current investment strategies in real estate?
- Kevin mentions the importance of transparency and communication in raising private money. How can this approach be applied to other areas of business?
- In the podcast, Kevin talks about using social media and other platforms for sharing his journey. How can real estate investors leverage digital platforms effectively in today’s market?
- Discuss the role of diversification in Sunrise Capital Investors’ fund strategy. How does it benefit or present challenges to investors?
- Kevin explores the concept of “going deeper” with existing investors. What are some techniques businesses can use to strengthen relationships with their current investor base?
- How does Kevin’s idea of hosting investor appreciation events help in building trust and potentially increasing investments?
- Kevin Bupp shared his journey of financial loss and recovery. What lessons can new investors learn from his experience of rebuilding his real estate empire?
- How does Kevin Bupp’s approach to private money, by proving concepts before seeking external investments, affect investor confidence?
- Reflect on the types of educational resources (like Kevin’s book or webinars) that real estate investors should seek to improve their knowledge and skills in the industry.
Fun facts that were revealed in the episode:
- From Rock Bottom to Raising Millions: Kevin Bupp openly shared that after the 2008 market crash, he lost virtually everything he had built in his real estate career and had to restart from scratch, with just $75,000 and bad credit. Despite the setback, he rebuilt his business and has since raised over $250 million in private money for real estate deals!
- Scaling Up, Literally: The very first mobile home park Kevin purchased after the crash had just 34 spaces. Today, the largest park he’s acquired boasts a jaw-dropping 738 spaces, showing just how scalable and expansive this asset class can be when you stick to your niche.
- Pitching Investors at Happy Hour (and It Works!): One of Kevin’s most effective fundraising strategies is simply talking about his deals and successes at networking events, on social media, and even at in-person appreciation events—cocktails included. He’s found that being open, genuine, and sharing real stories about his parks is the key to attracting private investors—no hard pitching necessary!
Timestamps:
00:01 Top Real Estate Investments
03:54 Real Estate Journey and Resilience
08:58 Multifamily Real Estate Transition
13:02 Podcast Insights on Real Estate Journey
13:44 “Effective Real Estate Networking Methods”
19:30 Investor Engagement: Building Relationships
22:27 Diversified Real Estate Investment Fund
23:19 Long-Term Real Estate Success
22:00 Connect with Kevin Bupp
https://www.InvestWithSunrise.com
27:30 Kevin Bupp’s Book: “The Cashflow Investor”
https://www.KevinBupp.com/FreeBook
28:40 Effective Networking Strategies
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Jay Conner is a proven real estate investment leader. Without using his own money or credit, Jay maximizes creative methods to buy and sell properties with profits averaging $67,000 per deal.
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Smart Investment Moves: Mobile Home Parks and Kevin Bupp’s Success Story
Jay Conner [00:00:00]:
Welcome to another amazing episode of Raising Private Money. I’m Jay Conner, the Private Money Authority, and you’re a host of this show. This is the show where we talk about attracting and raising private money without ever having to ask for money. Well, my guest today has got a plethora of experience. He’s only raised so far, between 253 hundred million dollars in private money. You think he’s got something to share on how to attract money? You better believe it. He’s got over $250,000,000 in real estate transactions under his belt. And, you know, there are all kinds of real estate assets that you can best invest in.
Jay Conner [00:00:43]:
Well, my guest has identified mobile home parks and parking lots as one of the top real estate investments with what’s going on in the current market. Can’t wait to talk about those asset classes. And in addition to that, he’s got a private equity firm that’s called Sunrise Capital Investors. So this is where he makes investments in commercial real estate assets, and he makes it available to passive investors who just wanna sit back and collect nice checks to help them build a legacy and achieve financial freedom. In just a moment, we’re gonna dive deep. I’m gonna interview my good friend and guest here on the show, Mr. Kevin Bupp, right after this.
Narrator [00:01:29]:
If you’re a real estate investor and are wondering how to raise and leverage private money to make more profit on every deal, then you’re in the right place. On raising private money, we’ll speak with new and seasoned investors to dissect their deals and extract the best tips and strategies to help you get the money, because the money comes first. Now here’s your host, Jay Conner.
