Today, Jason & Glenn are joined by Ryan Narus. They discuss SECO, the Southeast Community Owner’s Conference. The SECO conference allows park owners to network. “It’s primarily based around how to own, operate, buy, and sell apartments,” says Glenn.
The conference has grown over the years. This made 2020’s edition that much more exciting. But then, concerns over COVID left uncertainty. The conference runners would find a solution. The event will be exclusively virtual. Now park owners can access valuable information without sacrificing their peace of mind. Read on to hear more about the conference and park deals during a pandemic.
Going to your first SECO
“We spent $299 on that ticket,” Ryan recalls of his first SECO conference. But that investment would prove beneficial down the line. Ryan and his business partner were new to the industry at the time. He credits the connections made with their eventual success. “It’s local folks here helping each other out. Transacting. Deals. Contracts. Advice.”
Ryan says there are roughly 1200 members of the group. Everyone is either a park owner or looking to buy. The camaraderie shown in these circles can lead to invaluable information. It proves that we’re more than a business; we’re a community. “That’s the spirit of SECO: helping others.”
COVID makes way for virtual SECO
It’s been a gradual reveal to the pandemic’s true impact. Several of the known conference hosting hubs were completely booked up. The team managed to locate an advanced online platform as a solution. It has a drawn out, complicated technical name, so the team’s taken to calling it Cocoa.
The virtual space takes on a corporate setting. But unlike corporate, the environment is relaxed and more focused on support. Areas of the site function as dedicated meeting spots for participants. It’s one of the most effective options given the current climate. Pertinent information, valuable contacts, and more all from the comfort of your home. To incentivize participation, there will be care packages given to attendants. Their contents will include helpful strategies in the space, among other exciting digital souvenirs.
Pros and cons of a virtual SECO
The team is excited, but admits to seeing a difference in the virtual approach. There’s something about face to face interactions that help to drive the deal home. There are many organic networking moments that can happen. One conversation could be the start of a warm friendship, a successful partnership, or both.
“However, you also are never going to get a flat database of everybody in attendance in person. It’s just not going to happen.” The growing technological influence on communication eases collecting and aggregating this information. In this instance, losing one benefit only leads to other benefits.
Being a park owner requires a strong commitment to adjustment. But that’s why The Mobile Home Park Expert commits to keeping up to date with this growing industry. We aim to provide the most relevant and helpful content in the field. For any questions, contact us today!
Podcast Transcript
Jason Sirotin:
Hello, everybody. Welcome to The Mobile Home Park Expert podcast. I’m Jason Sirotin, joined by my partner in crime as always, Glenn Esterson. Glenn, how are you?
Glenn Esterson:
It’s another beautiful day in paradise, my friend.
Hey, Glenn, I don’t know if you know this, but you don’t spell your name that way as it reads in your Zoom: Glenn Peterson.Glenn Esterson:
Oh, is that what it says in there? I got fat fingers.
Jason Sirotin:
We’re joined today by Ryan. And Ryan, I’m going to try it because I remember … Narus?
Ryan Narus:
True story. My last name is Lithuanian, and my dad actually was the first of us to go to Lithuania because my grandfather was born in the States. My great grandfather immigrated over. We never knew how to pronounce the last name. And it actually has been truncated from Naruschevic, which basically means son of.
Ryan Narus:
And so my grandfather was like, “Too many letters. I’m shortening it to Narus.” And so we always just pronounced it Narus, and my father finally went over to Lithuania a couple years back and someone finally told him how my last name is pronounced. It’s pronounced Nar-oose.
Glenn Esterson:
Nar-oose.
Ryan Narus:
But the thing is, if I said my name is Ryan Nar-oose, I would sound really, really cool. The truth is, I’m a total dork and I don’t need that kind of attention. Narus is just fine.
Glenn Esterson:
Eastern European looks good on you, Ryan. I think that’s a good look. I might start calling you Mr. Nar-oose when we go in public.
Jason Sirotin:
Nar-oose, come here. Ryan Narus is one of the founding partners at Archimedes Group, and they’re doing some big things. We want to talk to Ryan, catch up, see where he’s doing, see how COVID is treating him. And then I want to chat about SECO, because it’s happening.
Jason Sirotin:
It’s going to be digital, and there’s lots and lots to talk about. Glenn, you’re a platinum sponsor. Ryan, you’re heavily involved on the actual planning committee. You’re helping run it. Let’s start with just when was the decision made and why is it so important that it’s happening? What makes it so cool?
Glenn Esterson:
I’ll start off here, Ryan, and then I’ll turn it over to you. SECO, just to give some history, SECO is the Southeast Community Owners Conference. Historically I don’t know if it’s on the sixth, seventh or eighth year, but it’s been going on for a while. Maybe five, six, seven years, maybe longer.
