07/22/2025 11:25am

What Addiction Recovery Teaches You About Closing Real Estate Deals

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Tim Woodbridge went from burned-out nurse to co-founder of a fast-growing mobile-home-park company with 600+ pads under management—all while navigating addiction recovery and a multiple-sclerosis diagnosis.

What You’ll Learn

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In this episode

Tim Woodbridge went from burned-out nurse to co-founder of a fast-growing mobile-home-park company with 600+ pads under management—all while navigating addiction recovery and a multiple-sclerosis diagnosis.

 

What You’ll Learn

From 1 park to 16: Tim’s playbook for scaling with partners, not just deals

 

Recovery as a business edge: applying “attraction, not promotion,” resentments work, and daily service

 

Turning a ME company into a WE company: the structures and roles that let each partner stay in their zone of genius

 

Health & hustle: managing MS fatigue while running a nationwide acquisition pipeline

 

Investor-first transparency: building trust in an ego-driven industry

The first time that I felt like I had

any power was when I admitted my

powerlessness. And then when I found

recovery, it has been such a gamecher

for me.

This makes you a lot stronger as an

operator and as an investor. When you

face some of those things, ego runs

rampant in real estate and in industries

like this.

We can’t have this good life if we’re

not giving it away to others. If we’re

not helping others. We are at 16 mobile

home parks around 600 pads building

something way bigger than ourselves.

It’s super exciting.

Welcome back to the Hybrid Real Estate

Professional Podcast. Today I am joined

by returning guest and my good friend

Tim Woodbridge. Tim and I have known

each other for about two years now and

we’ve gotten to know each other very

well because we’re actually in a pod

together in one of our mastermind

groups. But Tim is becoming quickly the

mobile home park king of the United

States. He’s grown so much since we’ve

known each other. But part of what we’re

going to talk about today is more of the

personal journey. And I’ll link back to

the first interview we did with Tim

where we dove into deep into his

backstory. But Tim, I would love to give

you a chance to just give a quick intro

for folks who may not know you. Who is

Tim?

Thanks, Aaron. Glad to be on the podcast

again. Glad to give life updates cuz

it’s crazy how quickly things happen

when you’re really intentional about it.

But yeah, so I’m California living in

South Carolina, retired nurse, quit

nursing almost four years ago and got

into mobile home parks. Now, I had a

mobile home park for a solid

year and a half or so before I quit

nursing quite a little bit early, but

that was it worked for me. And yeah, I

just am really obsessed with affordable

housing right now. And like the more I

get into it, the more I really enjoy it.

So, it’s a really cool asset class.

Absolutely. Yeah. We spent some time

dissecting the beginning of your journey

on the last episode, but just so people

have some reference, can you give an

idea of where you’re at, how many deals

you’ve been able to do, and just where

you’re at with your growing your

company?

Yeah, so we are at 16 mobile home parks,

around 600 pads, closing another two

parks and 70 something pads at the end

of this month. And yeah, it’s really

cool. Like when we first met, I was very

much oneoff mobile home parks, partner

with these people, partner with these

people. And about a year ago, I got into

doing I did a the first deal with my

partner Matias. And since then, we have

done every deal together. And we are

very much like intentionally building

the business. So it’s that like Brian

Luben says, it’s now a Wii company. And

so like everyone is able to really work

on the thing that they’re excited about

and just building something way bigger

than ourselves. It’s it’s super

exciting.

