Insider Secrets Podcast Episode #81

Featuring Guest: Charlotte Dunford

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Episode 81 guest Charlotte Dunford

Guest Bio:

Charlotte is the Managing Partner of Johns Creek Capital – an investment managing company that focuses on mobile home park investments. Numbers wise, they currently have 20 park investments, with a total investor subscription amount over $3.9M. Charlotte herself has also created over $500k in asset value in the past 12 months. Charlotte really comes from humble beginnings and is a first-generation American citizen and college graduate after leaving China with just her belongings at age 16.

Shownotes:

Episode 81- Charlotte Dunford
 

Standout Quotes 

“I think the biggest reason we’re getting good deals is negotiations. Both my business partner and I are very good deal-makers. We believe that good deals are made, not handed to you on a silver platter. That’s never the case. If you’re going to sit there and expect someone to give you a good deal, it’s not going to happen. Every deal is a battle, you have to fight for it. You have to thrash all the ideas and you have to fight. It’s a battle from the beginning of escrow to closing. Never a dull moment in real estate deal-making.”- Charlotte
 
“Remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint, and you might be in an asset class where it’s easier to do that.”- Mike
 
“You have to be in the right niche where there’s a lot of meat on the bone. And if you’re in an already saturated market, it’s very unlikely that you will get any sort of profit out of it.”- Charlotte
 
“For the people that I’ve talked to recently that say this is too hard, or I can’t do this, or nobody will listen to me. You know what, get over it.”- Mike
 
“You have to make offers. You have to be aggressive and put yourself out there and you just don’t know what the seller’s motivation level would be. You don’t even know them.”- Charlotte
 
“Once we have the contingency plans laid out, it becomes easier to make a decision.
 
“At the end of the day, you have to rely on your experience, rely on evidence, rely on your advisors. You have to make a decision and the decision needs to be a calculated one. It’s okay to take a risk at some point, but the risk needs to be calculated and there will be reward at the end if you take calculated risk. And if you don’t take a risk at all, you won’t succeed at all.”- Charlotte

 

Key Takeaways

 
Charlotte came to the U.S. at age 16 by herself to attend high school and college.
 
The mobile home investment sector is a small niche that runs on dirt, not commercial buildings. 
 
Seek opportunity where the competition is not. 
 
There are certain criteria to account for when looking to buy a mobile home park: condition, location, nearby employers…etc.
 
Consider the math over your emotion when investing. Make smart, calculated decisions. 
 
Good deals are made through negotiations.
 
If you don’t take risks, you won’t succeed at all.
 
 

Timeline 

[00:27] Introduction to guest Charlotte Dunford.
 
[01:01] Charlotte’s professional background.
 
[01:45] One word that describes Charlotte personally and professionally.
 
[02:36] When Charlotte moved to the U.S. and why.
 
[05:00] How Charlotte got involved in real estate.
 
[07:00] What to look at when buying a mobile home park.
 
[09:29] The effects of COVID on the business. 
 
[13:28] Math versus emotion in investing. 
 
[15:36] Getting good deals through negotiations. 
 
[18:53] Advice on finding investment opportunities. 
 
[20:56] Working with a different demographic.
 
[22:47] Making high stake decisions.
 
[23:46] Bonus questions from Mike.
 
[26:25] How to get ahold of Charlotte.
 
[26:53] Closing remarks.

Transcript:

81 Charlotte Dunford

[00:00:04] Mike Morawski: Hey everybody. Welcome back. It’s Mike, your host of insider secrets, and I am really impressed by today’s episode. I’m joined by Charlotte Dunford. Charlotte, why don’t you tell the guests a couple things that you’re going to talk about on today’s episode?

[00:00:20] Charlotte Dunford: Right in today’s episode, we’ll be talking about, the mobile home park industry, mobile home parks the deal structures and, a lot of other really, really inspirational, things, that I’ve been through and you’ve been through, so there’s a lot of good stories, a lot of good advice, good books, and a lot of fun. Really.