Glenn Esterson:
I got involved with it I think five or six years ago. It’s grown from less than a hundred people, to last year we had I think it was just over 500 or just under 500 people last year. It’s a phenomenal conference where you’re able to get up close and personal with other park owners. It’s park owner centric. It’s not like these other conferences where it’s an ‘everything’ kind of assemblage of people with different industries within our industry.
Glenn Esterson:
This is really primarily based around how to own and operate, purchase and sell a park. That’s one of the biggest, unique things about SECO, and it’s such a friendly environment. And now there’s so many great people that come to these things.
Glenn Esterson:
Last year you were able to get eyeball to eyeball with everybody and have some great meetings and learn how people are doing their craft. This year, it’s going to be a little different. This year, they’re doing it online only because of COVID.
Glenn Esterson:
They got linked up with some great partners this year, MHVillage, which is a great data house and some great people over there that helps support our industry. They’re using this platform. I’ll let Ryan pronounce it, because I’ll murder it. This platform is phenomenal. It’s like being in a virtual building with these people, and we think it has big-
Jason Sirotin:
What? What’s that?
Glenn Esterson:
It’s going to have some real appeal across the board because now you don’t have to travel through Atlanta and pay a thousand dollars for the hotels and the foods and the stuff. You’d be able to come in and out of this thing as you please and meet with people who you want. I don’t know the date, so let me turn it over to Ryan and let him tell you kind of his thoughts on SECO right now.
Ryan Narus:
No. True story, Glenn and I actually met for the first time at my first SECO, which was in 2017. It was October of 2017. That was when Ian and I had first gone full-time. We quit our jobs. We moved into a mobile home. We were living in our property in Atlanta, paying ourselves nothing, sleeping on blow-up mattresses. We spent $299 on that ticket.
Ryan Narus:
And boy, did that hurt back then, a lot. In a weird way, it was kind of a good thing, right? Because when it hurts your pocketbook, you just treat things differently. I was just a fanatic to go and just meet everybody I possibly could. And Glenn, that’s the first time you and I met. I’m proud to publicly say, Glenn, we finally got one on the books, my friend.
Glenn Esterson:
Yes, we did.
Ryan Narus:
It took a while, but we finally transacted, which is exciting. Yeah. Three years ago I met Glenn. I met a ton of vendors that I’ve since hired. I’ve met a ton of other owners who I’ve learned from. And I also joined a Facebook or a mobile home mastermind group, which eventually faded away, but gave us the idea for the Facebook group that, Glenn, you and I are in that has just blown up, which is so exciting.
Glenn Esterson:
It’s massive now.
Ryan Narus:
It’s so cool, and that all was birthed out of that first SECO. That magic has never gone away in my mind. I am so obsessed with making sure that this event continues to live and benefit people along the way. Because the truth of the matter is, the local state organizations are great. But I own in North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, I used to own in Florida and Georgia. I’ve since sold out.
Ryan Narus:
And the truth of the matter is there’s a lot of cross-pollination across states, and there’s a lot of great people you may just never meet unless you have a more centralized conference. I love MHI. I will always go to MHI, but there are literally thousands of people from all over the world at MHI.
Ryan Narus:
Versus SECO, where it’s in Atlanta and it’s just us. To me, I was just super excited to be invited, to come on and help find speakers and help promote and speak myself. Yeah, we got to keep this alive because just like Glenn said, it is local folks here helping each other out: transacting deals, vendors, contractors, advice. It is so crucial that we keep this alive and keep it going, and hopefully successfully make the transition to all online.
Jason Sirotin:
Ryan, can you tell me a little bit about … I want to know about the Facebook group.
Glenn Esterson:
I think you’re right on spot. Oh, you might’ve froze on me and I might be talking over you.
Jason Sirotin:
Can you guys hear me?
Glenn Esterson:
What’s going on here?
Ryan Narus:
Yeah. I can hear you just fine.
Jason Sirotin:
Oh, okay.
Ryan Narus:
This Facebook group, there’s roughly 1200 people in it now. It’s almost exclusively mobile home park owners and folks who are looking to buy mobile home parks. There are tons of people, small and large. I’m talking to folks who own quite literally thousands of lots. The best brokers in the game are in there, Glenn, front and center right there.
Ryan Narus:
It’s amazing. You ask a question and you get five people within an hour or two or a handful of hours, giving you good quality answers, helping each other out. And to me, that is the spirit of what Ian and I are trying to create with Archimedes Group, is helping others. That’s the spirit of SECO, helping others.