Jay Conner [00:01:56]:
Oh my lands, Kevin, for goodness’s sakes. You’ve raised hundreds of millions of dollars in private money. Hundreds of million dollars you’ve been involved in real estate transactions. This is going to be a phenomenal show. Welcome to the show, Kevin.
Kevin Bupp [00:02:11]:
Jay, thanks for having me. I’m excited to be here.
Jay Conner [00:02:13]:
I’m excited to have you, too. And I tell you what, when I grow up, I want to get a microphone like you. I mean, for all of you that are listening, Kevin is, like, speaking into the golden mic. I don’t know if he’s related to Rush Limbaugh or not, that have the golden microphone as well.
Kevin Bupp [00:02:30]:
Well, you know what it is, Jay? I’m not cool enough to be able to pull off nice bling like you have on your wrist and your fingers, and so this is my bling. This is my global bling.
Jay Conner [00:02:38]:
Oh, I gotcha. Well, you see, I wear the bling because it reminds me of when times were good. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Just kidding. Just kidding. So, Kevin, we’re gonna talk about how you’ve gone about raising private money.
Jay Conner [00:02:52]:
We’re gonna talk about your Sunrise Capital Investors Fund, where people can be passive and get nice rates of return in a conservative way. But my first question, Kevin, you can answer this as quickly as you like, or you can take as much time as you like. And here is the question. Tell me and my audience, who is
Kevin Bupp [00:03:17]:
Kevin Buck? Yeah. Great, great question. So, you know, I’m 46 years old as of this recording. I like to joke and say that I’ve never had a real job. I’ve been in real estate since the age of 19. It’s when I first identified the opportunity, bought my first rental property at the age of 20, and I’ve been doing it ever since. You know, it’s taken many different life cycles throughout the last twenty-plus years, but, ultimately, this has been my my br and butter. I’ve owned just about every different asset class to speak of, both, you know, in the residential world as well as the commercial world.
Kevin Bupp [00:03:54]:
I’ve owned several other companies outside of real estate, but real estate has always been the core focus. And so, I started just like a lot of other folks buying single-family properties, in my early twenties. I had successfully built up at that time, what I felt was just like I thought I was God. You know, I had 22 single-family rentals by my mid twenties, you know, was making quite a bit of money, having a lot of fun doing deals, found my way into commercial real estate as well. Lost everything in ’08. Started back over again. Fast forward a couple of years after the crash, started buying mobile home parks, which is a brand new asset class for me. Scales we’ve scaled that business significantly here over the last decade.
Kevin Bupp [00:04:36]:
And then just in the last five years, you mentioned parking lots. That’s some of a new vertical for us, but one that we’ve got a we’ve got about 50,000,000 parking lots in our current portfolio today. So those are our you know, we like to stay in our lane, Jay. We love finding what we’re really good at and then just going all in. And so mobile home parks were that again for the last ten-plus years. And then, parking, we brought it into the fray just about five years ago, and that’s the only thing we do. Those two asset classes that we focus on, that’s where we’re where expertise shines. And we have a lot of fun doing this well.
Kevin Bupp [00:05:06]:
So that’s the, that’s short condensed version of me.
Jay Conner [00:05:10]:
Sure. Having said having a lot of fun. I tell you what I believe, and that is life is too short not to be having fun with what you do. I’m starting to get to the age, Kevin, which you have not as of yet, but I’m starting to get a few people asking me the question, well, Jay, are you thinking about retiring? And I’m going, are you kidding? What in the world would I do with myself? I don’t play golf. I don’t watch much TV. And, so I say you might as well be doing something fun and getting paid a lot of money for it. Now you, like a lot of other people, Kevin, you lost it all, quote, unquote, back in o eight. O ‘8 was o nine was my pivotal moment.
Jay Conner [00:05:55]:
But, if you had it all over, would you have had to do it all over again? What would you have done differently? What lessons did you learn from having to go through that? And then thirdly, how do you rebuild a real estate empire after losing it all?