[00:00:37] Mike Morawski: We laughed alot, so, Hey, you’re going to have to jump inside to hear the rest.

[00:00:41] Kristen: Welcome to this edition of insider secrets, the weekly podcast that turns real estate investing goals into reality. Each show we interview guests who are seasoned real estate professionals, actively closing and managing real estate deals. Mike is the founder of my core intentions and would like to help you make your real estate investing dreams a reality.

[00:01:03] Mike coaches you to buy investment real estate, creating short-term cashflow and long-term wealth, your host and real estate coach. Mike Morawski has more than 30 years of real estate investing and property management experience. Here’s your host, Mike.

[00:01:20] Mike Morawski: Hey everybody, welcome back. It’s Mike, your host of Insider Secrets, brought to you by My Core Intentions. Like I ask every week, I want to know what your intentions are. What are you up to? What’d you get up this morning and plan for yourself. How’d you lay out your day? What things did you think about that you really need to focus on today to move the ball forward for yourself? Whether it’s personally or professionally, we have to grow personally in order to grow professionally. So I hope that you’re working in that direction.

[00:01:48] I’m really excited about my guest today. My guest is Charlotte Dunford, she comes from John’s Creek Capital. Charlotte, say hi to everybody.

[00:01:57] Charlotte Dunford: Hey everyone, I’m glad to be here.

[00:01:58] Mike Morawski: I’m glad you’re here today. We’re going to have some fun, we’re going to dive in. But first let me do a little housekeeping. If you guys would go to social media, wherever you hang out, I’m everywhere: Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. Go like us, love us, subscribe, follow us. Wherever you get your social media fix you’ll find us with some great content great podcasts and interviews. So let’s dig right in.

[00:02:22] Charlotte Dunford is with John’s Creek Capital, an investment managing company that focuses on mobile home park investments. Currently they have 20 park investments with a total investor subscription amount of about 3.9 million, Charlotte herself also has created over 500 million in asset value in the past 12 months. Charlotte really comes from humble beginnings and is a first-generation American citizen and college graduate after leaving China with just her belongings at age 16.

[00:02:52] So Charlotte, welcome to the show. I’m glad you’re here. Looking forward to finding out more about that. I always start like this, tell us one word. What best describes you personally and professionally?

[00:03:03] Charlotte Dunford: That’s a good question. I think personally, what best describes me is, one word that’s tough. I would say adventurous. Because I feel that in business, in life, you have to be adventurous to be able to take the proper risk needed. To take the calculated risks needed to be adventurous and explore different options. And I think professionally one word to describe myself would be learning, because I don’t let a day go past without reading business books and keeping up with the most current business strategies and technologies because the world is changing. The market is evolving. If you’re not learning, you’re going back.

[00:03:46] Mike Morawski: Yeah, how true is that? Good for you, that’s awesome. I have a couple of questions before we dig into your bio, there were a couple of lines about you, that jumped out at me. So how long have you been here, in America?

[00:03:56] Charlotte Dunford: I came to United States when I was 16 years old, I came here for high school in Pennsylvania. Today is actually my 28th birthday, so I’ve been here exactly 12 years and I was very extremely honored to become a U.S. Citizen this year in June. So I’ve been here for 12 years and after high school, I came to Georgia Tech, studying industrial engineering. And shortly after that, I switched to business program where I graduated from Georgia Tech in 2017. The rest was pretty much history, I took a corporate job as a business analyst, it dealt with a lot of data analytical things, data modeling. The same time I was investing on the side, I carried the skills of data modeling and data analytics with my real estate experience. So that’s when I decided to quit my job and launch this venture full-time.

[00:04:47] Mike Morawski: Awesome. We’re going to talk to somebody smarter than me. So I love that. Why did you come to the United States?

