Treeside Capital Podcast

Adding people is the fastest way to add cost, and the slowest to undo. In this episode, we talk about how to build an operations team for a mobile home or RV park, starting from the work that has to get done rather than an org chart, and how to decide how many people that work really requires. We cover: Start with the work: Listing every recurring task, from rent collection and lease administration to lot maintenance, utilities, and vendor management, before deciding on any roles. The core roles: Who handles on-site management, maintenance and repairs, leasing and resident relations, collections, and bookkeeping, and which of these can be combined early on. Doing it yourself versus hiring: What an owner should keep personally in the first year, what to outsource to a third-party manager or vendor, and what needs an employee who is always on site. Sizing the team: Using pad count, number of occupied homes, and the amount of maintenance and turnover as the drivers of headcount, rather than a fixed ratio copied from another park. Cost and timing: Adding roles as revenue and workload justify them, and keeping payroll in line with the park's net operating income so a slow month doesn't put the park in the red. Who is involved in a deal and who runs the park: Separating the people who buy and finance the property from the people who operate it, and making sure both groups know who owns which decisions. Keeping the team small and accountable: Clear written duties, simple reporting, and checking results against the rent roll and the P&L every month. This episode is for general education and is not legal, tax, employment, or financial advice. Check employment and wage rules in your state and work with your own attorney, accountant, and advisors when hiring. Visit treesidecapital.com to learn more.

A signed LOI feels like a win, but it is really just permission to keep negotiating. A lot of deals fall apart between the LOI and the signed purchase contract: sellers get cold feet, attorneys rewrite terms, and weeks go by while nobody returns a call. In this episode, we walk through how we get from a handshake on paper to a signed purchase agreement, and how we keep the deal alive in between. We cover: Do you even need an LOI? When it is worth the step and when it just adds weeks. Sometimes, especially with mom-and-pop sellers who just want to know what you will pay and when you will close, it makes sense to skip it and go straight to a purchase agreement. What belongs in the LOI: Price, terms, due diligence period, closing timeline, earnest money, and seller financing structure. Leave the rest for the contract so you are not negotiating everything twice. What to push back on: Length of due diligence, when earnest money goes hard, access to rent rolls, P&Ls and utility bills, seller-finance terms, and reps and warranties on infrastructure like water, sewer, and septic. What you can give on: Closing date flexibility, a larger deposit, letting the seller stay involved through a transition, and small price moves that buy you better terms. Know which concessions cost you little but mean a lot to the seller. Calls vs. emails: Pick up the phone for anything that matters. Use email to confirm what you already agreed to on a call, not to negotiate. Tone gets lost in text, and small issues turn into standoffs. The in-person visit: Walking the park with the owner builds trust that no document can. It is often where the real story comes out: deferred maintenance, why they are selling, and what they care about most. Managing the attorneys: Settle the business points between the principals before the lawyers see the draft, so a simple deal does not turn into a 40-page fight. Time kills deals: Set deadlines, follow up on a schedule, get the draft contract out within days instead of weeks, and keep things moving when the seller goes quiet. If you have ever had a done deal disappear before the contract was signed, this one is for you. This episode is for general education and is not legal or financial advice. Work with your own attorney and advisors on any specific transaction. Visit treesidecapital.com for more information.

Running a mobile home park acquisition pipeline means drowning in emails, spreadsheets, and fragmented deal information. In this episode, I walk through exactly how I've moved beyond basic AI chatbot use to building Claude into a real deal automation engine using Claude Desktop and custom skills. From sourcing to close, we cover: Teaching Claude to underwrite — building a reusable skill that reads LOIs, calculates cap rates, and flags red flags Marketing at scale — how Claude posts customized deal summaries to investor Facebook groups and responds to serious inquiries Automatic deal tracking — a weekly-updated tracker that pulls buyer/seller info directly from your email, no manual entry Due diligence automation — comparing what sellers told you verbally against what their docs actually show, spotting discrepancies instantly Land valuation — scraping comps from sites, running valuations on land adjacent to parks, structuring fair offers Gap analysis — identifying missing documents and pushing back on incomplete submissions This isn't theoretical. You'll hear about real deals (including our Lawrenceburg Storage sale) and the exact workflows that cut deal-analysis time from days to hours. If you're running an active MHP acquisition pipeline or coaching other operators, this is where AI actually saves you money and closes deals faster. Visit treesidecapital.com for more info.

We bought two parks to a group we thought had overpaid. Then we looked at their underwriting. In this episode, we break down the model that changed how we approach acquisitions in a compressed-return environment: why 2-year interest-only terms, access to new lender relationships, and deep knowledge of area lot rents can completely reframe what's actually a good deal. Sometimes the market changes faster than our playbooks. This is how we caught up. Visit treesidecapital.com for more details

The mobile home park and RV park space isn't what it was a few years ago. Rates are higher, cap rates have moved, and more buyers than ever are chasing the same parks. The deals are still out there, but you have to be sharper to make them work. In this episode, Miles Noland of Treeside Capital walks through how he underwrites deals today and why the old playbook doesn't hold up anymore. He covers how to look past a seller's numbers to real income and expenses, how to stress-test a deal against today's debt costs, and where the value actually comes from once you own the park. He also gets into the creative side of getting deals done: seller financing, structuring around the seller's real needs, and knowing when to walk away. Plus, how to compete when institutional money and a flood of new investors are chasing the same parks, and why relationships and speed often beat the highest offer. In this episode: How to underwrite a park, and which numbers sellers usually get wrong How rising rates changed deal structure, and how we adjusted Seller financing and creative terms that close the gap on price Competing against well-funded buyers without overpaying Red flags that kill a deal fast Where the opportunities are right now in the Midwest and Southeast Whether you're buying your first park or scaling a portfolio, this episode shows you how to find deals that still pencil in today's market. Visit treesidecapital.com

In this episode, we break down the sourcing philosophy that uncovers deals others miss: the power of falling up—relentless, organized follow-up. We'll explore how meticulous lead tracking transforms conversations into acquisitions, why timing often matters more than perfection, and how creative deal structures (buying, partnering for equity and fees, syndication positions) open doors that straight cash offers never will. Whether you're looking to buy, find JV partners, or carve out a small piece of a larger opportunity, the key is asking the right questions and following up persistently. Most competitors give up too early. You won't. Perfect for mobile home park investors, syndicators, and anyone tired of chasing the same obvious deals. Visit treesidecapital.com for more info.