Kevin Bupp [00:06:11]:
Yeah. All great questions. You know, back then, the majority of my portfolio that I ended up losing was single-family rentals. And, it’s it’s not a I mean, it’s a great asset class. However, there were some additional factors of variables that existed back then that don’t quite exist today. One being that everything I owned was here in South Florida, South Southwest Florida to be more specific. So Tampa and then South. You know, this economy here is much more dynamic than it was back in o eight, especially once you get outside of Tampa.
Kevin Bupp [00:06:42]:
It’s just that it was much more dead; it’s much more dynamic today than it was, you know, ten plus years ago or back in 2008 when the market crashed. And so, essentially, what what what occurred was, number one, there was a excess supply of a a a surplus of of new homes being built. I mean, it was, you know, builders were building homes as fast as they possibly could, but there weren’t necessarily bodies coming into those homes. There wasn’t that that much of a population moving here to Florida. And second to that, a lot of the job base was built around construction. So, ultimately, when the mortgage market crashed, you know, did everything else. And there weren’t enough bodies to occupy units. It was robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Kevin Bupp [00:07:16]:
So we had a major vacancy issue that came about. We’re competing against brand-new homes that were sitting on the market that builders started renting, and so we had to cut our rental prices. And so we went from having positive cash flow to having negative cash flow. But on top of that, Jay, just to answer your question, but to better answer it, you know, there were there was a there was a lack of technology back then, that I that I believe exists today that makes even operating individual single family rentals much more efficient than what it was back then. I had properties in five counties. I had leasing agents running around. I had maintenance guys running around everywhere. Lots of inefficiencies just in that alone.
Kevin Bupp [00:07:51]:
You couldn’t do virtual showings. You know? You had someone showing up at the unit to do walk-throughs and things of that nature. It’s just the property management side of it just was crushing. And so while I, you know, argued with my internal self that I truly was a cash flow investor, when you got down to the honest brass tax numbers, it was an appreciation business. And when the appreciation stopped, so did everything else. And then ultimately, when rental rates dropped, a lot of people say rental rates don’t ever drop. Right? They only go up, and that’s bullshit. They took a hiatus for a couple of years, especially in some of the hard-hit markets of Florida.
Kevin Bupp [00:08:25]:
And so, you know, I would say, you know, what I’ve done differently, you know, it took a lot of time and energy. And I was single. I wasn’t married. I was having a lot of fun. Right? But, like, it took so much time and energy to build that initial portfolio one by one by one. And it was fun. I love the hustle, but like, it’s kind of a, how do we rebuild this again? How do we do it more efficiently, and how are we smarter with our time? Right? Because now the second time around, in o eight, I met who is now my wife. We didn’t get married till 02/2010, but I knew that you know, I knew she was the one, knew we’re gonna have a family.
Kevin Bupp [00:08:58]:
And now now now now my time needed to be split. Right? I need to try to find some type of balance while also rebuilding something from scratch. And so I originally thought it was gonna be multifamily. I’d start buying some multifamily properties before the crash happened, and I just found a lot more efficiencies in the overall operations that didn’t exist in that single-family stuff. Debt was also quite a bit more attractive on the larger multifamily properties than on single-family, individual single-family properties. And so when I first came out of this thing, it took me about three years to get my head out of my butt. I was dealing with a lot of chaos, a lot of damage control for three years, just trying to sort through the mess. But when I came out of it, I had originally decided that multifamily was gonna be it.
Kevin Bupp [00:09:38]:
So I was like, okay. Well, it took me this long to buy a 22-unit apartment complex, but I had a couple of apartment complexes, one that was 70 units. Right? Like, I bought that in one fell swoop, and it took me multiple more years than that to acquire these or, you know, compile these 22 single-family homes. So I thought that was gonna be the path. And then I I I, you know, accidentally stumbled my way into a luncheon conversation with a gentleman that happened to be a a a retired banker that decided to start buying mobile home parks in his retirement years, here in Florida. And I had a two-hour conversation with him, and that changed the trajectory. It brings us to where we’re at today. Right? Like, I decided not to buy multifamily.