Glenn Esterson:
Absolutely. That’s the essence, is to help the guy who knows nothing about this industry, come in and understand the mechanics behind what it takes to get your first deal. And to build a network with other like-minded guys here and girls that are able to really help you assist.
Glenn Esterson:
We share [inaudible 00:08:21]. We talked about strategies. We do all sorts of cool things at these things. And this platform this year that they have is pretty cool. I’ve never seen an online conference platform like this before. Ryan, are you familiar enough to be able to pronounce the name and walk us through it a little bit?
Ryan Narus:
We’re just calling it Cocoa because it’s a whole lot easier to just go that way. I mean, who doesn’t love a warm cup of Cocoa? It’s really fascinating because so many conferences have moved online that the virtual summit, the big great players who do the virtual summits, they’re all booked. We had to get creative this year.
Ryan Narus:
So credit to our friends at MHInsider and Datacomp, they’ve basically come in and just run with this. They actually were able to find a workspace software platform. In other words, imagine an office completely virtual, where you have conference rooms, where you have a big speaker room, you have little cubicles, the works.
Ryan Narus:
And you can go into these rooms and chat with people. But more importantly than that, you have a big long list of everybody who is in attendance, who they are, what their name is, and you can very easily drop them a line and they can respond to you whenever they can.
Glenn Esterson:
You can set appointments. You can shoot them an instant message. You can join a conference or a meeting that they’re in. It’s such a friendly user face that this application has. I was really impressed. I’m impressed easily sometimes, but I was really impressed with this particular platform.
Jason Sirotin:
Let me ask you a question about it. Do you think that this is actually a better way for people to learn, or do you think that people aren’t going to be able to connect as much? Or do you think it’ll be just the same? How has the vibe going to be different? Obviously we’re apart, but from a value standpoint.
Ryan Narus:
To me, the magic of that first SECO and all the subsequent SECOs I’ve been a part of, has all been in chance encounters. You’re on the elevator together. You go out and you grab dinner. Last year, Glenn and …
Glenn Esterson:
My connection must be bad.
Ryan Narus:
Can you guys hear me all right?
Jason Sirotin:
I can hear you. We can hear Glenn.
Glenn Esterson:
Sorry, there you guys are. That’s funny.
Jason Sirotin:
Well, we can hear you, Glenn. It’s like hitting the thing. Sorry. Go ahead, Ryan. It’s the chance encounters. The people you meet in the elevator, the dinner.
Ryan Narus:
It’s the magic of taking a break to go get a glass of water and bumping into someone. To me, my biggest concern is that’s gone. To me, my biggest concern is like the three of us and the big group we went out to dinner last year and it was amazing. I remember sitting next to Jason Merker and we’d just laugh for 45 minutes straight.
Glenn Esterson:
Yeah, I remember that.
Ryan Narus:
It was an amazing dinner. Thank you, Glenn, for organizing that. And to me, that is one of the biggest bummers, that you’re not going to capture that magic online. You’re just not. However, you also are never going to get a flat database of everybody in attendance in person. It’s just not going to happen. They tried the WOVA app every year that I’ve been there. It’s been great. You always jump in it. And you’re like, “Oh, cool. How do I navigate this? It’s a little bit cumbersome.”
Ryan Narus:
And ultimately you send people messages and they don’t check it. You end up really not having that user buy-in with the WOVA app. Not that it’s a bad app. The thing that that we’ve been lacking in prior years is buy-in to a database of everybody who’s there. This forces you to do that. So in theory of best laid plans of mice and men, in theory, you’re going to have a giant list of everybody’s there. It’s going to literally force you to check your messages and connect.
Ryan Narus:
The sad thing that I’m really concerned about beyond just technical difficulties is those chance encounters are probably going to be gone or at least changed. But, I think there’s going to be a lot of ancillary benefits none of us have predicted that are going to be mind-boggling.
Ryan Narus:
That’s a big reason why, even if I wasn’t involved, you better believe I’m going to be there and I’m going to be there in a big way. Glenn, and I think you agree with me here, we’re competitors. Competitors don’t cry and sit on the sideline. They find a way in the game, even if the game is fundamentally changed.
Glenn Esterson:
And on a slightly different end, for some of you guys that are listening, maybe you’re a little introverted. I think it’s going to feel a lot safer for you guys to come to these things and sit there like a fly on the wall, and be able to get into some of these conferences and hear some of these discussions and chat messages and things like that, that are going on without feeling overly intimidated by the big boys that are in there.
Glenn Esterson:
Everybody’s shaking hands and stuff like that. I know when I go to a conference for the very first time, I’m a little intimidated by it. I find myself a comfortable seat and hope people come talk to me. And then after years of going to these things, I don’t do that anymore. But in the beginning, I remember what that was like.
