Amanda Cruise explored beyond the W-2 world in 2017 by starting her first business. That business ended up being a total failure! In 2018, she pivoted into real estate investing. Single family homes at first, and ultimately into mobile home parks. She works with her husband - it has its benefits and its challenges! They have 80 mobile home park lots today and are looking for more.

Can you tell our readers about your background?

Of course. I have traditional parents when it comes to employment - they both have W-2 jobs. My mom recently retired from a public school system. I graduated college in 2008 and followed in their W-2 footsteps, getting a job analyzing war gaming scenarios for the military. After a few years, I moved from that to a large credit card company where I worked my way up to managing a team of data analysts. It was around 2017 when I fully realized I never wanted the job of the person two promotions above me - that person couldn’t take vacation without checking their emails and that really just didn’t appeal to me. I began researching businesses and just after returning from maternity leave for my first child, I decided to jump into the business world. I started a gender reveal business and worked many long nights, weekends, and holidays to get it going. After a year it was gaining a bit of traction when I started hearing of product safety concerns.

A few days of intense contemplation was all it took for me to realize that business needed to end. I pivoted into real estate investing and never looked back. In 2018 I bought and renovated a duplex. In 2019 I did something similar with a single family house. My husband and I became interested in mobile home parks and really found our niche there. We bought our first park in early 2020 and now have 80 mobile home lots and counting! We help investors use their savings or retirement funds to get great returns through passively investing in mobile home parks while we take on the heavy lifting of finding the parks to invest in, managing those parks, and increasing their value.

What inspired you to start a business?

I’ve always been curious about owning a business. After several years working in the W-2 world and seeing what was in store for executives, it really opened my eyes to the possibility and excitement of creating something on my own.

Where is your business based?

We are located in Raleigh, NC with our four year old and one year old! Raleigh is a great area for the mild temperatures year round. It’s also growing like crazy!

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

Once I was sold on real estate investing, the first step for me was to find a good property to purchase in order to jump in and learn. I worked with a broker to find a duplex for sale that needed work but that had great bones. We took the plunge and purchased it and started learning how to fix it up!

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness about your business?

Most cities have real estate inverter organizations. Through the North Carolina Real Estate Investors Association, I started a commercial real estate investing subgroup. Being a subgroup lead has helped spread the word about what I do with mobile home parks!

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

Getting enough real estate deals at a good price is a big challenge right now. We are always calling and reaching out to owners of mobile home parks to make sure we can get the lead on any potential parks for sale prior to those parks being listed by brokers. By forming relationships with individuals who built these parks a few decades ago, we can make win-win deals that get them great money to sell their park and also result in great investments for us and our investors. Truthfully, being in business with a spouse is also very challenging. It can be difficult to balance. For us, we have really separated our duties in the business so each of us has autonomy and this has been incredibly useful in ensuring we are working alongside each other but each on our own specialities. Jonathan handles the acquisitions and asset management of parks. I handle investor relations and deal analysis for potential parks.

How do you stay focused?

On a daily basis, I take a few minutes to organize myself by considering the top things I’m trying to accomplish and which key tasks will make progress on each of those items. It’s so easy to start the day with inbox management, but inboxes are full of other people’s priorities! Just taking 10-15 minutes to organize at the beginning of the day to ensure I’m focused on the right items makes a huge difference. I also try to plan times for walking and/or going to the gym most days. Having that break in the day really helps re-energize for the rest of the day!

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

My husband and I are not huge fund managers. We are a local couple from Raleigh, NC with ties to our community. We make sure our investors know we would never do a deal that we aren’t confident in. We’ve walked away from deals where we weren’t 100% sure it would be a win. That’s hard to do when money is already on the line, but something we will do every time if necessary.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

For us, deal flow of potential mobile home parks to buy is the key. We’ve hired virtual assistants to help catalog and reach out to mobile home park owners to increase the number of parks we see and number of owners we talk to. I’m a big fan of outsourcing where possible. Being able to outsource the lower dollar per hour tasks and allowing us to focus on the highest impact items has made a big difference in our growth.

What’s your best piece of advice for an aspiring entrepreneur?

Set a goal that scares you. Too often we set goals based on past performance. For example, if I bought one investment property this year, I can buy 1 or 2 next year. Or if my business had $300,000 in revenue this year, next year it can get to $350,000. There is no reason for this thinking though, other than it feels comfortable and attainable. I try to set goals I have no idea how to achieve. It makes trying to achieve them more exciting and it gives me more energy and drive to go after them! I’d love to see more people taking that leap. Failure in the unknown is ok. I think a lot of people are afraid to fail, but failing at a massive goal likely still means an amazing outcome.

What’s your favorite app, blog, and book?

My favorite app is probably Evernote. I’m a big note taker and it allows me to share my notes with virtual assistants or anyone else. I’m not huge into blogs so I’ll trade that for podcast :) My favorite podcast is ‘How I Built This’ with Guy Raz. That podcast highlights a company’s story in each episode and it’s just fascinating. I really loved the book ‘The ABCs of Real Estate Investing’ by Ken McElroy. It was a great depiction of the power of real estate given hard work.

What’s your favorite business tool or resource?

I got into Monday.com recently to track tasks for my assistants & I really love it. I can keep organized, prioritize items, and track conversations with them through the site.

Who is your business role model?

I really appreciate Tim Ferriss. He’s a hard worker and is all about efficiency and lifestyle. He focuses on outsourcing anything possible so he can focus his energy where he wants.

How do you balance work and life?

I have hard cutoffs for family time. I stop working each day by 5:30 to spend time with my husband and two little kids. If needed, I’ll log in after the kids go to sleep to complete something, though I really try not to do that

What’s your favorite way to decompress?

I go for silent walks. It’s amazing how powerful silence can be for centering my thoughts, working through anything troubling me, and feeling energized!

What do you have planned for the next 6 months?

We will be purchasing another mobile home park and turning it around. We are also starting to scout RV parks and plan to be under contract on one in the next 6 months.

How can our readers connect with you?

https://voyageinvesting.com/  I have a free case study on my website where I highlight exactly how we added $400k in net worth in 18 months with a single mobile home park!

Instagram: @Investingwithamanda I post a ton of tips about real estate investing in general