Kingsland Current
When I faced Austin’s insurmountable cost-ofliving and now had to find a new place to live six years ago, little did I know I would eventually discover the wonderful world of living in a manufactured home. During the summer of 2020 COVID, desperate to get out of town and write, I met Mike Leamon and Lisa Morgan, owners of Granite Lake, Kingsland, where I had booked a weekend stay.
They immediately took me under their wings to help me land on my feet. Lisa, then a Platinum dealer, found my dream home, a 399 sq. ft. Platinum Park RV Model. By the following November, I moved into Boxwood Tiny Homes, walking distance to Kingsland’s HEB.
I soon discovered an appreciation for just how cute a “mobile home park” can be when I visited Twin Rivers Community, a short distance down 2900 from me.
Lisa and Mike also own the attractive manufactured home park in which residents once rented the home and spot on which it sat. Today it has transitioned into a community of almost 100% home ownership. While I give full credit for its well-maintained appeal to the couple’s smart management of Twin Rivers, Mike said the success is about the homeowners.
“Twin Rivers isn’t your typical mobile home park. Visitors often remark about the cleanliness and obvious pride of the residents and owners. Long term rental residents were provided with an opportunity to purchase their home for a monthly rate lower than current escalating rental rates,” he explained. “ In turn, we were rewarded with improved loyalty and a surprising amount of investment in outdoor improvements from the owners.”
The story of Twin Rivers begins in 2003 when Lisa left the corporate world and started investing in used single wide manufactured homes located in existing communities in Austin. She wanted to create passive income with the freedom to travel and visit her parents in Ohio. At a real estate conference another investor introduced her to Lonnie Scruggs book “Deals on Wheels” which provided her the blueprint. After about five years of utilizing this investment skill, she decided to shop around to purchase an existing manufactured housing community. Lisa met an investor in Austin who was selling Twin Rivers.
“I had never heard of Kingsland. But when Mike and I came out to look at the community it matched all my criteria— with a private entrance, near an elementary school, abundance of trees and utilities in place.
The couple continued to live in Austin and attempt long-distance management and maintenance of Twin Rivers, but decided it was best to make a move to Kingsland. As always, Lisa did her due diligence, speaking with local Kingsland residents and business owners about what it was like to live in the small town, and rented a place while they tried it out. Soon they were sold and invested in a beautiful 12-acre piece of land called Granite Lake.
As new business owners and residents of Kingsland, they met Dianne Wolfington, currently KMUD board president, and learned she had once owned Twin Rivers. Wolfington had visited Kingsland for years, traveling from her Austin home. Wolfington’s son David, who lived in Kingsland, kept an eye out for a place where his mother might join him.
“I had always wanted to build a mobile home park, and I bought the land for Twin Rivers in 1998. My vision was a ‘55 and over’ community where the resident purchased their own home and we just rented them the lot,” said Wolfington. “It was challenging to find customers in Kingsland at the time who would buy a home to put in Twin Rivers. At that time, they all wanted their own land.”
Wolfington moved into the wisteria-covered white house on the property. She served as a consultant for the general contractor of the new Packsaddle Elementary School being built behind Twin Rivers. After five years, she wanted to retire and decided to sell Twin Rivers to an investor, who eventually sold the park to Mike and Lisa.
Just like Kingsland has grown since I moved here in 2020, so has my relationship with Lisa and Mike. They immediately embraced me as caring business partners to find the perfect place in which I could live. Endless support came from Mike’s home repairs and assistance with my tiny home during all the outages related to Kingsland’s intense weather events. Lisa connected me with the business leaders in Kingsland and supported my writing business.
When I first met Mike and Lisa, we immediately felt mutual respect and trust. The same connection that the couple have cultivated with their Twin Rivers’ clients.