Kevin Bupp [00:10:16]:
I decided to buy mobile home parks. I went and bought the first one, and the rest is history. And it’s been a bumpy ride along the way, but ultimately, that’s what made the pivotal moment back then when I was rebuilding. And, I want to rebuild it again, bigger chunks at a time. So the first mobile home park we bought now is still the smallest to this day, it was 34 spaces. The largest one single community that we’ve owned that we currently own today that we’ve that we purchased is 738 sites. Right? I mean, like, a multitude of buying single-family homes one at a time, one at a time. There’s nothing wrong with that.
Kevin Bupp [00:10:51]:
I just think there’s a better way to skin the cat. Right? A more efficient way to do it. So
Jay Conner [00:10:56]:
Well, you can scale a whole lot quicker, the way you’re talking about doing it now. I want us to dive into mobile home parks. But before we do, after all, the name of this show is raising private money. So you’ve raised a lot of private money. You’ve raised a lot of capital. And given your experience, what would you share as to what your favorite methods and ways of raising private money are?
Kevin Bupp [00:11:23]:
Yeah. It’s a great question. And I will say, just to give some additional context, as to the amount you had mentioned in the beginning. So in the first, I guess, the first half of my journey, back when I was buying single-family homes, basically leading up into the crash, I didn’t know what a formal syndication was. We weren’t raising capital in that manner, you know, via securities. It was all it was all if I did raise private capital, it was a debt structure. I mean, bringing a private investor, you know, if they had where they had self-directed money or just capital in general, they were going to a first lien position, and it was a debt instrument, not an equity instrument. So I just wanna ask some context there.
Kevin Bupp [00:11:57]:
And I raised a lot of money that way, but I didn’t know about the world of syndication. I didn’t learn about the world of syndication till probably 02/2012, ‘2 thousand ’13. And so that was a light bulb moment for me. But, you know, I think for me, you know, I don’t know if I have one favorite way, Jay. You know, it’s been an evolution over time. And and and for me, I’ve always I’ve I’ve always been one that wants to kind of, you know, prove the concept before going out and taking money from others. Right? I wanna risk my capital. And so even back when we bought the first mobile home park, before I, you know, even thought about talking to others about taking their capital, investing in deals, what have you, I wanted to risk my own money.
Kevin Bupp [00:12:39]:
I didn’t have much back then. I had so bad credit from the crash. Had, like, $75,000 left in my name that I was trying I had to I had to make work. Right? My back was against the wall. And so for me, it was just, number one, find a great opportunity. I think I think that’s one great way to find the capital. Right? Get good at finding good opportunities. And so in that situation, I found a great opportunity.
Kevin Bupp [00:13:02]:
I didn’t necessarily need the capital. I had one partner who came in together with me, and we did that deal. But I spoke about that deal quite a bit. Like, I was still I was running my podcast back, and I’ve been doing my podcast for quite some time. But I would go through just kind of the, you know, week-by-week playbook. I would just give updates. It wasn’t that’s what my podcast was not about that, but I would just share interesting things, that that that that took place to me running this community, turning this community around, finding new residents, rehabbing units, running multiple crews, what type of marketing tactics, we’re working to to drive residents in and applications in. And just really speaking about what I was doing and kind of the expertise and the success I was having, ultimately, by default, made folks reach out saying, I love what you’re doing.
Kevin Bupp [00:13:44]:
I don’t know if I necessarily have an interest in doing it myself, but I would love to put money with you. And so I think just being transparent and being really good at what you’re doing and ultimately being transparent about talking about it, whether it’s at your local real estate networking groups, whether it’s on Facebook, Instagram, whether you have a YouTube channel, whether it’s on a podcast, wherever you can get your voice one to many, I think and and and talk about what is you’re doing, the the positive impacts you’re making, the great deals that you’re doing. I truly think that that is if I just had to pick one blanket way, like, that’s the way to do it. I mean, we can drill down in a couple of areas. Like, for example, today, we, you know, in the last couple of years, more specifically, we’ve started spending quite a bit of money on Facebook advertising. Before that, it was all, you know, it was all us just talking on the podcast for many, many years about what we’re doing. But then not just going wider with our net, but going deeper, you know, having some dedicated investors that have been with us for many, many years and getting into their family ecosystem, right, into their friends, their family, their their their aunts or uncles, their work colleagues, and going deeper into their immediate network. That in of itself has been a huge game changer.