[00:04:53] Charlotte Dunford: So in China I felt like the opportunities there, for me, was very limited. There was really only one way to become something in China. And under a communist regime is not necessarily the easiest thing to stand out. And being a free spirit myself, and being born in a Chinese body, but with an American spirit, I was very much influenced by American culture because I was seeking it out at a young age. And at the age of 16, I made the decision to go to American college, which going to America high school would probably prepare me for that. From a language perspective and also culturally perspective, which that’s why I made the jump. I came alone without my parents, which I really enjoyed that. I’ve always been adventurous spirit and independent from a young age, which really worked out for me in that way.

[00:05:47] Mike Morawski: Nice. Is your family still back in China?

[00:05:49] Charlotte Dunford: Yes, they are. They’ve only been here once.

[00:05:51] Mike Morawski: How’s your family feel about that now?

[00:05:53] Charlotte Dunford: They were worried, but now they are fine. I’m their only child under Chinese one child policy. So letting their only daughter go at 16 years old, I imagine it’d be hard for any parent. My parents made a pretty big sacrifice to let me go at 16 and I think that’s a very selfless decision on their part. Now they’re just enjoying their life with the burden of having anybody living in their home, I guess they can travel everywhere and they quite enjoy that.

[00:06:21] Mike Morawski: So how did you get involved in real estate, and more specifically the multifamily space? Cause when I look at commercial real estate and I look at multi-family, mobile homes are in that multifamily bucket. So how did you get involved in real estate?

[00:06:36] Charlotte Dunford: So this space, the closest thing I would say it compares to is a parking lot. So mobile home park is a parking lot business. It runs on dirt, it’s not a fixing furnace based business. So that’s why this sector is very attractive. I started with a single family home and a duplex while I was holding my full-time job. But then after that, I quit my job to launch a venture. And I found getting into a multi-family or commercial building, the market has just been way too flooded with people and way too competitive, which makes it nearly impossible to get a good deal and then making a good profit. So I have always lived by the rule where go to where the competition is not. I came across mobile home parks and it has always been a pretty ignored sector and niche within the real estate sectors, so I decided to make offers, study deals, get in contact with brokers and mobile home parks. That led to one mobile home park and 2, 3, 4, and growing to today, I believe 22 parks with a investor as a under management of 4.2 million now.

[00:07:38] Mike Morawski: I have so many questions. Are you doing this on your own? Did you get into this on your own or did you have a partner or a friend and say, “Hey, come on, let’s check this out. Or how’d you do that?”

[00:07:48] Charlotte Dunford: I originally bought my first mobile home park with investors money in 2019. And then I met a fantastic business partner who has had a lot of operational experience and a lot of business experience. He reached out to me and we met and chatted about real estate and everything just rolled from there. And now we’re managing partners at John’s Creek Capital. So I do have a business partner and we have a team as well. We have several team members and we want to make sure that we have the infrastructure to handle our growth.

[00:08:21] Mike Morawski: So talk about your model a little bit. What do you look for in that park? Do you just rent the ground and they bring they’re own trailer or do you own the trailer and they rent the trailer from you?

[00:08:30] Charlotte Dunford: So it’s actually a combination and we usually buy a park already built and most of the space is filled. It depends on what kind of project it is. So if it’s a light value at project. That just means that it’s probably over 90% already filled all the lots are rented and tenants are just paying lot rent. That is one model. Another type of deals that we’re getting to is where there is a higher vacancy, but you have a lot more opportunities to fill. Size wise, we focus on small to medium level mobile home parks, where it’s a niche within the mobile home park sector. It is usually anywhere from 10 lots up until 40 lots. So anything above that, you’ll be considered slightly larger parks, but for us, we really just want to monopolize the small part of this niche and then expand from there.

[00:09:17] Mike Morawski: Okay. Interesting. Can you talk about price point a little bit? I know what I pay for a multifamily, I’m buying a deal right now in Tampa, 40 units. It’s about $116 a door. I looked at a deal yesterday, like three blocks away and they want $150 a door. I’m like, come on. Really? How does that work in the mobile home?

