Overview

Two years ago, South Carolina made wholesaling illegal. Not kind-of-illegal — specifically, explicitly illegal. And Hayden Albert, who had just hired a new VP and staked his entire company on deal flow, watched it happen in real time. He didn’t quit. He figured it out. Today his team of 12 does over 200 deals a year in the tri-county area, spending $40–50K a month on marketing and operating one of the most active off-market acquisition businesses in the Lowcountry.

This episode is about how deals are still getting done — legally — and what the law actually says versus what most people think it says. Hayden breaks down the distinction between wholesaling (marketing a property you don’t own, which is illegal) and assigning a contract (which is not), and explains exactly how his business had to restructure its buyer outreach, deal flow, and operations to stay compliant without losing revenue.

If you’ve been confused about how to operate in the current environment, or you’ve been sitting on the sidelines waiting for clarity, this conversation gives you the real picture from someone who’s been in the trenches since before and after the law changed.

Key Takeaways

[00:08] — Paul introduces the event topic and why he brought Hayden in to explain the post-law landscape

[08:00] — Hayden’s background: nine years in the military, going full-time in real estate in 2022, and building the business the hard way

[15:00] — What the SC law actually says: why the real estate commission wrote it, how it defines wholesaling, and why it’s a trap for both licensed and unlicensed investors

[24:00] — The legal workaround: how assignment contracts still work if the buyer reaches out to you first, and what the real estate commission told Hayden on a recorded Zoom call

[32:00] — How Hayden’s team finds off-market deals: skip tracing, inbound marketing (Google ads, PPL, social), and why he now spends $40–50K a month to generate leads

[42:00] — Building a compliant buyer’s list: why mass blast emails are gone, how his team adds 15 new buyers a day, and the “Facebook snipe” strategy

[50:00] — Hayden’s two-funnel model: why he wholesales marketing deals and buys brand deals, and why he never cherry-picks the best deals for himself

[58:00] — First 90 days advice: pull the foreclosure list, sort for equity, door knock, track your numbers, and why face-to-face still wins

[68:00] — Q&A: When double closing creates more liability, not less — and when transactional funding still makes sense

[75:00] — Q&A: Why Hayden only buys rentals when he has a tax problem, and how cost segregation erased $450K in taxable income in a single year

[82:00] — Q&A: What’s still legal to wholesale — land and commercial are both fair game

About Hayden Albert

Hayden Albert spent nine years in the military before leaving to go full-time in real estate in 2022 — the same year South Carolina’s wholesale law went into effect. Rather than pivot away from the business, he rebuilt his entire operation around the new rules, growing to a team of 12 and completing over 200 transactions in the Charleston tri-county area. His company operates across wholesaling, flipping, land development, and new construction, with a primary focus on building the highest-volume off-market deal flow in the Lowcountry.

About Your Host

Paul Kelton is a real estate investor and the founder of GRID Charleston, a monthly investor meetup that is part of a global network of 30,000 members across 30+ communities. He is also a partner at The Matt O’Neill Team, one of Charleston’s top real estate brokerages, and the founder of Tide Property Management. Paul focuses on multifamily acquisitions and has been investing in the Charleston market for over a decade.

Overview

Mobile home parks have gone from overlooked to overpriced — and yet Ryan Groene is still finding deals, still buying, and still doubling his money. He’s been a full-time mobile home park investor since 2018, has owned over 20 parks across the Midwest and Southeast, and has operated through every market cycle since before most people even knew what a mobile home park was.

In this episode, Marcela Ruiz sits down with Ryan to break down what the business actually looks like in 2026. Not the version you heard on a podcast in 2019 — the real one. Cap rates have compressed to below multifamily. Bridge debt has taken out operators who were doing everything else right. And infilling vacant lots is a lot harder than the YouTube videos make it look.

If you’ve ever been curious about mobile home parks, or you’re already in the space and want to know how a 10-year veteran thinks about deals, due diligence, financing, and market selection, this is the conversation to watch.