Yeah. And just from the backseat view

that I have over the last couple years,

we have either met or at least

interacted pretty much every single week

for that entire period of time. And the

evolution has just been incredible where

it’s the me to we that is a huge

transformation, but also just watching

the way that you’re thinking about your

role in the business. You still have

very ambitious yet achievable growth

goals. And so you’re constantly

challenging yourself to evolve into the

type of person that you need to be in

order to achieve those goals. And so I

think it’s been really fascinating for

me, especially my wife and I took on a

bigger, more ambitious project recently.

we’re moving away from just your standal

standard directly owned single family

rental property and now we’re doing

syndication and these larger scale deals

and so we’re going through a lot of that

growth ourselves but I but being in a

pod with you and watching you blaze that

trail ahead has been incredibly helpful

and part of what I want to talk about

today though is the there’s been a bit

of an evolution too of the way that you

and I in in different contexts have

started talking more openly about some

of the struggles that we face. We both

have addiction in our backgrounds and

recovery from said addiction. And

recovery is a journey. It’s an ongoing

journey that if we don’t keep it present

in our lives, it’s easy to lose sight

of. And I think one of the traps that

some people fall into, first of all,

it’s nobody’s business, right? Nobody’s

forced to share whether they’re in

recovery or not. But there is something

a bit freeing about when you can speak

about it openly and let it be part of

your story. Not something that you’re

ashamed of, but something that you’re

proud to have addressed when you did and

made and taken steps to build a better

life. And so that’s something I’ve seen

you do maybe I don’t remember the exact

timeline, but within the last six months

where you’ve started to share more about

that part of your story. So, I’m

wondering if you can maybe just unpack a

little bit for everyone. What was it

like trying to make that decision of

should I speak about this openly and how

has it felt since you did make that

decision?

Yeah, it it was a lot of going back and

forth in my head and in in recovery and

in meetings and just it’s very much an

attraction, not a promotion sort of

thing. So, I didn’t want to be like,

“Hey, look at me, what I’m doing.” But

at the same time, like I’m very

cognizant of building a brand around us,

around the whole WCG Investments

business. And so, it’s one of our core

principles is honesty and

open-mindedness. And that’s it’s right

there. This is my story. And it’s not

that some a lot of people it’s not the

same. And that’s okay. No one’s the

same. But my story is I struggled with

addiction for a long long long time. Oh

my gosh, such a long time. And then when

I found recovery, it has been such a

game changer for me. And it’s not just

it’s not just the big things. It’s not

just, oh my gosh, look at me, I’m so

successful. It’s more the little things

in life. the okay I can live

more more simply I can live more easily

and I’m not fighting against stuff as

much I do still sometimes for sure stuff

happens and I get frustrated but I can

more step back and just like live life

on life’s terms and so like back to me

being more open about it it’s more okay

this is my story and this is who I And

I’m proud of my recovery. And so it

wasn’t really the intention of if it can

help someone as much as this is who I

am. If it can help someone, that’s

amazing. I recovery is the most

important thing in the world to me. So

if it can do any good, sweet. But it was

more just a this is who I am. This is my

story. And it’s Yeah. I’m happy with it.

I’m happy how we’re doing it.

Yeah. It’s so cool, man. And there’s

something freeing about just putting it

out there and

letting it be known and not being as

worried about what people are going to

think. I remember talking to you. There

was a presentation you did and you were

debating whether to include that

information in or not because you

weren’t sure how it was going to be

received. And then I remember talking to

you after that and you were like not

only was it wellreceived, but people

certain people could relate that you

didn’t expect to be able to relate

whether or not they’re dealing with

addiction or not. It’s the underlying

behaviors and the way of thinking. And

it’s funny, of course, there’s a little

irony. I introduced you as the mobile

home park king at the beginning, but a

huge principle of recovery is humility.

And I know you would never call yourself

the king. I say it a little bit out of

justest, but also I think that you do

embody truly humility in the way that

you’re approaching your business, which

is something that ego runs rampant in

real estate and in industries like this.

And so for there to be a leader that can

embody those characteristics while

they’re growing into a larger scale

operation, I think that is that is a

good quality to place front and center.

And leading with humility, with service

and altruism, that’s my other favorite

one, right? In recovery programs, a

large part of the idea is that you have

to give freely to other people with no

expectation of anything in return in

order to preserve your own recovery. And

I think that when you go through a

program like that and you can actually

ingrain that in how you operate, it

changes the way that you interact with

the world around you. And people are

afraid of change, but I think it’s a

powerful change. And I don’t know about

you, but that’s the observation I’ve

had. And I never really even drew the

through line into, oh, that kind of

drives some of my behavior as an

investor, too. But it does. And I think

that has I have recovery to thank for a

lot of the tendencies that I have around

building relationships and the way I

relate to people. So I’m wondering if

you agree with that or if that is

similar to how you feel as well.