Glenn Esterson:
This I think will provide an opportunity for a lot of these newer guys to be able to just jump into some of these conversations, because you don’t have to do it eyeball to eyeball this time. We’ll see some opportunities that I think will be neat coming out of this. And yeah, there’ll be some loss of interaction and spontaneity that might’ve happened, and awesome dinners going out with people kind of thing. But at the same time, this is where we are.
Glenn Esterson:
This is a great plan moving forward. Guess what you don’t have to do? You don’t have to spend a thousand dollars to get there. You don’t have to disrupt your entire week to go hang out with a bunch of guys in a building. I think there’s a real advantage. And me personally, it’s nice that I’m probably not going to have to talk for 18 hours a day, which is nice for me. My throat gets a little sore. I’ll be able to rotate with my team through these boots and things like that within this site.
Jason Sirotin:
Do you click through and walk around? It’s like a video game and you’re like-
Glenn Esterson:
It’s like a drop click, like I want to be in this room so I drop my little person into this room. And then you populate into that room with the other people and stuff like that.
Jason Sirotin:
I have such a superficial question, but what are people doing for swag? What are the leave behinds? I bet that’s pretty-
Glenn Esterson:
This was a hard topic. This was a hard topic. And boy, I’ve been trying to figure out how do we get this thing done. We’re going to bail out a box of swag to everybody. It’s going to come out to … I think the VIP people get a box, or the early bird special people get a special box or something like that. But I’m actually going to be including my book in this box this year.
Jason Sirotin:
Hell, yeah.
Glenn Esterson:
Or I’m trying to. We’re under the gun right now at the timeline. We don’t know how many people are coming, so it’s a little harder to predict. We’ve promised about 100 to 150 books to go out in that swag bag, and then a bunch of coupons for my book to go online and download it. Because I don’t think I can get Amazon to print me much more than that in the timeframe that we have and ship it out to [inaudible 00:15:49] the client.
Jason Sirotin:
I think it’s better. I think it’s better. Think about it. If you’re at a conference and you get swag, you leave it somewhere, you put it in the hotel, it doesn’t fit in your luggage. Now your brand is in there at their house.
Glenn Esterson:
Yeah.
Jason Sirotin:
It might be smart to think about home items that can be used in a home office that are just going to be there, which is an interesting way to think about it. I love the idea of the book. Ryan, have you heard any cool ideas? Is anybody kind of breaking ground with fresh ways of getting attention?
Ryan Narus:
We definitely have some cool swag items coming. Got to buy a ticket to find out, though.
Jason Sirotin:
I can’t reveal all my secrets. The Ryan Seacrest of the mobile home world.
Glenn Esterson:
Yeah. I should have been a little bit more hush-hush about it, but I committed to putting in a bunch of my books into there. If they get to me first, I’ll be able to hand-sign them and then get them into there if that matters to anybody. It makes me feel kind of weird to do it. But at the same time, every time I sold a book to somebody in person, they want me to sign in and I’m happy to do so.
Jason Sirotin:
Yeah, and you’re still putting the hundred dollar bills in there. Right?
Glenn Esterson:
And the hundred dollar bills, of course. Of course the hundred dollar bills. They’re actually printed on a hundred dollar bills.
Jason Sirotin:
Exactly. Ryan, with all the planning, how did you guys pivot and when? I’m just curious, what kind of conversations? How’d you guys make these decisions?
Ryan Narus:
Well, first I have to address, I am a proud owner of a signed copy of the Mobile Home Park Manifesto. So Glenn, thank you very much for that. Have read it cover to cover, highly recommend it, especially if you’re new getting into this space.
Ryan Narus:
But that’s beside the point. Decisions are very tough to make when you have a lot of people on the planning committee. A bunch of people, a bunch of different incentives, motivations, yada, yada, yada. Thankfully, most people seem to be of the mindset as myself, which is like, “Look, I’m not getting paid to do this. I am dumping a ton of time into this for one reason and one reason alone. We have to preserve this.”
Ryan Narus:
It is so crucial for our geographical footprint to have a meeting like this beyond just the statewide ones. But to have a meeting like this, where we can connect and share ideas. Because for me personally, I see the writing on the wall. I see the writing on the wall! The mom and pops are phasing out in a big way, and fast. We are ushering in a brand new generation of mobile home park owners. And we have seen a lot of people do it the right way. Unfortunately, a lot of people do it the wrong way.
Glenn Esterson:
We talk a lot about that.
