Past Winner Stories
GFA Management
"I parlayed my knowledge."
"I couldn’t believe that nobody had done it," says George Allen of his Greenwood-based GFA Management Inc., a real estate investment firm specializing in mobile-home parks. "It's not a glamorous industry, but it's a profitable one."
Working as an asset manager for a mobile home company in the late 1970s, Allen, founder and president of GFA, identified a major investment opportunity that had gone largely ignored: mobile-home parks. Because of the poor image of the industry, few investors were interested in the market.
Allen jumped in quickly by starting a mobile-home-park fee-management firm. Before long, he recognized that while management was lucrative, ownership was even more so. He built a substantial real estate investment business by buying properties, fixing them up and, in some cases, rehabilitating the parks before reselling them.
GFA was so successful that, in 1988, Allen decided to share his experiences with others. Today, much of GFA's business comes from consulting. Allen publishes books, newsletters and columns, and he will soon launch the industry's first think tank. GFA also sponsors international conferences on the mobile-home-park industry. "Now," notes Allen, "if people know the industry, they know my name."
"I couldn’t believe that nobody had done it," says George Allen of his Greenwood-based GFA Management Inc., a real estate investment firm specializing in mobile-home parks. "It's not a glamorous industry, but it's a profitable one."
Working as an asset manager for a mobile home company in the late 1970s, Allen, founder and president of GFA, identified a major investment opportunity that had gone largely ignored: mobile-home parks. Because of the poor image of the industry, few investors were interested in the market.
Allen jumped in quickly by starting a mobile-home-park fee-management firm. Before long, he recognized that while management was lucrative, ownership was even more so. He built a substantial real estate investment business by buying properties, fixing them up and, in some cases, rehabilitating the parks before reselling them.
GFA was so successful that, in 1988, Allen decided to share his experiences with others. Today, much of GFA's business comes from consulting. Allen publishes books, newsletters and columns, and he will soon launch the industry's first think tank. GFA also sponsors international conferences on the mobile-home-park industry. "Now," notes Allen, "if people know the industry, they know my name."