Kevin Bupp [00:14:51]:
Literally taking the 50 investors that we had and now drilling deeper, and now we’ve got one fifty because ultimately, they’ve been referring us friends, family, colleagues, what have you. So I don’t know if I necessarily know if I have just one exact answer for you, Jay, but, like, for me, it’s just being transparent, being open, and having a voice and speaking about it.
Jay Conner [00:15:11]:
I love that, Kevin, and I agree with you. The easiest way to raise the capital without chasing, begging, persuading, selling, or trying to run people down is what you just said, from my experience, and that’s sharing what you do. I know, I love, and in my mastermind community, they do it as well. They share on Facebook and their social media, and Instagram. You know, here’s a deal I’m doing. Our world is still primarily single-family houses, and here’s a house I’m doing. They just share the story. And here’s what I bought it for, and here’s the rehab that we’re doing.
Jay Conner [00:15:45]:
And, by the way, my investors are loving the, you know, whatever amount of money that they’re making. And then our simple call to action on those posts is to talk money, DM me. So I’m not openly soliciting. I’m not offering any interest rates. I’m gonna say, hey. You wanna talk money? You know, then DM me. Now there’s something I wanna drill down on that you just said that I find fascinating, and that is you’re talking about going deeper with your current private lenders or investors and getting them to refer their family and their friends. How do you go about that step by step?
Kevin Bupp [00:16:24]:
And, again, maybe there’s a better science to it, but for me, it’s just this, you know, steady lines of communication, you know, check-in. And this used to be literally. So if you had to look at our company and kind of bifurcate down the middle, it’s me and one other principal within the organization. And years back, originally, it was just he and I. Right? And if you had to break it down the middle, he ran the finance and the capital raising side. I was mostly on the acquisition and then operation side of the house, kinda running the property management, acquiring deals, and then running proper management. He was responsible for getting the capital in the door. So, again, trying to keep it simple.
Kevin Bupp [00:16:57]:
Today, our organization looks quite a bit different than that. But generally speaking, even with just Brian, you know, talking to the investors raising capital, I mean, we’ve got a CRM system. Simple to put in place. Right? Just setting reminders to follow follow-up over the holidays. Send send send gifts, over the holidays. Just check in, say hi. How are you doing? What can we be doing better? Yeah. You know, I know that you’ve given us positive reviews, what have you, but if you could wave your magic wand, change anything, mister investor, like, what would it be? Right? Just having that open line of communication and treating them like another individual.
Kevin Bupp [00:17:30]:
Because at the end of the day, they’re an investor. You know, we’re the owner operator, what have you? But, ultimately, I can’t do without you, and you can’t do without me. And then we’re just two people partnering together, doing this deal together. So let’s get to know one another a little more. And so, again, just having normal conversations. Again, I’m sure that some people have a much more scientific answer than that, Jay, but I’m just a pretty simple dude. You know? Just pick up the phone and call.
Kevin Bupp [00:17:55]:
Say hi. How are you doing? And be and be true about it. Right? You know, today, our world looks a little different. You know? Our our investor relations, we have a whole team now. I think we’ve got, at this point, probably nine different folks on that team, and they manage different aspects of it. But there are three dedicated individuals. Because now in in we have we have over 800 active investors, meaning that someone’s given us capital. Some of those individuals have invested in multiple funds, but we have over 800 active investors inside our multitude of funds that we own and operate.
