The January 2026 Commercial Real Estate Investing Newsletter
How To Finance Real Estate Deals In 2026
2026 is shaping up to be a banner year for commercial real estate – based, of course, on which sector you invest in. While affordable housing remains the hot topic, office, lodging and retail will be in the dumpster for years to come. But regardless of what niche of real estate you’re into, there’s one item that’s a constant and that’s obtaining a loan to buy your deal. And in 2026, here are the classic ways to financing your acquisition.
Read MoreThis Mobile Home Park Cost Me Next To Nothing…
My first mobile home park deal was $400,000 with $10,000 down and the seller carrying the $390,000 mortgage. My second deal was $62,000 with $5,000 down and the seller carrying the paper. My fifth deal was a true zero down transaction with the seller carrying the full $850,000 purchase price. Over the past 30 years we have done around 12 "no money down" mobile home park deals. And here's what you need to know about buying "trailer parks" for next to nothing.
Read MoreMobile Home Park Mastery Podcast: Episode 424 - What We Learned From The Great Chattel Collapse
Back in the late 1990s – a period in which few investors gave a second thought to mobile home parks – there occurred perhaps the industry’s greatest failure. Known as the “Great Chattel Collapse”, this horrific event resulted in a roughly 70% reduction in mobile home manufacturing and bankrupted many home lenders. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to explore what lead to this event and what the industry learned as a result.
Listen To Episode 424Built to Last: How to Spot a Mobile Home Park With Real Structural Strength
A good turnaround plan can fix management, collections, and curb appeal. But it cannot magically move the property to a stronger market, replace an entire utility system cheaply, or redesign lots that were laid out wrong decades ago. The goal is to buy a park that already has the core structure working in your favor.
Read MoreHow to Build an RV Park Guests Rave About (and Come Back To)
RV parks win long-term when they feel easy, clean, and worth the money. That sounds simple, but it takes discipline. The market is still there: camping participation has grown by about 11 million additional households in 2026 vs. 2019, and RV shipments are projected to land around the mid-300,000 range in 2026.
Read MoreWhy the Best Self-Storage Opportunities Still Require Lender Support
Buying self-storage almost always means working with a lender, and even "cash buyers" still care because the next owner will likely finance the purchase. If your goal is to get deals funded without endless back-and-forth, you need to understand the numbers lenders are underwriting right now in 2026, not what worked five or ten years ago.
Read MoreBillboards Got Better (And Most Investors Haven’t Noticed Yet)
People talk about the “good old days” of billboards like the business used to be smoother and more profitable. In reality, the fundamentals were always strong, but the mechanics were messy. Today's billboard industry kept the parts that matter (visibility, demand, and simple revenue) while fixing a lot of the friction that used to drain owners.
Read MoreCommercial Real Estate Mastery Podcast: Episode 11 - The Impact Of The Return Of Quantitative Easing
After a three - year absence “quantitative easing” is back and the impact on lowering interest rates could be profound. In this Commercial Real Estate Mastery podcast we’re going to explore the power of government intervention to lower rates as well as how you can use that trend to make money with property.
Listen To Episode 11Mobile Home Park Mastery Podcast: Episode 423 - The Win/Win Of Connecting Residents To The Outside World
Mobile home parks are often like villages in which residents rarely tread beyond their familiar territory – yet there are huge benefits for park owners in helping to make their connection to the community at large. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to explore how mobile home park owners can expand their residents’ support network.
Listen To Episode 423RV Park Mastery Podcast: Episode 140 - Why Seasoned Investors Get Beaten By "Newbies"
While many new RV Park investors are self - conscious until they have that first property under their belts, the truth is that the “newbie” investor has certain advantages over the seasoned players. In this RV Park Mastery podcast we’re going to unlock the strengths of being new to RV Park investing and why fresh investors often beat out their more professional adversaries.
Listen To Episode 140Self Storage University Podcast: Episode 138 - Warren Buffett's Big Weakness
Warren’s Buffett’s Big Weakness While Warren Buffett became the most successful stock investor of all time, he did have one big weakness that needs to be addressed. In this Self - Storage University podcast we’re going to explore Buffett’s one big flaw and how to avoid making the same mistake.
Listen To Episode 138Billboard Mastery Podcast: Episode 134 - Why Signs Are As Close To "Mailbox Money" As You'll Ever Find
There are few income streams more passive than owning a billboard. In this Billboard Mastery podcast we’re going to explore how you can make outdoor signs into your own version of “mailbox money” as well as strategies to get started.