Ryan Narus:
If we can be at the forefront, influencing people to get in, the right people to get in and treat people, right. And like you say in your book, empathetic capitalist. If we can preserve and enhance for much needed affordable housing in this country by connecting entrepreneurs and allowing them to do things the right way. I don’t need a penny to do that.
Ryan Narus:
I don’t care. I am so passionate about this space. I want it to be the best that it can be and to keep bad people out, and there is no better way in my mind than literally to give away information for free, to connect people for free, to help people grow for free. Even if I’m training up my own competition, I don’t care. I would 10 times rather lose to a good entrepreneur who’s going to do right by the tenants in the long run than some slumlord, wannabe slumlord person. I will help you get there. Everybody on the board is the same way.
Glenn Esterson:
Let’s mention that. Almost everybody on the board is a park owner. I know almost all of them, and I’ve sold parks next to the parks that they own in some cases. They all do this good job, this empathetic capitalist approach that we do. No heavy punches to the face with these rent increases and things like that.
Glenn Esterson:
Then focus on the tenants being well-taken care of, and guess what? Then you get well-taken care of and your payday’s go up. That’s the whole mentality behind a lot of this. The education aspect of this industry is not the strongest. We don’t have a lot of strong educating branches of this. There’s a couple of real great groups out there that are doing similar things. SECO happens to be one of the forefront guys.
Glenn Esterson:
This industry in the Southeast, we really need this to continue. So the online version, it is what it is this year. We’re going to do it. I have a feeling it ends up becoming a … Hold on.
Jason Sirotin:
We hear you.
Glenn Esterson:
Okay. I have a feeling it ends up having a much broader appeal this year because you got … And this is a national business now. All right? People in Michigan are buying parks in South Carolina. People in California are buying parks in Louisiana and vice versa.
Glenn Esterson:
I think this will allow the guys that aren’t from the Southeast to be able to join in, see what it’s about. Maybe it’s a little bit of a rough ride this year on this particular first go of it, but it might become kind of a normal thing to do.
Glenn Esterson:
We might start seeing other ways for our industry to educate people through these kinds of online conferences. We’re excited to be a big part of it. Ryan, let me jump a little bit over … I got ahead of ourselves. From last year or the last time we had [inaudible 00:21:26] about a year ago, you guys were on a real up and coming kind of pace.
Glenn Esterson:
And as you said in your intro, you sold off a couple and you bought a couple, and now you guys are here. How much different is your life today because of MH than it was a year ago? And then contrast that for those that don’t know you and how you started, where you had to live in your first park and stuff like that.
Ryan Narus:
Yeah. Real quick, I just want to say this because I’m a sports fan and I’m originally from Cleveland. I got to make a reference to LeBron. LeBron was at the forefront of pushing the NBA for the bubble, which in my opinion is working very well so far. It’s weird. It’s an adjustment, but guess what?
Ryan Narus:
LeBron, Bron-Bron, he is a competitor and he wants to play. And so my thing with SECO is it’s going to have issues. It’s going to happen. People are going to get frustrated with the system. It’s going to detract a lot of people. It’s going to bring a lot of people, to your point from way, way outside, whose travel costs are now next to nothing. But here’s the thing. I’m like Bron-Bron. You better believe I’m going to be there pushing for this to happen, because I want to win.
Ryan Narus:
And if you are listening into this and you want mobile home parks and you’re competitive, there is absolutely no excuse. Get in the game, make it happen, make your network way more robust by literally going to an event. Virtual or in-person, doesn’t matter, where you’re literally going to have the chance to meet people who are going to get you to that next level. But yes, Glenn, to answer your question … For those who haven’t met me or heard of me before, I’m a little guy from Charlotte, North Carolina. I five years ago had no money, no network, and no experience. And thankfully, no excuses.
Glenn Esterson:
You were selling cars, right? Right before that, if I remember correctly.
Ryan Narus:
I was! I had the wonderful fortune of graduating undergrad in 2009. Hooray. And I’m like you, Glenn, I’m a salesperson. That’s just me. All the sales jobs I wanted were like, “Look, we’re in the middle of a crisis. I’m only hiring people who have five years of experience, a whole Rolodex of people to call and can be effective immediately.”
Ryan Narus:
And I’m screaming here like, “I am hardworking, talented, want to learn. Put me on the bench.” Someone’s got to take a chance on me, and it came down to my old karate instructor at a car dealership being like, “What do you think?” And I go, “Look, I am not going to sit at home. I’m a competitor. I’m not going to sit at home. If these guys want experience, I’m going to go get it. I don’t care if it’s at a car dealership.”
