🗞️ News&Moves 🏠

Office towers across the U.S. are hitting the market—at clearance-rack prices.

In 2017 Canadian pension fund paid $145M for 125 S. Wacker, Chicago.

Today?

It’s worth maybe $60M.

No debt, just dwindling demand.

The building is only 63% full, and downtown Chicago’s vacancy rate is pushing 24%.

Remote work is still wrecking office values coast to coast.

Investors aren’t chasing prestige—they’re bargain hunting.

And this tower is the latest markdown in a nationwide fire sale.

AI’s hungry—and the U.S. power grid can’t feed it fast enough.

Data centers are guzzling electricity like it’s 1999, but the grid’s stuck in supply chain purgatory.

Almost 30% of new wind, solar, and battery projects are stalled or scrapped due to steep tariffs, transformer shortages, and turbine delays that have lasted more than three years.

Meanwhile, natural gas is back in demand, but even that’s not immune: construction costs have tripled.

Everyone—from utilities to AI giants—is playing chicken over who bears the rising costs.

The bottom line?

AI might be the new oil, but building the pipeline is hell.

🚨 The Fed Pulse 🚨

The latest economic data looks concerning at first glance, but the details tell a different story.

First quarter GDP dropped mainly because defense spending fell 8% (budget issues) and imports jumped 40% (people rushing ahead of tariffs).

Jobs numbers look good at 177,000.

Weekly economic tracking shows slight weakening but still points to growth.

Retail sales are up 7.2% compared to last year.

Mortgage rates are at 6.76% for 30-year loans and 5.92% for 15-year loans.

The Fed meets May 6-7 and will probably keep rates steady given the mixed signals.

The economy isn't booming, but it's moving along with gradual improvement expected in late 2025.

Lessons from a First-Time Mobile Home Park Deal

This week, I sat down with Gabe Rodarte for a candid conversation that reminded me of my early days in commercial real estate: sometimes the deals that teach you the most are not the ones with the biggest payday.

Taking the Leap

I couldn't help but smile when I heard, "I actually didn't know what a good deal was at that time."

That raw honesty about jumping in before having everything figured out resonates deeply with me. Gabe took the Commercial Academy's 90-day program and, impressively, landed this deal on day 46. 

Gabe is a broker-investor hybrid, host of the Real Estate Power Play Podcast, founder of Vertical House Buyers, and co-owner of The Commercial Professionals.

"I just wanted to buy a mobile home park," he reflected during our conversation. 

This is the story of how Gabe acquired his first mobile home park in Huntsville, Texas, structured it through seller financing, repositioned the property, and walked away with a six-figure profit.

The Deal: 20 Pads on 20 Acres in Huntsville, TX

The property included: 

✅ 20 pads 

✅ 20 acres (10 upfront, 10 in the back) 

✅ All park-owned homes (meaning the park owned the units, not the tenants)

The Setup: Seller Financing on the Back Porch

Gabe's superpower?

Building relationships.

This deal didn't happen in a boardroom.

It happened over tea on the seller's back porch. 

In his own words:

"I'm just standing there, drinking tea with her on the back porch, and I go, 'Look, I can't pay at this dollar amount, but what are you going to do with the cash?'"

The seller, an older woman, needed funds to move near her ill daughter and buy a house outright, with no plans for the leftover money.

The negotiation was refreshingly straightforward: 

✅ He offered her $225K upfront for her new home.

✅ She would finance the remaining $375K.

But Gabe wasn't finished. He brought in his private lender who, along with his son, funded another $300K for the deal that covered $225K cash he paid to the seller and future improvements.

Creative financing at its best: 

✅ Total purchase price: $600K (Gabe calls it $650K all-in, including capex) 

✅ Gabe's cash in the deal: $0 (yes, zero)

The Plan: Convert Park-Owned Homes into Seller-Financed Notes

When Gabe first examined the park, he didn't immediately see a slam-dunk opportunity.

But then everything changed:

“My buddies, experienced in seller financing, walked the property with me. I asked, 'These park-owned mobile homes—can we sell them to tenants or new owners for extra capital and create a separate entity to hold the notes?'"