[00:09:35] Charlotte Dunford: Pricing-wise it really just the cap rate NOI that determines the appraisal and, for the parks that we acquire is you’re usually looking at around the $100,000 in total to $450,000. So that’s about it. Anything more than that, you’re probably going to be looking at a higher price point, but again, that depends on the market, right? So on the west coast in California, you’re probably looking at $70,000 per lot, but here in the Southeast, you can probably get something as cheap as $7,000 per lot or even less. So it really depends on the condition of the park, the vacancy, the market, the NOI, everything. So it’s really not a cut and dry number. A lot of it depends on a lot of different moving factors.

[00:10:18] Mike Morawski: You find these mostly in primary markets or are you finding them in more tertiary markets?

[00:10:23] Charlotte Dunford: A lot of it’s secondary market. In the cities, there are not a lot of mobile home parks. A lot of them in the suburbs or even rural areas. The need for affordable housing exists all across the nation and not just in primary market. Just like any other real estate, it has different levels of market, but both of our parks are, a lot of times they’re in the Metro, but they’re not necessarily in the heart of the Metro.

[00:10:45] Mike Morawski: Were you affected by the pandemic at all?

[00:10:47] Charlotte Dunford: We were actually, it’s very interesting you mentioned that. I bought my first mobile home park in 2019, and we really took off in 2020, and that’s when COVID-19 happened. So we grew with the pandemic. So we have never really operated pre pandemic, our whole existence was through the pandemic. So it was very interesting. The biggest impact I would say would be the eviction moratorium which gives tenants the ability to not pay their rent and, not get evicted. That really takes away all the ammunition from the landlords, that has really harmed us and really lowered our collections. The way that we countered that was that we worked with several different state and county authorities and agencies, even ministries, to get rental assistance from them to get the tenants in rent. We try to arrange payment options with them and we even apply for rental assistance on behalf of the tenants for them to get caught up on rent.

[00:11:41] So it has been a challenging journey, but I will say we’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. The eviction moratorium is getting lifted and we’re finally starting to be back on track on collections.

[00:11:51] Mike Morawski: Do you guys manage all your own assets?

[00:11:53] Charlotte Dunford: We do, yes, we do.

[00:11:54] Mike Morawski: So what markets do you like for this?

[00:11:57] Charlotte Dunford: We have several criteria for the market. It needs to be in a city or county or metro that has a solid population base. It doesn’t need to be in a 5 million population metro, but it does need to be in a place where there are solid employers, the economy is diverse and one of the major employers not going under in the next five years. A lot of small towns that stuff tends to happen, especially in this economy. Things can be tough, but I think the primary thing is to make sure that, market-wise, they have employers. You know, the housing vacancy rate is not extremely high. Sometimes it can’t get high for the reason being there are a lot of vacation homes and that’s a different story. So you just really need to underwrite it, analyze the nitty-gritty details when it comes to analyzing a market. We have other deal criteria as well, we have a proprietary algorithm that actually sources all the deals and actually give the deal a passing score or failing score.

[00:12:50] So it makes it pretty simple.

[00:12:52] Mike Morawski: What do you think your average size mobile home park right now that you’re buying?

[00:12:57] Charlotte Dunford: We’re buying probably looking at 15 lots two 20.

[00:13:01] Mike Morawski: So they’re smaller.

[00:13:02] Charlotte Dunford: They’re very small. So we’re in a niche within a niche, as I would say, but I think it’s great to be in this niche. They’re not very extremely competitive and sought after at the moment, we are able to get it for an incredibly good price and the returns are much higher.

[00:13:16] Mike Morawski: What might you pay for a mobile home park? 15 lots that’s operating well.