Kevin Bupp [00:18:25]:
And so that’s way more than one person could ever handle. And without a team there, you’re always in a reactive state. Right? And so we have three dedicated, basically, investor concierges. And all they do is proactively follow-up with with existing investors, check to see how they’re doing, check the temperature, see, you know, see if there’s anything we’d be doing better, see if they have any qualms, any complaints, and then take those, you know, take that feedback and do something with it. Right? Bring it up to the leadership level and make some changes based on whatever feedback was provided. So, but again, I think it’s just being a person, man. That’s it. Creating friendships, you know, more than anything else.
Kevin Bupp [00:19:04]:
So now, nowadays, one other thing that we do that we just started doing the past two years is we do investor appreciation events. And we allow investors who have not yet invested with us. They might be on our email list. They have not yet invested with us, but we have them come out. We do cocktails. We’ll go to different cities throughout the country. A lot of times, we’ll kind of build it around maybe, in a location where we already own an asset or may in in the area that we’re buying something. And then we kinda just make a two-pronged approach.
Kevin Bupp [00:19:30]:
Right? Number one, just have some, you know, good good good good quality time together, breaking bread, talking shop, answering questions, getting to know them on a on a one on one basis, shaking their hands, right, looking them in the eyes, but then also actually going out in the field if we had the opportunity. And I know I just talk about this a lot, guys, but here’s actually what we do. Boots to the ground, walking around our property, whether it’s something we already own or something that we’re buying. Talk to them about the business plan. Get them excited about it. And and and and and just that alone, like, just last investor event that we brought, we brought, I think we had 98 investors there. Of that 98, there were 30 that were not yet active investors. Some of those were friends of a current investor.
Kevin Bupp [00:20:08]:
Some were family members of a current investor. Some were just folks that were on our list who aren’t yet in our ecosystem. But, but things like that have just really allowed us to create a compound effect of folks that are now in our ecosystem that are investing with us that are active investors and doing deals together on a day-by-day basis.
Jay Conner [00:20:26]:
I love that. I I suppose when you put on these events, you just encourage your active investors to invite along, you know, some of your family and friends, to come, you know, check out what you’re doing and and, you know, get introduced to that world and and, you know, see what they might have an interest in.
Kevin Bupp [00:20:46]:
That’s right. No. It’s absolutely what we do. Like I said, the last one we did was in January. It was an absolute success. Out of that, I think we ended up bringing that, like I said, there were about thirty or some odd folks that weren’t yet investors. They hadn’t yet, you know, put capital into our business, and I think we ended up converting about 12 of them. So a third of those who came.
Kevin Bupp [00:21:05]:
Yeah. They probably already had it in their mind, like, I’m pretty much ready to invest. I just wanna meet these guys in person. I wanna ensure that I like them, that there’s a good alignment, you know, and, but, ultimately, a third, I think, is a pretty good conversion rate, which is Oh, that’s that’s fantastic. And for them, I think it just took the the hump for them was, I got the money. I wanna meet these guys in person. See and I’ve been listening to so and so talk in my ear, and they’ve been having success with Invest with Sunrise, but I wanna see it for myself. Right? I wanna get the comfort level and see it for myself.
Kevin Bupp [00:21:33]:
And the only way you accomplish that, Zoom is great. But in person, man, you just the the value that exists with still having a in person relationship, shaking a hand, breaking bread, you know, spending time to get to know someone on a more personal level, like, you just it’s priceless.
Jay Conner [00:21:48]:
There, there’s no replacement for it. Mm-mm. There’s absolutely no replacement for it. So since we’re talking about it, let’s talk about the fund. What opportunities, if any, do you have available now for new investors to get involved?
Kevin Bupp [00:22:03]:
Yeah. I know. So so we have our current fund, which is SEI growth and income, fund four. And, essentially, we launched it about a year and a half ago. It will wrap up at the end of this calendar year, and then at that point, we’ll launch a new fund. So we always have a new opportunity coming out thereafter. But this current fund it’s a mixture of both mobile home parks and parking. At present, it is a $200,000,000 fund.
