How to Succeed in the Affordable Housing Game (Without Quitting)
What’s up, my friends? Let’s talk about what it really takes to succeed in the affordable housing game—and in business and real estate as a whole.
I’m walking through one of our communities right now, an RV park we bought a little over six years ago. Back then, this property looked nothing like it does today. It’s been a long road of transformation—cabins, tiny homes, RVs, even Airbnb conversions—but none of it came easy.
If you’d shown me a crystal ball on closing day, listing all the challenges I’d face before this property would become a stabilized, income-producing community, I probably would’ve walked away.
Here are just a few things we dealt with:
- Immediate Competition: Six months after closing, a brand-new RV park broke ground right off the freeway exit, half a mile from our entrance. Not ideal.
- Occupancy Crashes: Our park was full because of a big job nearby. Thirty days later, the project ended, and occupancy dropped in half overnight.
- Water & Septic Problems: After closing, we learned our water well wasn’t registered with the state. That mistake alone cost years of TCEQ dealings and tens of thousands in engineering fees.
- Management Nightmares: In the early days, we had to deal with riffraff—criminals, bounty hunters, even federal agencies showing up on property.
- COVID Fallout: Supply chain issues, skyrocketing prices for cabins and homes, and contractor chaos made improvements extremely costly.
- Safety Issues: Team members had lives threatened, residents were attacked, and the stress was constant.
And that’s just scratching the surface.
Looking back—would I have signed up for all of this? Honestly, no.
But here’s the truth:
The #1 Key to Succeed in Real Estate (and Business)
Don’t quit.
That’s it. Assuming you’ve got a real, sustainable business plan, the way you win is by not giving up. Too many people throw in the towel when things get hard.
Over the years, there were so many times I wanted to quit on this property. Times when I thought, “Let’s just sell it and be done.” But we stayed the course. We installed better infrastructure, brought in cabins and storage buildings, stabilized management, and built a real community.
Now, six years later, we’re not just meeting our income goals—we’re exceeding them. We’ve created a place I’m proud of, and more importantly, a community where good people can afford to live.
That’s what affordable housing is all about.
Final Thoughts
If you want to build something worthwhile in real estate or in life, you need three things:
- A clear blueprint.
- A plan you can execute.
- The grit to stay in the game and not quit.
It won’t be easy. It never is. But if you keep showing up, keep solving problems, and keep moving forward, you can build something amazing.