Ryan Narus:
And I sold cars for four years, went back, got my MBA. And in the middle of getting my MBA, I reconnected with a childhood friend and tutor and we both went, “Oh my gosh, we’re perfect business partners. What do we start?” And one of the first ideas was mobile home parks, and then everything just clicked in my mind.
Ryan Narus:
All my skills that I had built over the years, all my passions, all my charity work, what I want to do with charity, all fits perfectly within mobile home parks. It was like the light at the end of the tunnel was finally there. I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up.
Ryan Narus:
I did not care that I had no money, no experience and no network, because I was going to find a way. In a really kind of crazy twist of events, not having money forced me to do things with other people’s money, and doing things like moving to a property to be my own property manager to afford going full-time. Cutting my personal spending down to nothing, that taught me some incredible life lessons.
Ryan Narus:
Flash forward, last time I was on, I think it was right after we bought our Shadow Lane property. We’ve bought four since then. We’ve bought 14 so far, roughly 1400 pads. Sold out of three. We currently have 11, one that we own passively, 10 that we own actively. We currently have three deals under contract right now. We’ve closed two in the middle of COVID.
Ryan Narus:
We lost a couple because of COVID, and some other issues like Orangeburg piping and some crazy things that happen during due diligence. But despite COVID, we’ve been able to close on two. We’ve got one that I’m, fingers crossed, closing later this month.
Ryan Narus:
We just got another contract on one two days ago that should close in the fall. Last year we closed four deals. This year, I think we hopefully knock on wood will get another four more. We’re just growing slowly but surely with our own money, because we don’t want to have to worry about hitting a preferred return.
Glenn Esterson:
That’s a big change. You guys went from straight OPM, right?
Ryan Narus:
Yep.
Glenn Esterson:
It was all split equity for you guys and other people’s money. And now you’ve made a name for you guys’s self. You started making a buck with those other people’s money. You were able to exit some of your first round funds. And now you’re into your own deals with your own capital. Guys, that’s achievable for you!
Glenn Esterson:
All of you listening, if that’s what you’re trying to do, it’s achievable. You can take the hardest, longest road. And if you keep making steps en route to these things, going to the conferences, getting educated, taking a stab at a park and doing these things, you could end up here literally four years later with a thousand paths.
Glenn Esterson:
Four years, what the heck is four years? I blink and four years has gone by. It’s real nice to see you and a bunch of other guys like me that I’m friends with in our industry getting kids. You guys started when you were in your early to mid twenties if I remember correctly, right?
Ryan Narus:
I was 28, Ian was 25.
Glenn Esterson:
Ian was 25. Yeah. That’s impressive. That’s a lot more impressive than what I was doing when I was 25. I hope everybody that’s listening is really taking this story to heart because he’s not pulling your leg. He lived in a park.
Glenn Esterson:
He bought these really hairy deals with no money of his own, and he made it work. You guys have heard my stories. Hard roads are what it takes to get to where you want to go. Most of us aren’t going to be silver spoon fed type of people. This industry is great for that. These SECO conferences are an amazing network of people just like Ryan and Ian, and all sorts of other good people in this industry that started from scratch and made a buck.
Glenn Esterson:
And now we’re trying to help you guys learn how to make a buck. We’re not making a buck teaching you guys how to do this, but we’re hoping that overall we all raise on the same water, all our boats lift. As we bring more experience and expertise and sophistication to this industry, you guys have the benefit that I sure as heck didn’t have when I came into this industry that Ryan …
Glenn Esterson:
When he first went from cars to [inaudible 00:28:19], it took a minute. Because just in the last couple of years, this industry has really tightened up and become a lot smarter and a lot more achievable for a lot of people. It’s squeezed some people, but making other people understand the importance of our industry and the role of an aggregator right now in our industry.
Glenn Esterson:
Aggregation in this industry right now is the opportunity. If you’re looking for one part, there’s still an opportunity to make good money. But the aggregation, like what Ryan’s been doing is where the paydays come later on down the road. SECO is a great place to learn it.
Jason Sirotin:
At SECO, how are people going to find you? Glenn, I know when it’s a platinum sponsor, one of the top sponsors, what does that mean? Is there going to be fake Glenn’s being in the corner of the wall?
Glenn Esterson:
There’s going to be impersonator Glenn’s probably, because I got my team. I don’t know if we can all log in as the Esterson MHC team or they have to log in as Glenn Esterson or how this works, but my team’s going to be there.
Glenn Esterson:
You guys know I’m the easiest person to get ahold of. If you can get ahold of me on the phone, I always answer if I’m not on the phone. It’s going to be no different for these guys. So you’ll be able to say, hey, set an appointment with Glenn or set an appointment with Parker, or set an appointment with any of the guys on my team. Charles, [inaudible 00:00:29:38], Dylan, whatever, and be able to talk with us. Now, I can’t man a booth for the three days that this thing’s going on by myself. It’s going to be rotating, but we should be easy.