Listen To Episode 134How To Work With Brokers To Get What You Want
In over 30 years of commercial real estate investing – and more than 500 acquisitions – the majority of our deals have come from brokers. Although there are four basic methods to find a good real estate deal (brokers, on-line, direct mail and cold-calling) the broker segment has always been the most successful category for many reasons that include:
Read MoreWinning In A Highly Competitive Market: The Andrew Cramer Story
It is remarkable that Andrew Cramer has done 37 mobile home park transactions over the past 15 years, with 20 parks still in his portfolio. But what’s more impressive is that he accomplished this in one of the most competitive markets in the U.S.: the states of Washington and Oregon.
Watch The VideoEver Wonder Why Mobile Home Park Owners Get So Rich?
At a time in which office, hotel and retail properties are mostly upside down with values lower than their debts, it often amazes people that mobile home parks have been free from such problems. What they don’t realize is that mobile home parks have a unique business model that limits downside and is uniquely aligned with all U.S. megatrends. And don’t just take our word for it. Billionaire Peter Thiel and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell have also spotted this.
Read MoreMobile Home Park Mastery Podcast: Episode 422 - Playing Chess With Your Vacant Lots
Imagine a mobile home park as a chess board and every vacant lot as an opportunity to make the right move towards your goal of maximizing park income, value, and ease of operations. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to review the time-proven methods to optimize your move on each and every vacant lot.
Listen To Episode 422What Separates High-Quality Mobile Home Parks from the Rest in 2026
A strong mobile home park investment starts with understanding what separates average properties from those with lasting value. In real estate, fundamentals matter more than fleeting trends. For mobile home parks, a few core characteristics shape long-term performance and investor returns.
Read MoreWhy Low-Tech Real Estate Continues to Win
Most investors spend their time chasing what is new. New platforms, new tools, new systems, and new ideas that promise efficiency or scale. Yet many of the strongest returns in real estate still come from industries that have barely changed at all. Low-tech properties continue to perform because they are grounded in basic human needs, not innovation cycles.
Read MoreWhy the Best Self-Storage Opportunities Still Require Deep Water
Every real estate niche has a simple truth that separates modest outcomes from exceptional ones. In self-storage, that truth has not changed over time: meaningful growth usually requires stepping into bigger environments, even when they feel less comfortable at first.
Read MoreHow to Get Billboard Variances Approved by City Councils
The biggest challenge in billboard investing is not construction or cost. It is permission. Most zoning codes are written to limit signs, which means variances are often the only path forward. Winning those variances depends less on rules and more on understanding how city councils actually make decisions.
Read MoreThe Top Ten Industry Predictions For 2026
The New Year is here and 2026 has the potential to be one of the industry’s finest on a number of fronts. In this video Frank Rolfe will explore his Top Ten predictions for the mobile home park industry including both good and bad byproducts of these revelations. If you are looking for timely observations of what to expect in 2026 – so you can plan accordingly – then this video should get you started.
Watch The VideoCommercial Real Estate Mastery Podcast: Episode 10 - The Sum Of All Real Estate Cycles
Real estate revolves around some well-established and predictable cycles that can shape your returns and proper selection of which niche of commercial property to invest in. In this Commercial Real Estate Mastery podcast we’re going to review these cycles and how they relate to your investing options.
Listen To Episode 10Mobile Home Park Mastery Podcast: Episode 421 - Finding Note Nirvana
Peace and tranquility is not often associated with lending, but the point is to always continue pressing forward towards that goal. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to explore methods to reduce stress and worry and mitigate the inherent risk of fickle lending markets.
Listen To Episode 421RV Park Mastery Podcast: Episode 139 - Megatrend Teflon
America is filled with a plethora of massive shifts in consumer sentiment, demographics and economic cycles, all of which were labelled “Megatrends” back in the 1980s. However, RV Parks have the advantage of escaping the wrath of the most damaging of these shifts, while benefitting from virtually all of the good ones. In this RV Park Mastery podcast we’re going to explore how this occurs.
Listen To Episode 139Self Storage University Podcast: Episode 137 - The One-Two Punch For Finding Properties To Buy
What if you could combine two well-established methods to find self-storage properties to buy and create one unified system to improve your odds greater than each component individually? In this Self-Storage University podcast we’re going to explore the one-two punch method to improve your deal flow.
Listen To Episode 137Billboard Mastery Podcast: Episode 133 - The Good And Bad Of "Cigar-Butt" Signs
Warren Buffett’s partner Charlie Munger once criticized Berkshire Hathaway’s early focus on what he called “cigar-butt” investing. Yet it’s a philosophy that also holds true for billboard signs. In this Billboard Mastery podcast we’re going to explore what “cigar-butt” signs actually are and their advantages and disadvantages.
Listen To Episode 133