Yeah.

Paints my entire world. It’s in whatever

the we keep only what we have by giving

it away principle of okay, how could I

get out of my head? How could I make

this not my ego? Because as an addict,

my how Tim is always in my head. It’s

always how am I doing? And what I can do

is recognize that part of my brain that

says that and it’s okay. How can I help

someone else? And I’m not altruistic all

the time. I enjoy helping people, but

but

it’s not an all the time thing, but if I

can do it sometimes and get out of my

head, I’m doing a lot better. And not

just for someone else. It’s a selfish

thing, too. They say we keep what we

have only by giving it away. Meaning, we

can’t have recovery. We can’t have this

good life if we’re not giving it away to

others. If we’re not helping others. And

yeah, it’s it is it’s just a a much much

better worldview to have. And honestly,

so getting clean was the number one

thing for me. and then going through the

12 steps and just figuring out my own

my own personal damages and my own

personal trauma and taking inventory of

who I am and my pluses and minuses and

going through all the steps and just I’m

always working to get a little bit

better. But at the same time, I accept

the parts of me that that are there and

I can love the parts that I used to

hate. I used to hate the addict part of

myself and now I’m just like, okay, I

get it. I get where it’s come from. I

get its usefulness that at one time it

provided and so I don’t hate it anymore.

I I recognize it and I move with it in

interactions and just in in day-to-day

living. It’s it it’s done me a lot of

really good things.

Yeah. No, it’s so cool. And I think a

couple other just nuggets at least for

me that recovery have given me is being

aware of resentments that are building

in in recovery. Resentment is the number

one offender is a common refrain. And

the idea is that we allow things to live

rentree in our head and percolate and

turn into

bigger resent. Resentments grow over

time. It’s like a snowball rolling down

the hill. If you let it keep replaying

in your head, it’s going to get worse,

not better. and when it gets worse

enough, it’s going to drive bad

behavior. And that was something I just

did not have a good awareness of when I

was in the heat of my active addiction.

And I think just even that awareness

alone has saved me so much grief and

improved my relationship so much. And

also, who’s got time for grudges? Who’s

got time for resentments? They it takes

a lot of energy and time and space. And

even if people do bad things or you feel

that they’re doing bad things, like we

do have to to some extent, especially if

you’re trying to do big ambitious things

like you’re doing, building a $250

million portfolio, like bad stuff’s

going to happen. People are going to do

things that we don’t like. People are

going to do things that we think are

wrong, and we’re going to do things

perhaps, too. But things are going to

happen. And if you don’t have a defense

or a mechanism to deal with those things

without letting them infiltrate your

brain and your mind and take over and

then drive your behavior, then I think

it’s going to be a long road ahead. So

that’s where when I see you now, you

make your daily posts, which I’ve really

enjoyed reading, right? And it talks

about this kind of mentality of every

day is a new day. We’re going to wake up

and face today’s challenges. we’re going

to acknowledge where we have been less

than perfect and we’re going to use that

to drive a better tomorrow when that day

comes. And I do think that type of

mentality and purging yourself of of

these restrictive resentments, right, is

is also a big enabler. Yeah. So, I don’t

know if you have any other thoughts on

resentments.

Yeah, I I agree. Resentments will will

drag you down and you won’t even realize

it. It’s insidious, like they say. But

it’s interesting that it’s interesting

to look at myself and see like the

growth because I still have resentments,

but I can do better with them. I can

acknowledge them and move on. And I have

the ability to accept like I can’t do

anything other than what I can do. I

can’t change people’s perceptions of me.