Kevin Bupp [00:22:27]:
Of that 200,000,000, we have deployed about 8 million of that capital, over roughly nine different assets. More than likely, kinda how we’re pegging out the years that we’ll probably end up with about 15 assets in that fund, and, and, hopefully, we’ll make a debt $200,000,000 mark. But, even if we don’t, we’ll have another fund that will roll out thereafter. But, you know, it’s just a it’s a way for folks to get diversified in their investments. Like I said, we’ve got both parking assets as well as mobile home parks, spread throughout the Northeast, Southeast, and some mid Midwestern states, you know, targeted returns, you know, in in the 70% IRR range of IRR is a metric that you’re following, average, you know, annualized returns of of roughly 9% over the life cycle of the deal. You know, a minimum investment’s a hundred K. You gotta be an accredited investor to get in. But, you know, we’re very selective with what we buy.
Kevin Bupp [00:23:19]:
You know, we work hard and long, and we’ve got some long-term relationships that we’ve kind of just managed over six, seven, eight, nine, ten years with property owners, and that’s a majority of what we buy. We’re still buying a lot of things from mom and pops, institutional quality deals and and larger deals, but still from original families that have owned these for thirty, forty, fifty years that we’ve that we’ve managed contact with. And, as a result of that, a lot of the things that we buy, we’re able to buy with a fairly significant margin of safety. We’re buying them, you know, below market value. Even in a very competitive market, we’re buying them below market value. Sometimes with really attractive owner financing, it just, you know, offers instant equity for any partners that come in and join the party. So, like I said, it’s our fourth fund. You know, we our first two funds, we did a full return of capital in less than three years.
Kevin Bupp [00:24:07]:
Our third fund, which wrapped up about two years ago as far as buying, we’re working on the return of capital on that one, and this one’s it’s fairly new. So we’re always pursuing new opportunities and new deals and, always looking for folks to come along for the ride.
Jay Conner [00:24:20]:
So what’s the best way for people to reach out to Sunrise Capital Investors and get connected?
Kevin Bupp [00:24:27]:
Yeah. To learn more, you need to go to investwithsunrise.com. Again, that’s investwithsunrise.com. There you can you can download the most recent webinar that we hosted, which we posted, as well as the PPM, offering documents. You can also see case studies on the existing properties that are inside the existing fund. We’ve also got a lot of other good information on it. We’ve got some white papers that we’ve written about both parking investments as well as mobile home parks. We’ve got case studies on there from other deals that some that we still own today, some that we’ve gone full cycle on.
Kevin Bupp [00:24:58]:
So you could kinda get a sense of who we are, what our business plan is, see kind of proof in the pudding, you know, of deals that we’ve gone full cycle. I think we’ve gone full cycle on 18 mobile home parks now. We’re more long-term holders. We like to buy things and hold them for the long term, but we have gone full cycle on 18 deals. So we’ve got a lot of those case studies on that website as well.
Jay Conner [00:25:16]:
So, again, that website is www.investwithsunrise.com. And in addition to that, Kevin, tell everybody about your book, The Cash Flow Investor. Yeah. No. You can see it behind me.
Kevin Bupp [00:25:33]:
If you’re, if if you’re watching the video here. So I’ve been doing the podcast now for, you know, almost twelve years. You know, I always wanted to write a book, you know, never found the time to do it. Started writing this book about five years ago. Got it about eighty, probably about four years ago now, but got about 80% done, and then it just fell through the cracks. Ultimately, we finally launched it about a year and a half ago, wrapped it up, and updated it because there was some outdated information in there. But what this is, Jay, is, you know, I’ve been at this now for twenty-plus years. I’ve learned a lot.
Kevin Bupp [00:26:04]:
I’ve had several mentors. You know, many folks are way smarter than I. So I’ve taken a lot of those lessons, put them in the book. But on top of that, I’ve now interviewed, you know, I don’t know the number. It’s well over a thousand. I don’t know the total number, but I’ve interviewed some incredibly brilliant folks on my real estate podcast, folks that have, you know, you know, billion-dollar-plus companies, organizations that have built it from scratch. And so I always try to take a golden nugget away from those interviews. And, and I’ve compiled, you know, my top, like, 20 or so golden nuggets, integrated it into the book along with my own story, you know, how I started, how I lost it, how I rebuilt it.