Most operators think about their tech stack as a convenience — tools that make daily life easier. But your organization stack is actually a business asset that shows up on your balance sheet in ways you might not expect. In this episode, we break down why the systems you use to run your business — Google Drive, Gmail, Meet, Rent Manager, Basecamp, Talkroute — matter far beyond day-to-day operations: Buying & Selling: When you're underwriting an acquisition or prepping for a sale, a clean, documented organization stack tells the story of how the business actually runs. Buyers pay a premium for operations they can step into without reverse-engineering someone's mental filing system. Sellers with disorganized records leave money on the table — and raise red flags in diligence. Staff Loss & Turnover: People leave. If institutional knowledge lives in one person's head or inbox instead of a shared system, turnover becomes a crisis instead of a hiccup. A real stack — shared drives, documented processes in Basecamp, call logs in Talkroute — means the business keeps running when someone walks out the door. Credibility & Professionalism: How you communicate and manage information signals how seriously you take the business — to lenders, sellers, tenants, and partners. A scattered, ad hoc approach reads as amateur hour, even if the underlying deal is solid. Ease of Use: None of this matters if the tools are too clunky to actually use. We talk through why simplicity and adoption beat sophistication — the best system is the one your team actually uses every day. We'll walk through our own stack — Drive for document management, Gmail and Meet for communication, Rent Manager for property ops, Basecamp for project tracking, and Talkroute for call handling — and how each piece plays a role in making the business defensible, transferable, and professional. Visit treesidecapital.com for more details.

Not all conference time is created equal. You can spend three days in a hotel ballroom and leave with a stack of business cards you'll never call—or you can walk out with deal leads, capital relationships, and a network that shapes your business for years to come. In this episode, we break down how to strategically approach real estate conferences to maximize ROI: the mindset shifts that separate deal makers from tourists, how to identify the right people to connect with before you even arrive, the conversations that turn casual meetings into real partnerships, and why in-person relationships still trump every virtual alternative in the deal-making world. We'll cover deal sourcing from the conference floor, building relationships with brokers and other investors, finding capital partners and mentors, spotting emerging opportunities in the market, and how to follow up so your connections actually turn into action. Whether you're new to conference networking or looking to shift from passive attendance to active deal generation, this episode shows you the framework for getting serious ROI on your time and money. In this episode: Pre-conference strategy: who to meet and why The conversations that lead to deals Breaking through the noise to find real opportunities Building capital and partnership relationships The follow-up system that actually works Avoiding the conference trap (and time-wasters) Conferences are expensive. Make them count. Visit treesidecapital.com for more good info and ideas.

Most mobile home park operators are still doing everything by hand — chasing rent, digging through file folders, retyping the same follow-up emails, and manually stitching together underwriting spreadsheets. In this episode, we break down exactly how AI tools can take that grind off your plate so you can focus on sourcing and closing more deals. We cover: Getting started — what AI actually is in practical terms, the few tools worth learning first, and how to avoid wasting time on shiny-object software Rent collection & tenant communication — using AI to draft reminders, flag late payments, and personalize tenant outreach at scale Document & data organization — turning scattered PDFs, leases, and title docs into a searchable, structured system instead of a digital junk drawer Email & CRM follow-up — streamlining inbox management, auto-drafting responses, and keeping seller/broker follow-up from falling through the cracks List building & outreach — using AI to research owners, build skip-traced lists, and personalize cold outreach at volume Rent Manager integration — connecting AI workflows to your property management software for maintenance requests, work orders, and tenant tickets Vendor & contractor coordination — automating scheduling, quote requests, and follow-up with third-party contractors Deal flow organization — building a simple AI-assisted pipeline to track LOIs, offers, and deals in progress without losing anything Underwriting & due diligence — speeding up rent comps, expense analysis, and red-flag detection during DD without cutting corners Whether you're running one park or a growing portfolio, this episode gives you a practical, no-fluff roadmap for putting AI to work in your business — starting this week. Visit treesidecapital.com for more details.

Most mobile home park deals aren't won at the offer — they're won in the eighteen months before it. The owners with the best parks aren't listed, aren't in a hurry, and aren't going to sell to a stranger who called once and quoted a cap rate. They sell to the person who kept showing up. In this episode, Miles breaks down the follow-up system behind Treeside Capital's off-market pipeline: how to build a multi-channel touch cadence that stays warm without becoming a nuisance, why a hand-delivered one-pager beats ten emails, and how to recognize the life events — health, taxes, a spouse's opinion, a kid who doesn't want the business — that turn a "not interested" into a closing table. What we cover: Why "no" almost always means "not yet," and how to tell the difference Building a touch cadence across visits, calls, texts, and mailed letters — what each channel is actually good for The in-person visit: what to bring, what to ask, and what never to bring up on the first walk Handwritten letters and one-pagers that get kept instead of thrown away Tracking a long-game pipeline so nobody falls through the cracks Reading the seller's real timeline — tax year-end, succession, spouse buy-in, deferred maintenance fatigue Staying top of mind so you're the first call when the trigger event hits Visit treesidecapital.com to learn more.