I can’t change opinions. I can’t get

anyone to do anything. All I can do is,

you know, my own actions and my own

mindsets and just do a little bit better

and a little bit better and mess up and

do something bad and then okay, how do I

make it better? How do I clean my side

of the street sort of thing. Yeah, it’s

it has done me like so much good. I love

I love like the first step when it talks

about powerlessness and like going a

little bit off of resentments, but I say

in meetings sometimes I’m like the first

time that I felt like I had any power

was when I admitted my powerlessness

over drugs and alcohol and admitted I

was an addict. And it’s that same thing

with resentments. I can’t do anything

about it. So at least

more often than not can take a step back

and be like that surprise the situation.

I can’t do anything about it. Okay, I’ve

done all I can and I will live life on

life’s terms. There’s no reason to let

that continue in my head. What can I do?

I can do the next thing in terms of

building a business or being with my

wife or talking to friends and family

and just showing up in the way I want to

show up. So the idealized way in my head

that I want people to see me and I want

myself to be, I can show up like that

and just do it over and over again. And

so when I do slip up, then I can just

get back and go back to and

it doesn’t seem like a lot in the

moment, but I can look back four and a

half years ago and see crazy amount of

change in my life since then. and just

by living a clean life.

Yeah, that’s amazing, man. Thank you for

sharing that. And then to go on top of

all that, right, so this four and a half

year recovery journey that you’ve done

everything in your power to embody, use

to drive your daily actions, you’ve also

had some health scares and concerns that

you’ve been dealing with throughout this

whole journey, right? And part of the

purpose of this episode and us doing

this conversation instead of just

talking about real estate like we would

normally do is to show how much is

behind the scene and how much of it

really is it lives in your head and it’s

up to us as individuals to acknowledge

our own personal situations and also be

able to handle them on a day-to-day

basis. But can you talk about some of

that and to the extent you’re

comfortable and how you’ve managed that

alongside all this other ambitious stuff

that you’ve tackled with Grace?

Yeah. Yeah. So in I believe it was 2018

I was diagnosed with MS and like at the

time it was like ah like my mom had it

and I’ll be fine and whatever. It’s

okay. I didn’t really have that much.

And then over the past over the past

year really that six months even. So I I

I went off of one med for my neurologist

and then to go on to another one. And so

there was like a holding pattern in

between. And then while I was off of it,

I got married. I went and had an amazing

road trip, honeymoon. I had we went to

Japan for three weeks and just all this

traveling and all this running around

and it just it put me down like my

body’s still recovering. I was still

like like some days are great, some days

I feel wiped out and today like I just

feel freaking wiped out and I can’t do

the things I want to do. And so it’s a

lot of it is coming to terms with okay

like hiking, running that that’s not for

me. I can’t really do that. And so just

like living around and figuring out the

things that work well for me and more

listening to my body. But yeah, that

that is a it’s definitely a something

that I am

always learning how to forgive my body

in a way and just it’s the same living

life on life’s terms. So without

recovery and without that constant

refrain in my head about living life on

life’s terms, I I I don’t know how I

would handle this as it is, I get pissed

at my body like a freaking lot. And it’s

it sucks. But at least now I can take a

step back and be like, “Okay, you’re

getting pissed at something that’s not

going to change. So like, why don’t you

just take a step back, take a rest,

listen to your body?” But if I didn’t

have a recovery, man, I’d be fighting

this so much. It’s It sucks. so

much sometimes.

Yeah.

And in that perspective, it’s like I

view recovery

and anyone that’s listening to this that

isn’t in recovery or hasn’t dealt with

addiction might maybe this isn’t

landing. But at the same time, I view

recovery as a blessing. I really do

because it forced all this growth. It

forced this confrontation of our inner

demons and our worst behaviors and our

character flaws and all that. And

whether you work a traditional program

or not, or whether you even have

addiction or not, there is something to

be said for stopping taking an inventory

of your own behaviors and your own

relationships with different parts of

your life and working through it.