Key Takeaways

[00:00] — Paul opens the event and introduces Ryan Groene; Ryan describes his background from finance to full-time park investing

[08:00] — How Ryan thinks about operating parks: the weekly KPI meeting, delinquency management, and the no-pay-no-stay rule

[15:00] — The real math on how you make a million dollars in mobile home parks — it’s all about the liquidity event

[22:00] — How to get started: start within two to three hours of home, buy something producing revenue, don’t start with an empty park

[30:00] — Why Ryan doesn’t develop mobile home parks: NIMBY zoning, city economics, and $75–150K per-unit development costs

[38:00] — Financing structures: seller financing, commercial debt, syndication, and when each makes sense — and why short-term bridge debt is the “number one pitfall”

[50:00] — Park-owned homes versus lot renters: how to transition, what lenders want, and the title problem nobody talks about

[62:00] — What Ryan looks for in a market: big delta between median housing price and lot rent, city utilities, landlord-friendly states, 50K+ population

[72:00] — Where cap rates are today (5.18% national average — lower than multifamily) and how Ryan still targets doubling his money

[80:00] — RV parks vs. mobile home parks: why Ryan is exiting RVs (higher expense ratios, more employees, operationally intensive)

[88:00] — Q&A: How to value park-owned homes when underwriting, on-site management thresholds, and clustering parks

About Ryan Groene

Ryan Groene left a finance career at 25 to go full-time in real estate, emptying his 401k to buy a 75-unit mobile home park in Fayetteville, North Carolina — his very first real estate purchase. Over the next decade he built a portfolio of 20+ parks and several RV parks across the Midwest and Southeast, learning to operate, syndicate, and scale through every market cycle. Today he focuses on 50+ unit parks with city utilities in landlord-friendly states, targeting a 2x return on every deal.

About This Episode

This episode was recorded live at GRID Charleston’s monthly investor meetup on February 17, 2026, and hosted by Marcela Ruiz. GRID Charleston is a monthly real estate investor meetup founded by Paul Kelton, part of a global network of 30,000 members across 30+ communities.

About GRID Charleston

Paul Kelton is a real estate investor and the founder of GRID Charleston, a monthly investor meetup that is part of a global network of 30,000 members across 30+ communities. He is also a partner at The Matt O’Neill Team, one of Charleston’s top real estate brokerages, and the founder of Tide Property Management. Paul focuses on multifamily acquisitions and has been investing in the Charleston market for over a decade.

In this episode, Paul sits down with Ryan Groene, Partner at Treeside Capital, to break down what mobile home park investing actually looks like in 2026.

Ryan has been involved in 30+ mobile home parks across the Midwest and Southeast and has lived through the full evolution of the asset class — from mom-and-pop, blue-ocean deals to today’s institutional, highly competitive market.

This isn’t a hype episode.

They talk through:

• Why mobile home parks are fundamentally a land business, not a rental business
• The real supply-and-demand dynamics behind non-subsidized affordable housing
• Why mobile home parks now trade tighter than multifamily — and why that matters
• Where Ryan is still finding opportunity today (and where he’s staying away)
• The hard truth about whether new investors should even be trying to break into this space right now

This conversation is designed to reset expectations, sharpen underwriting thinking, and give investors a clearer lens on risk, operations, and long-term viability in mobile home parks.

Ryan will be joining us in person at the GRID Charleston event on Tuesday, February 17 for a live mastermind and open discussion, where we’ll go deeper and pressure-test these ideas with real investors in the room.

If mobile home parks are on your radar — or you want to understand why serious capital keeps flowing into this asset class — this episode is your foundation.

Hey guys, Paul Kelton here, host of GRID Charleston.

This episode is a live recording of our most recent event, covering one of the most important – and most misunderstood – parts of real estate investing: how to leverage real estate to save on taxes using a 1031 exchange.

I want to take a quick second to thank the sponsors who make GRID possible and keep these events free for everyone – Coastal Equity Group, Mitchum Law, Coastal Creative, and Sweetgrass Capital, Tide Property Management Co, and Matt O'Neill Real Estate. These are local operators actually doing deals here in Charleston, and we appreciate their support.

Now, when it comes to 1031 exchanges, a lot of investors think they understand them. Most don’t – and the mistakes get expensive fast.

So I brought in two people who live in this world every day – Eric Bradshaw and Johnny Chandler. They’re not here to talk theory. They’re breaking down real transactions, real timelines, and the things investors consistently get wrong.

We cover when a 1031 makes sense, when it doesn’t, how the clock really works, and some advanced strategies most people don’t even know are options.

And if you want to be in the room for conversations like this, GRID meets on the third Tuesday of every month, and starting this year we’ve also added Deals, Donuts & Coffee on the first Friday of the month – a daytime event where people pitch real deals, raise capital, and make connections.