Glenn Esterson:
I think from what I understand, my name is going to be on everything with the printed materials and the website stuff and all that kind of stuff. I believe Ryan’s name is on everything already anyway. He’s going to be pretty easy to get ahold of.
Glenn Esterson:
And the way that they have this platform developed, there’s a roster list. And the whole database, everybody’s there. You’ll be able to reach out to not just me. There’s plenty other people you might want to spend time with other than hearing me bark at you about my ideas. I’m happy to introduce you to people if we can. Ryan’s always very helpful with helping people make introductions. I think that’s how you’ll be able to access each of us pretty easily, I think. I’m hoping. That’s the plan, anyways.
Ryan Narus:
Jason, what we’re going to do is we’re going to get a digital, one of those used car dealer blow inflatable things where the arms go crazy. We’re going to like Photoshop a funny picture of Glenn’s face in there.
Jason Sirotin:
Please do that, Ryan.
Ryan Narus:
It’s going to be fun.
Jason Sirotin:
It’s going to be easy for people to find you. Is there anything that you guys want people to make sure they check out at the show? What are your parting words for people who maybe are going this year and have been before, or that have never been and this is their first time?
Ryan Narus:
I think one of the biggest things that made me successful in my first SECO in 2017, it wasn’t just the superficial conversations that culminate and exchanging of business cards. No, I had pens with me. I took notes on the back of the business cards.
Ryan Narus:
When I got home, I put it into a database and I tracked it. I tracked those notes, and I knew which vendors I can call for which things, what they offered, what they didn’t. And which owners were where, and which brokers were where.
Ryan Narus:
I’ve tracked ever since, so I have a really big database of people that I’ve met all with notes, phone numbers, emails, the works. That is absolutely pivotal. If you have ever worked in sales, you have missed a deal before because you didn’t do a good job tracking information. I learned that at the car industry the hard way. If they called you from a phone that they never use, you track that.
Ryan Narus:
And to me, that’s what I’ve been … I’ve established that discipline over the years. You’ve got to do that. But in terms of what else can you learn beyond meeting people, which in theory is going to be easy to meet people. You’ll have a big, long list of folks. You can just send them an instant message. You can bump into them in a private room or in one of the speaking gigs.
Ryan Narus:
And so you can reach out to folks directly. I’m easy to find anyways. I’m the only Ryan Narus in the world that I’m aware of. All you got to do is Google me. And I’m like Glenn, reach out to me. I don’t care who you are. I’m going to help you in any way I can. But the cool thing about SECO this year beyond just everything we’ve mentioned is we’re going to have some rock star speakers who are, in a lot of ways, very hard to lock down to speaking roles.
Ryan Narus:
For example, Mike Conlon, Affordable Communities Group owns over 5,000 lots. He’s going to talk about how he went from zero to over 5,000 a week. We have Chris Parrish from Parrish Manor outside of Raleigh. He is just the consummate professional in terms of leveraging charity, what he does to benefit charity. He’s going to give a talk about how-
Glenn Esterson:
I love Chris. He’s so great.
Ryan Narus:
It’s impossible not to love Chris Parrish. He’s the man. You’re going to have him. Andrew Keel is going to join.
Glenn Esterson:
He’s so great.
Ryan Narus:
Andrew Keel literally bought a mobile home moving company to achieve an economy of scale to move homes in. So if you need to learn how to do infill, he’s your guy.
Ryan Narus:
We’ve got all sorts of crazy, cool, valuable speaking things from collections. How do you collect during COVID? What strategies can you take? There’s an entire day called Manager Monday, where we’re going to zoom in on best practices for operations. And then obviously we’re going to have a ton of rockstars. Glenn will have some speaking time here and there.
Ryan Narus:
It’s going to be just absolutely a wonderful education bit, a wonderful networking bit. Like I said, it’s all coming down to this. There are so many of us who are not getting paid a penny and dumping in so many hours to create this culture of help so we can make our space great and keep it great, and keep the bad eggs out.
Glenn Esterson:
I would like to jump in and say something about Chris Parrish again, since you were mentioning him. He does a lot of great fundraising and a lot of charity work. I really encourage you guys to go to one of his charity links and see if you can do anything with helping out his organization. I think it’s called Nessie Foundation, and that’s www.nessiefoundation.org. He also has his own park website, which is Parish Manor. And you guys would really like to see that park.
