QOL Homes Founder Passionate About Things in Life That Matter

Photos courtesy of Chris White at 3Wire Photography

For Mike Bryson, entrepreneur, founder and visionary behind QOL Homes, everything he’s done in his career has aspired to a higher purpose. A recent Arkansas transplant, Bryson came to Arkansas to build a home for a friend on Lake Hamilton in 2021 and fell in love with the Hot Springs area.

A native of Memphis, he was raised by a single mother of three kids and felt the financial struggles of life at an early age. At age 10, he moved to Texas, where he soon showed a flair for entrepreneurship. While still in middle school, he started a lawn and landscape business, through which he began employing friends in the neighborhood.

Photo courtesy of Chris White at 3Wire Photography.

After high school, Bryson continued to grow the landscaping business into a very successful operation, but that came at a huge price. The responsibilities of having employees and ongoing overhead and the grind of working 60 to 80 hours a week to keep the monster fed took a toll on his mindset.

“It took a great deal of time, and I had to sacrifice a lot of things, such as quality time with the people and things that mattered most to me, just to maintain the company,” he said. “One day, I finally said, ‘There has got to be a better way to make a life and not spending it all making a living.’”

Changing directions in his entrepreneur journey, Bryson dove headfirst into the mortgage industry, learning the ends and out of financing. There, he saw firsthand how people struggled to qualify for mortgages in the communities where they desired to live. After the financial collapse of the 2008 recession, he found an opportunity in real estate investing.

“As the economy recovered, we all watched the housing market skyrocket to make homeownership become out of reach for a lot of hard-working people,” he said. “That was where the idea to launch QOL Homes, which stands for ‘quality of life’, began.”

QOL Homes was created to build custom, affordable microhomes, structures that are ideal for in-law quarters in backyards, as Airbnbs or for people looking to reduce their square footage. Bryson’s company lent a unique twist, building homes using container fabrication that resulted in one-of-a-kind, beautiful homes regular people could actually afford.

“The need for homes people can afford is one of the biggest issues in America today. Recent studies have shown that Americans are spending roughly 50 percent of their income on housing,” Bryson said. “If that was the case when I was growing up in Tennessee, my family and I would have been homeless.”

In addition to QOL Homes, Bryson has also recently launched the Alinea Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, to help carry out the mission of providing homes people can afford in America.

“People want to live in nice communities, but the issue is most of the homes in America that have a low price point tend to be in areas that are not the most desirable,” he said. “That was how Royal Berry Estates was created.”

Royal Berry Estates site plan

A unique community, Royal Berry Estates sits at the foot of the Ouachita National Forest in Royal, just 20 miles from downtown Hot Springs, 5 miles from beautiful Lake Ouachita and 6 miles from Lake Hamilton. Bryson said when he first laid eyes on the 32-acre plot, which had been operating as a u-pick blueberry farm, he knew he had found the ideal location to bring to life his vision for a sustainable community in an area that people would love to call home.

The unique vision consists of 21 high-end recreational vehicle spaces, each with its own private, spacious fenced lot.

Recently completed Royal Berry Estates RV pads.

“This will give people enough room to bring out their outdoor items, instead of sitting on top of each other like most RV spots we see,” he said. “The lots are oversized, with plenty of space to call home.”

In addition, Royal Berry Estates will offer 57 lots for container homes, starting with the 160-square-foot Casitas, ideal for nightly stays. Average home size will be 640 square feet, and some lots will be reserved for larger homes. Price points will run from about $65,000 to $300,000. Homes will be available for sale, and the neighborhood will allow short- and long-term rentals that abide by the bylaws of the development.

Amenities

This visionary community will also feature the following amenities:

A dog park to give four-legged family members their own community area to run free and get exercise while owners mingle and create bonds over their pets.

A community center where people can create long-term friendships. Offering plenty of outdoor space for people to socialize, the community center will also feature firepit areas, an outdoor kitchen and seating, as well as a custom-fabricated shipping container pool.

Co-op community gardens for residents, allowing a one-of-a-kind homesteading experience. In addition to the produce raised in the gardens, Bryson plans to bring in local farmers and their organic, farm-raised beef, chicken, cheese and eggs. The blueberry bushes are being retained, and self-tapping bee hives are being installed both to help the population of honeybees and to provide fresh organic honey to people seeking a true farm-to-table organic lifestyle.

Several freshwater wells will reside on the property, giving residents fresh water free of the usual harsh processing and chemicals.

Providing such amenities in this community comes at a cost, as Bryson is sacrificing land that could otherwise be used for denser build out of homes. It is a tradeoff he is more than willing to make.

“Most developers would want to build on as much of the space as possible, which would only create another impersonal neighborhood of garage doors and strangers living as neighbors,” Bryson said. “We don’t need more of those concrete jungles.”

Initial response has been encouraging. After posting his idea and concept on Facebook, Bryson received a huge positive response. Comments included “I would love to live there”, “This would make a great weekend home,” and “It’s the perfect spot for my existing tiny home.” Many people liked and shared the post and the comments were all positive, proof that Royal Berry Estates is a concept whose time has come.

Not to put the container before the horse, but Bryson already has plans to take the concept to other communities.

“The [COVID-19] pandemic taught everybody that you no longer have to live in the area where you work,” he said. “I believe this country’s about to see the biggest migration we have seen since the gold rush. People are going to start looking at little gems like Branson, Hot Springs and other little towns to raise their families because of the quality of life. They don’t have to do it in Little Rock anymore. They don’t have to do it in Dallas anymore. They have the freedom and flexibility of working remotely.

“I would like to do this across the country. I’d like to see this duplicate and replicate, and five or 10 years from now, I’d like to look at what we’ve built and see all these happy communities.”

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