How Derek Vickers Built a $20M Mobile Home Park Empire
In this episode of the Generations of Wealth Podcast, host Derek Dombeck sits down with fellow real estate powerhouse Derek Vickers, the founder of Victory Capital.
Vickers went from door-to-door insurance salesman making $13K a year to owning 44 mobile home parks and over 2,100 lots across the Sunbelt — all in just a few years.
They unpack the truth about persistence, negotiation, and scaling, while revealing how mindset and accountability can completely change your financial trajectory. Whether you’re a beginner or seasoned investor, this conversation offers a masterclass in building wealth through discipline, people skills, and problem solving.
How to Convert Hotels into Apartments (Safely & Profitably)
Derek sits down with Ryan Sudek, CEO of Sage Investment Group, to unpack a repeatable system for converting underperforming hotels/motels into studio apartments—filling an affordability gap while targeting strong returns.
They cover market selection, underwriting, construction (sprinklers, sub-panels, kitchens), property management at 100–200 unit scale, and the capital stack behind Sage’s evergreen fund (quarterly distributions, 1031 within the fund, portfolio diversification). Expect practical detail on risk controls (change-of-use permits before closing, value engineering, local code strategy), tenant quality myths (longer average tenancy than market), and why exterior-corridor assets speed construction. The episode closes with goals (10–15 conversions/year, path to 15k units) and how deals actually reach the team (direct-to-seller, lenders, brokers, 60–70 LOIs out at any time).