[00:13:21] Charlotte Dunford: That depends on the market. Operating well could mean that you’re making money. But again, it’s all the net operating income divided by the cap rate is your price, right? So people usually want to get with parks like that. They want to get in as a 10% cap rate. So with 10% cap rate, if you are having a 15 lot that your generating a net operating income for a year at $50,000, then at 10 cap, you’re looking at $500,000 purchase price. Operating well could also mean that it’s generating a net operating income of $20,000 in the Southeast and it depends on how much you put into it. Your return could be very high, but that would only yield about $20,000 to a $100,000 dollars. The formula is always applying net NOI divided by the cap rate is the price. So it really depends on the math there.

[00:14:07] Mike Morawski: I always tell people that all those asset classes inside that multifamily bucket, that the metrics are pretty much the same. Cause what you’re talking about between cap rate and NOI and how you’re pricing your product is the same way I price a multifamily product.

[00:14:24] What’s interesting though, is you’re talking about a 10% cap rate somewhere. I don’t think I’ve seen anything north of a five in years.

[00:14:31] Charlotte Dunford: So that’s the appeal with mobile home parks, especially in the niche that we’re in. A small niche within the niche is because the cap rate is so high and eventually it does get compressed as people are more interested in it, but we are getting it at a good time. We’re able to negotiate to a 10% cap and that’s how you do as pros. You don’t want to pay for more than what is worth. At the end of the day, the return is what matter for our investors. It’s all just math at the end, right? So if you have a 10% cap rate and you’re getting a low interest at 4%, then you’re making banks cause your spread is 6%. But if you’re getting a 10% cap rate, then you’re borrowing money at a 12% interest, then you’re probably losing money. So it really boils down to the math. It’s the math numbers that matters.

[00:15:10] Mike Morawski: I always say it’s math over emotion.

[00:15:12] Charlotte Dunford: It always has to be that way. Exactly. You want to make sure the math is as accurate as you can make it be. A lot of times the modeling, it can be a little bit confusing. The modeling you want it to be as accurate as possible. And COVID has been challenging because nobody could have predicted COVID. Nobody could have predicted how COVID could’ve impacted this industry as a whole. So the numbers change drastically, but I think overall the direction is doing well.

[00:15:35] It’s just like the stock market. COVID made everything fluctuate and made everything volatile, but doesn’t mean that the market is not going to bounce back.

[00:15:42] Mike Morawski: That’s interesting because I don’t think we’ve seen all the effects from it yet. Just look at some of the things like supply chain constraints, right? Look at all the ships that are sitting out in the port and they can’t get product in. I said this the other day, I ordered a t-shirt and it took me like eight weeks to get it. It was ridiculous. So I think that we’re going to still see some effects from the pandemic. What I find is really interesting though, and fascinating is that you built this whole thing in 2020. You own 20 assets right now…

[00:16:10] Charlotte Dunford: 22.

[00:16:11] Mike Morawski: Uh, I stand to be corrected. That’s fine.

[00:16:13] Charlotte Dunford: Cut that part out, if you want.

[00:16:17] Mike Morawski: I’ll let my editors deal with it. But, were the owners wanting to get out. Were you finding assets that owners just were bailing out on? Were you getting better pricing?

[00:16:27] Charlotte Dunford: It’s just that owners have all kinds of reasons to get out. Some of them want to retire. Some of them want to cash out. Some of them are tired of managing a mobile home park. It is a very tough asset class to manage, and you’re dealing with a different demographic here and it is difficult. So a lot of them, they have various reasons. Some of them got it as an inheritance and they just never took an interest in the park and they just don’t really care about it and they let the park run itself and never really took over management. So there are so many reasons, but I think the biggest reason we’re getting good deals is negotiations.

[00:16:59] Both my business partner and I are very good deal-makers. We believe that good deals are made, not handed to you on a silver platter. That’s never the case. If you’re going to sit there and expect someone to give you a good deal, it’s not going to happen. Every deal is a battle, you have to fight for it. You have to thrash all the ideas and you have to fight. It’s a battle from the beginning of escrow to closing. Never a dull moment in real estate deal making.