Especially when you’re 20s and 30s when

you’ve already when you think about the

growth that somebody goes through in

their teens and their early 20s, you’ve

just been growing. Nothing ever really

settles. You pick up habits, you pick up

behaviors, and if you never stop and

say, “What am I actually doing? How am I

actually behaving and relating with

people, then you might be embodying

habits and behaviors that you don’t even

realize?” And so, I do view it as a

blessing in the sense that it was I do I

wish some of the stuff leading up to

that could have been avoided perhaps.

But at the same time, I think that the a

lot of the growth and a lot of the

defenses, the resilience to to tackle

day-to-day challenges. Think about

everything you just described about

dealing with your own body. Well, this

makes you a lot stronger as an operator

and as an investor when you face some of

those things because you realize that

some of this stuff is superficial in

nature, right? At the end of the day, we

have our body, we have our health, we

have our relationships, and we have our

mind. and those things. If you can learn

how to adapt and live a good full life

dayto-day in those realms, then the

investing becomes a lot easier too

because you’re equipped to handle it.

And so in that sense, I view it as I

view these things as it’s unfortunate to

have to deal with things, especially

medical things in nature, but it is in

its own right a blessing for the things

that it makes possible due to the work

that we had to do. I love your story,

Tim. I know we’re short on I know we’re

short on time, so I want to be

respectful and and get you out of here,

but thank you to you and also the

listeners for this is a personal episode

where we’re pulling back the curtain a

little bit and talking about life, not

just investing and tactical. What type

of loans should you get? How do you do

this? How do you do that? At the end of

the day, this is what it all boils back

down to. Any parting words for for the

crowd, Tim?

First of all, thank you for having me

back on. I think if you think you might

have a problem

Go to a meeting, find a meeting,

whatever meeting that works for you.

Maybe you don’t, but I I think no one

really talks about it outside of

meetings. It’s there’s a lot of stigma

to it, and it’s I’ve learned

there’s positives and negatives to my

addiction. There’s things that the whole

thing I don’t really I don’t want to get

rid of. It’s super a blessing. Yeah, I

act out like an sometimes, but

like with that being said, there’s so

much like positives as well. So I think

if you think you might have any issue,

by all means go to a meeting. It is so

life-changing. And the thing that I was

very surprised about when I went to my

first meeting cuz like for so long I

hated myself. I was talking to

myself inside my head and just oh you

were worthless and all these this

negative selft talk and so I was

thinking I was going to go into a

meeting and be greeted with that and

instead I was greeted with the kindest,

gentlest, like most amazing people. And

so yeah, if you think if you think it it

may be remote possibility, just go to a

meeting.

Yeah. No, I appreciate that. It taking

that first step is very difficult.

Extremely difficult. I can think of very

few if any things that were more

challenging than the moment when I

finally took that first step. But boy,

not only was it the right thing to do

for me in that moment, but the change

and the different direction that my life

took after that point speaks for itself.

And I don’t say that from a place of

bragging. It’s more that I was on the

wrong path and now I’m on a path that

has richer relationships, more

opportunity, better potential, better

health, all that stuff. So, it is a

turning point moment. But thanks for

getting personal, Tim. And last thing

I’ll say is if anybody wants to find you

and reach out, get to know you better,

where can they do that?

Find me on all the socials. Our website

is wcgininvestments.com.

So you can go there and book a call if

you’re interested in talking a little

bit. You know, reach out, especially if

there’s anyone who thinks they have a

problem. I’m always here for that. Like

I’ll talk to investors every day of the

week. I’ll talk to people interested in

mobile home parks any day of the week.

But like I will make time for people

who, you know, think they might have an

issue problem.

100%. It’s a wonderful offer and I’ll

make sure those links are in the show

notes so people can find you and uh

we’ll have to do it again soon.

All right, dude. Thank you so much.

Take care. Thank you for making it to

the end of today’s episode. As you may

know, podcasts are very difficult to

grow organically. If you’re getting

value from today’s episode, I’d deeply

appreciate if you could take 30 seconds

to leave my show a fivestar rating and

review. This will go a long way to

helping me reach more listeners just

like you. Thank you so much in advance.

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