Kevin Bupp [00:26:40]:
And there are a couple of other good tidbits in there as well. But that’s really what the book’s all about. And it’s really about building a business. You’re building a real estate business that truly helps you support whatever lifestyle you’re chasing. Right? You’re the cash flow investor. For us, we are about cash flow. Everything that we buy it’s cash flowing day one, and there’s still an opportunity to ramp that cash flow up over time. And so we wanna be able to buy things that are kicking off money, that we can pay distributions to our investors with, that we can support our own families, our lifestyles with.
Kevin Bupp [00:27:10]:
And so that’s what my game is. Like, that’s what we’ve always done. And so, again, that book is just my story, but also how someone could take what I’ve done, the lessons, and then implement them themselves and create a cash flow business.
Jay Conner [00:27:23]:
That’s one how can people get the book?
Kevin Bupp [00:27:25]:
Yeah. So you guys should get a free copy of it. And I meant to talk to you about this before we started the interview, but, kevinbup.com/freebook. Again, kevinbup.com/freebook, and you can download a free copy of the book. It’s a physical. I’m sorry. It’s actually a physical book that will get shipped to you. I think you have to pay. It’s $6 or so of, shipping and handling, but you can get a physical copy.
Kevin Bupp [00:27:44]:
Or you can go to Amazon and spend $20 on it. So either one.
Jay Conner [00:27:49]:
Yeah. Same way with me. My book, Where to Get Them In and Now, is $20 on Amazon or free plus shipping. So, again, the website to get Kevin’s book, who knows? He might even autograph it for you. I don’t know. At www.kevinbup, that’s kevin,bup,bupp,.com/freebook. Kevin, what a wonderful treat to have you here on Raising Private Money. Final thoughts before we wrap it up.
Kevin Bupp [00:28:18]:
Yeah. No. I appreciate you having me on, Jay. It’s been a pleasure being here. Just honored to be a part of the show. You know, final thoughts are just depending on what stage you’re in in your journey, whether you’re beginning, you’re looking to rate, maybe you’ve done a couple of deals, looking to raise a little bit more. Again, I I don’t I don’t have the science as I mentioned before. It’s for me, it’s just, it should be pretty straightforward.
Kevin Bupp [00:28:40]:
Just talk about what you’re doing. You know, talk to as many people as possible. I like to say, like, one to many. Try to find the one-to-many approach, and that could be a multitude of things. But just get out there, and and even if you haven’t done your first deal yet, you need to you need to envision that that you’re in that deal, that you’ve done that deal, and you’re talking about what it is that you’re building, this this business that you’re building. I can guarantee you that you’ll get people excited, you’ll get people intrigued, you’ll get people interested, and they’ll be open to having a conversation. And before you know it, you’ll find that person or persons who will be looking to come along for that ride and invest in your opportunities with you.
Jay Conner [00:29:14]:
I love it. Kevin, thank you so much for joining me. God bless you. Thanks, Jay. You got it. And there you have it. Another amazing episode of Raising Private Money, and I need your help. In order to keep having amazing guests join me here on the show, then we need your help to you know, you’re one conversation away from making a huge impact in another person’s life.
Jay Conner [00:29:37]:
I need you to share this episode with just one other person that you think would get a lot out of this show. Be sure and share. Also, if you happen to be watching on YouTube, be sure and subscribe and click that bell so you don’t miss out on the upcoming episodes. I’m Jay Conner. Look forward to seeing you right here on the next episode of raising private money.
Narrator [00:30:03]:
Are you feeling inspired by the knowledge you gained in this episode? Then head over to www.JayConner.com/Moneyguide. That’s www.JayConner.com/Moneyguide, and download your free guide that shares seven reasons why private money will skyrocket your real estate investing business right now. Again, that’s www.JayConner.com/Moneyguide to get your free guide. We’ll see you next time on raising private money with Jay Conner.