[00:17:22] You have to be in the right niche where there’s a lot of meat on the bone. And if you’re in an already saturated market, it’s very unlikely that you will get any sort of profit out of it.

[00:17:33] Mike Morawski: I love you, you talk my language, lot of meat on the bone. I always say when I do a deal that when you’re planning your exit, leave some meat on the bone for the buyer so that, “hey, look, I can buy this and I can go in and raise rent a little bit. Don’t do everything.”

[00:17:48] Charlotte Dunford: Exactly. Yeah.

[00:17:48] Mike Morawski: Yeah, it’s interesting. Let’s talk, where do you see yourself going from here?

[00:17:53] Charlotte Dunford: So right now, we’re just trying to scale the business and introduce ourselves to as many people as possible. Satisfy our current investors extremely well and make sure we deliver the results that we have projected. COVID has impacted us, but we’re finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Make more people aware of us and what we do and like I said, really advance in the small niche of small to medium level mobile home parks. Right now we have 22 parks and in the next 5 years, we would like to 100 fold that number.

[00:18:24] Mike Morawski: Talk about the type of funding. Is this agency debt? Is this bank debt? Do you have to pay cash? How are you funding these deals?

[00:18:31] Charlotte Dunford: Our deals are either cash or seller finance because with the deal size that we have, it’s a little bit more difficult to have bank financing, which makes the seller more willing to do a seller financing. So seller financing is extremely simple. It’s a simple process. It doesn’t require nearly as much documentation as a bank would, so that the seller would approve you and then you’re good to go. You just get a loan.

[00:18:54] Mike Morawski: 10% down, 20% down?

[00:18:55] Charlotte Dunford: Anything between 20% down to 35% off, sometimes half. It depends on the deal. A lot of things change. You can put more down with a lower interest rate or a lower price, it’s either the price or the term something has to give. Or both if you’re a master negotiator or the sellers really motivated.

[00:19:10] Mike Morawski: I don’t think I’d want to sit across the table negotiating with you.

[00:19:13] Charlotte Dunford: I’m usually the good cop in my partnership, my business partners the bad cop. So I’m actually a nice one. If you want to deal with anybody, you probably want to deal with me.

[00:19:22] Mike Morawski: Okay, I’ll take you up on that then. There’s two comments I want to make is it’s interesting that you grew as fast as you grew, because one thing I teach in the multi-family spaces don’t grow too fast. Because 2007, I closed 17 deals for 2,700 units and man, I’d hardly had time to breathe, so I think people need to watch out for that. Remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint, and you might be in an asset class where it’s easier to do that. Here’s what else is interesting, owner financing, creative terms, it’s about price it’s about terms you can structure great deals.

[00:19:57] I tell a story where I did a 450 unit, $15 million multi-family deal with $250,000 down and the owner held the paper on the rest, so they’re out there. You just got to look and you got to ask. And I think most investors in the marketplace don’t ask.

[00:20:14] Charlotte Dunford: You have to make offers. You have to be aggressive and put yourself out there and you just don’t know what the seller’s motivation level would be. You don’t even know them. So if they’re saying, ” no seller financing,” why don’t you make an offer? So I know I’ve sold properties before and as a seller, I’d be delighted to see any offer regardless of the quality, I’ll give it a thought. So why don’t you put yourself out there and give yourself a chance?

[00:20:35] Mike Morawski: Yeah. So I’m going to ask you a question and I don’t know if you can talk about this from a legal perspective, and if you can’t just say so, but investor returns, what are your investors look at? As an investor in mobile home parks?

[00:20:47] Charlotte Dunford: So the structure of most of our deals, you’re looking at a 15% internal rate of return to 20% internal rate of return over 3-5 year hold time. So that is for light value at projects, for projects that are developing you’re probably looking at over 20%, but over a longer period of time, probably 8 years, sometimes 10. But they’re very rare that we go that far. I think that’s a general rule of thumb. Our deal structure is usually we’re looking at 8% preferred return.