Glenn Esterson:
He’s done a great job with it. It’s one of the biggest parts in the Raleigh market, and he’s such a great guy and he helps out our industry in such a spectacular way. And if you get to speak with him, he’s somebody worth speaking to.
Glenn Esterson:
Mike Conlon, other great guy. The speakers you’re mentioning, these are real deal, nice guys that are here to help and here to educate. It’s not too often we get the opportunity to speak at these kinds of things. When you go to these bigger conferences, it’s usually people like Ben Carson that are speaking and these bigger names that are in our industry. In SECO, it’s really about the actual operators and the actual owners, and how to help further this industry.
Ryan Narus:
One of the best ways to see where you’re going is just talk to people who are already there. Mike Conlon is one of my best friends. I think the absolute world of him. I tell him all the time, I want to be like Mike. And it’s just amazing to rub shoulders with folks who are already there, where you want to be, because they can tell you what it’s really like.
Ryan Narus:
Because you can only imagine that end goal, and talking to somebody who’s already got there will help you skip a few steps the right way without taking shortcuts because they’ve done it. That’s the spirit of it. Beyond just Mike, we’ve also got [inaudible 00:00:36:25]-
Glenn Esterson:
[crosstalk 00:36:28].
Ryan Narus:
-is amazing. We think the world of him. He is going to be talking about due diligence.
Ryan Narus:
And also Ian is going to go into due diligence a lot, too. That’s kind of his thing. Yeah. We’re going to talk about so many amazing topics. There are going to be huge owners there who are desperate to meet anybody with a pulse, quite literally, and help out and don’t expect anything in return.
Ryan Narus:
That to me is the heart of SECO, and why SECO needs to continue on. It needs to create that type of culture and perpetuate that type of culture as we usher in this next generation of mobile home park owners.
Jason Sirotin:
100%. Ryan, how can people get ahold of you? What’s the best way to contact you?
Ryan Narus:
I like to say, like my favorite rapper Tupac, I’m not hard to find. Tupac was way cooler than me, but I love that quote. Again, I’m the only Ryan Narus that I am aware of. It’s spelled N-A-R-U-S. That’s N like Nancy, Google me. I am all over LinkedIn.
Ryan Narus:
I accept about anybody who requests me. I’ll respond to your messages. You can also email me through my website, archimedesgrp.com. If you’re interested in nitty-gritty operations of mobile home parks, I have my own podcast called Mobile Home parks in Real Life, which I stress the ‘in real life’ portion. And then my business partner, Ian Tudor, also very easy to find. You Google him, his LinkedIn I believe is the first thing to show up. Email either of us. We are here to help and don’t expect a thing in return.
Jason Sirotin:
Amazing. Glenn, how do people get ahold of you?
Glenn Esterson:
Well, I’m also very easy, and also the only Glenn Esterson that I know of in this country, maybe.
Jason Sirotin:
And I’m the only Jason Sirotin. That’s got to be pretty weird.
Glenn Esterson:
That’s pretty cool, right? You can go to my website. Either the Esterson MHC team website, or the more popular mhpexpert website.
Jason Sirotin:
Themphexpert.com.
Glenn Esterson:
There you go. You can reach out to us by email, phone, website. However it is, you guys know how to get ahold of us at this point. We definitely would look forward to speaking with you, seeing you all at this conference. If I or anyone of my team could be of assistance, you know that we’re here to help.
Jason Sirotin:
Glenn, thank you so much. Ryan, thank you so much. Good luck to you guys at SECO. I wish you the best of luck. Everybody, make sure you go check out SECO this year. It’s going to be a really interesting experience and it might change your life like it changed Ryan’s. On behalf of the Mobile Home Park Expert podcast, I’m Jason Sirotin, and we will see you next time.
Glenn Esterson:
Thank you, sir.
Jason Sirotin:
All right, guys. Have a great day.
Glenn Esterson:
You got a little bit of editing on your hands there. [crosstalk 00:39:23] in and out. I’m sorry.
Jason Sirotin:
Dude, I don’t know. Some of it works. The longer one at the end I’ll probably cut down. But the other ones, we kept talking because we could see you.
Glenn Esterson:
If you can merge over the MHP broker stuff, that would be great. If you could backtrack that one second.
Jason Sirotin:
That’s fine.
Glenn Esterson:
I meant to say expert. That’d be great.
Jason Sirotin:
No problem.
Glenn Esterson:
You’re the best case, Jason. I’m just so glad you’re my friend, bro.
Jason Sirotin:
Thanks, guys. You guys have an awesome day.
Ryan Narus:
You guys rock! We’ll see you soon.
Glenn Esterson:
All right, Ryan. Thanks for being on with us.
Ryan Narus:
Take care!