That was the pivot point.

Gabe's value-add strategy wasn't just to hold the park but to sell the homes to the tenants through seller financing, creating note income while retaining ownership of the land and collecting lot rent.

The Restructuring Strategy

When Gabe bought the property, there was no separate pad rent - tenants just paid one all-inclusive fee around $850-$1,150 per month.

His team completely restructured everything:

✅ Established separate pad rent: $400/month 

✅ Sold homes (seller financing) for $20K-$25K each (these were 1990s-2000s models) 

✅ Collected down payments: typically $7K-$10K per home

This move generated upfront cash flow from down payments and steady income from the lot rents and notes.

The Challenges: Septics, Meters, and Burnt Homes

"This was out in a rural area," Gabe explained.

"Before I bought it, they put in a commercial system where they had three big septic systems out there to handle the different houses."

What looked like a straightforward opportunity quickly became complicated:

"I didn't know growing meant buying a new system, not reusing an old one unfit for more houses. I thought, 'With all this land, we'll develop it.' I bought it to expand, but I learned a lot."

Infrastructure Hurdles

Other challenges included: 

✅ Installing 20 individual water meters to separate utilities (thankfully, there was a maintenance guy who'd been there 10 years who knew the property inside and out) 

✅ One home burned down during ownership, and without insurance on the note, the income vanished overnight

Gabe winced, "When a house on the note burned down uninsured, its revenue vanished. That’s when I knew I had to protect my other properties."

The Pivot: Exit When the Market Turns

Fast forward to 2024. The mobile home park market had cooled significantly. This is where Gabe's market awareness really impressed me.

"We caught it on the downward cycle," he reflected.

"We caught it at the beginning of 2024. The market had shifted. We were no longer getting 8.5% caps for mobile home parks. We were getting 10.5% in this area."

That 200 basis point shift is enormous.

As he put it plainly: "That's a huge difference. I did not underwrite for that."

Recognizing Market Reality

Gabe recognized it was time to exit. 

"I called other groups, and they said, 'Properties aren't selling fast anymore.' I realized, 'This is bad. Let's sell what we can.'"

Gabe bundled everything together—land, homes, and notes—for $825K-$850K to another aspiring park owner.

After paying off the seller, lenders, and expenses, Gabe and his partner walked away with around $125K net profit.

Not the home run he'd envisioned, but a solid double in a cooling market.

Key Takeaways From Gabe's Playbook

Here's what to remember:

✅ Partner Up (But Only Up)

Gabe knew mobile home parks weren't his comfort zone. So he partnered with an operator who owned 12 parks. His advice? Don't partner down—partner with someone ahead of you in experience.

✅ Creative Financing = Flexibility + Leverage

This deal wouldn't have happened without seller financing and private lenders. Gabe leveraged relationship-driven deal structuring to get into the deal with zero cash out of pocket.

✅ Always Insure Seller-Financed Homes

Losing a home to fire without insurance? Painful and costly. Gabe's candid about that mistake: always insure your collateral.

✅ Know When to Exit

Markets shift fast. Gabe's read of the macro trends told him it was time to exit before values dropped further. Sometimes good timing beats great operations.

The Bottom Line

What I love about Gabe's story is the authenticity.

During our conversation, he candidly admitted:

"I thought this would be my one big deal. I thought I'd walk away with $500K in less than two years and just be happy."

Reality had other plans.

Looking back, he shared:

"When you look at the real numbers, we ended up with about $125K of actual net profit by the time it was all done. But that's just the exit cash."

I was particularly impressed that Gabe visited the property only about 15 times during his ownership.

When I asked Gabe for his key takeaways, his response came without hesitation:

"Partner up in all you do, but never with less experience. I teamed with someone far more skilled, always available with the expertise I needed."

For more from Gabe, check him out on Facebook (Gabe Rodarte) or tune into his Real Estate Power Play Podcast. 

Until next Sunday, remember what Gabe reinforced for all of us:

Deals come and go, but relationships and strategy are what endure.

Be well,

Saul

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