[00:21:13] After that we have a waterfall structure where you meet the 8% hurdle, and then we split the profit 70/30 and then it jumps by 4 points, each hurdle. Then next hurdle is 12%, 60/40, 60 being the investor, 40 being us, and then drops another 4%. It was 16%. It’s 50/50, and it stops there. This reassess on an annual basis and is accumulated prefer return, which means that if the first year, 8% rate of return, we didn’t hit. For example, the first year we projected 4%, then the deficit we actually carry over to the second year, so investors can have a peace of mind knowing that we’re working hard for that. I prefer to return and more because we don’t get paid until you hit your 8% and we don’t get paid more until we hit a higher hurdle.

[00:21:56] Mike Morawski: Interesting. So it’s pretty much standard, industry standard. So that space isn’t much different. I find it interesting. It was just an asset class I never really got into.

[00:22:04] Charlotte Dunford: It’s ignored and it’s only starting to draw attention of the investors. Which is good news for us because we got in earlier and when everybody’s talking about something you it might be too late for you to get into it because there’s just way too much competition.

[00:22:16] Mike Morawski: Yeah. You’re absolutely right. Sam Zell got his start in mobile home parks. He’s one of the largest, syndicated multifamily commercial, they’re in every asset class and in 80 countries around the world today. He got his start in mobile home parks and I always found it interesting and just never really studied the model, and I think you said it earlier, it’s a different demographic of people.

[00:22:41] Charlotte Dunford: Absolutely different.

[00:22:42] Mike Morawski: I think you have to have the ability to deal with that demographic, cause it’s a whole different type of management structure.

[00:22:49] Charlotte Dunford: Entirely different. Just like dealing with any customers, if you’re dealing with a different demographic customer, you obviously need to be acting in a way where you communicate well with the different customer group. No different than any other businesses.

[00:23:02] Mike Morawski: So I want to make a couple of comments to my listeners here, because I think that before we jump into the end here and I ask a couple last questions. I just want people to understand, especially people who are saying, “oh, I can’t do this or this business is too hard or I can’t get into it.” Have a woman who has come from another country, went to high school here, got an education, went into this business on her own. Today, she’s 28 years old and controls 22 assets. You know what? For the people that I’ve talked to recently that say this is too hard, or I can’t do this, or nobody will listen to me.

[00:23:39] You know what, get over it. That’s all I want to say, because I am really beyond impressed and appreciate this message that you brought. And I hope that people dig into this and and really go back and listen a couple of times because it doesn’t matter what asset class. My hats off to you, I honor you and I think that you’re on a great run and keep it up. I’m really glad that I had you on. A couple of questions, one tough one, and then some easy ones. How do you make high stake decisions?

[00:24:07] Charlotte Dunford: Okay, good question. I think high stake decisions are high stakes because there’s a lot at stake, right? A lot of times you have to take a lot of things into account. You have to have a business partner or team members and advisors on your side to make sure that you’re talking about it enough. Your reason and reasoning and taking all the factors into consideration. You have to lay out each decision. Let’s say decision, A, B, and C, and lay out different contingency plans for it. So if I make this decision, what are the risks? What could happen? What could go wrong? If that were to go wrong? What are the contingencies? So once we have the contingency plans laid out, it becomes easier to make a decision.

[00:24:48] At the end of the day, you have to rely on your experience, rely on evidence, rely on your advisors. You have to make a decision and the decision needs to be a calculated one. It’s okay to take a risk at some point, but the risk needs to be calculated and there will be reward at the end if you take calculated risk. And if you don’t take a risk at all, you won’t succeed at all.

[00:25:07] Mike Morawski: Well-spoken. So best book you ever read, you said you’re a big reader. What’s the best book?