You can find all upcoming events and register at gridcharleston.com, or follow us on social media.

Next week at GRID Charleston, we’re hosting a live, in-room conversation that every real estate investor should hear before their next sale.

We’ll be joined by Johnny Chandler and Eric Bradshaw – two specialists who have collectively executed thousands of 1031 exchanges and spend their careers fixing mistakes investors didn’t know they were making.

This is not a surface-level overview. We’ll break down:

• The rules investors routinely misunderstand about 1031 exchanges
• Why the 45-day identification window kills unprepared sellers
• When partial exchanges make sense (and when they don’t)
• How reverse and construction exchanges actually work in real life
• Why tax strategy should influence which deals you pursue – not just how you close

Event format

• Brief intro to GRID Charleston
• Live conversation with Johnny and Eric to establish the framework
• Small-table discussions so investors can pressure-test their own situations
• Open Q&A with real, deal-specific questions
• Post-event networking with the speakers

Event details

• 📍 1349 Old Georgetown Rd, Mount Pleasant, SC
• 🕠 Doors open at 5:30 PM
• 🕕 Event starts promptly at 6:00 PM
• 💸 Free to attend, thanks to our sponsors

If you own real estate, are thinking about selling, or want to compound instead of reset every time you exit a deal, this is a conversation you can’t afford to skip.

Come prepared with questions. You’ll leave with clarity.

In this episode of the GRID Charleston Podcast, we’re joined by Jarrett Hodson, a 20+ year Charleston real estate investor, to break down how to buy a neighborhood in 2026. Jarrett shares how he identifies undervalued areas before the market moves, why being an “activist investor” creates outsized returns, and how long-term thinking beats chasing individual deals.

You’ll learn how to spot overlooked neighborhoods, think beyond single properties, and take practical action to build wealth and create impact through real estate.

Recorded live at GRID Charleston — our monthly investor meetup held every third Tuesday at 5:30 PM in Mount Pleasant. Learn more at gridcharleston.com.

This week’s episode is a sneak peek into our upcoming GRID Charleston event featuring long-time investor and neighborhood transformer Jarrett Hodson. For two decades, Jarrett has been investing where most people aren’t looking — and turning overlooked streets into high-performing neighborhoods.

In this preview, Jarrett breaks down the core of his philosophy: becoming an activist investor. Not a passive buyer. Not a spreadsheet cowboy. Someone who picks a neighborhood, gets involved, and changes the trajectory of the entire area.

He shares:
• The moment he realized neighborhoods could jump from $30K to $1M in under a decade
• Why focusing on one block produces outsized returns
• How “legal insider trading” applies to real estate
• The surprising signals that tell you a neighborhood is ready for transformation
• Why you should drive through areas that don’t have Christmas lights this time of year

If you’re ready to pick your neighborhood and make 2026 a year of real action, this is the episode to listen to.

Join us live on Tuesday, December 16th at 1349 Old Georgetown Road in Mount Pleasant for the full event. Admission is free thanks to Coastal Equity Group, Mitchum Law Firm, Matt O'Neill Real Estate, and Tide Property Management Co.

This week’s episode is a sneak preview of our upcoming GRID Charleston event on Tuesday, November 21st — featuring Devan Carroll, founder of Deventum Properties.

Devan has raised over $14 million in private capital and built a multi-state investing business by mastering one skill most investors struggle with: raising private money. In this conversation, he shares how to build credibility fast, structure your first deal, and turn investor relationships into scalable funding partnerships.

If you’re flipping, wholesaling, or investing in rentals — this episode will give you a taste of the playbook he’ll unpack live at GRID.

GRID Charleston meets every third Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at 1349 Old Georgetown Rd in Mount Pleasant

Learn more and RSVP at https://www.meetup.com/grid-charleston/events/307990852

In this episode of the GRID Charleston Podcast, we’re joined by Chris Yeagle, Managing Partner at Eastgate Multifamily, to break down what it really takes to build lasting wealth through apartments. Chris shares insights from 26 years in brokerage—covering market cycles, underwriting discipline, and the crucial difference between asset management and property management.

You’ll learn how to think like a professional investor, avoid the pitfalls that sink new operators, and spot real opportunities in today’s market.

Recorded live at GRID Charleston—our monthly investor meetup held every third Tuesday at 5:30 PM in Mount Pleasant. Learn more at gridcharleston.com.