[00:25:12] Charlotte Dunford: So my favorite book of all time is actually From Zero to One by Peter Thiel, a Silicon Valley master entrepreneur. Actually, he co-founded PayPal with Elon Musk and he is someone I have a lot of respect for. He’s the one who actually really, I would say enlightened me in the business perspective. He’s the one who proposed the idea that you want to avoid competition.

[00:25:34] And he says, and I quote him, “the only reason businesses fail is that they fail to escape competition.” This is a man who co-started PayPal, and he’s a billionaire. Anybody who wants to get into business to read that book first.

[00:25:47] Mike Morawski: Very good. That’s interesting. I think I’m going to go read that too. I’m gonna take a couple lessons from you here today. How about best tourist attraction you’ve ever seen?

[00:25:55] Charlotte Dunford: Oh, that’s a good one, best tourist attraction, I that’s a good one. When I was eight years old, I had the privilege to go to a summer camp in California from China, with a lot of school friends. I was an exchange student for the summer camp and I was young and that really opened up my mind because coming from a small town in China where everything is bleak and the communist style buildings and then all the way to the west coast. That was really an eye opener to me and the tourist attraction. In Los Angeles, in Universal Studio, I think in Hollywood, at 8 years old, I remember thinking at the time that, “wow, the world could operate like this.”

[00:26:34] So there is actually a world out there that’s different from what I know. That’s really what planted the seed in my heart to come to the United States later on in life is because that really impressed me. That was probably my favorite tourist attraction of all time. For American listeners it’s probably “eh Hollywood”, but for me that was enchanting. It was great.

[00:26:53] Mike Morawski: There’s people that haven’t been to Hollywood and might come from Wichita, Kansas, and find that interesting. I remember a number of years ago taking my kids to Hollywood and looking at the stars and on the street and that was always cool. How about best meal, type of food? What do you enjoy the most?

[00:27:09] Charlotte Dunford: Just a good old American breakfast. I remember I went to Eastern Europe and Budapest, Hungary for study abroad one summer in college. And the thing that I missed most was American breakfast. So I came back and went to Waffle House and had a big old American breakfast there, the first thing I did coming back from Europe. That’s really my favorite meal. I love American breakfast.

[00:27:27] Mike Morawski: Hey, so I’ll tell you what, I’ll make you a deal. If you ever come to Chicago, make sure you call me, we’re going to go to a place called White Palace Grill. It’s this old dingy diner that’s been there for years. It’s been on that show Diners and Dives.

[00:27:40] Charlotte Dunford: Let’s do it. I will amaze you at how much I can eat, so there you go.

[00:27:46] Mike Morawski: It’s been great having you here today. Please tell the listeners how they can get ahold of you, if they want to talk to you more about mobile homes or being an investor. How do they get ahold of you?

[00:27:55] Charlotte Dunford: Definitely. So the best way to get in touch with me is to go to our website at johnscreekcapital.com or email me right here at cdunford@johnscreekcapital.com. Or you’re welcome to call me directly on my phone (470)- 265-0911. So I will be on standby.

[00:28:12] Mike Morawski: We’ll make sure all that gets in the show notes. Charlotte, thanks for being here, appreciate your knowledge and your wherewithal as a human being, I’m honored by you. Thanks for being here. Hey listeners, we’ll be back next week. Appreciate you being here today, you know how much I appreciate each one of you. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to reach out and I will do whatever I can for you. Have a great week.

[00:28:32] Charlotte Dunford: Thank you, guys.

[00:28:32] Kristen: Thank you, Mike, and thank you for joining us for another great episode of insider secrets as always insider secrets is brought to you by my core intentions, wherever you hang out on social media, you will find Mike and my core intentions, please like, and follow us to get the most up-to-date real estate investing trends.

[00:28:53] Visit my core intentions.com, where you can get expert coaching on all things, real estate investing, and property managers. If you’re looking to become an expert, Mike’s coaching will help you scale your real estate investment business. We’re looking forward to having you back again next week for more insider secrets.