Exploring the Park Owned Home Model with MHP Operator Todd Sulzinger

Welcome back to the Passive Mobile Home Park Investing Podcast, hosted by Andrew Keel. In this episode of the Passive Mobile Home Park Investing Podcast, Andrew talks with new mobile home park owner and operator: Todd Sulzinger. Todd answers several questions including: the most important things passive investors need to look out for when investing in mobile home parks, how he runs his trailer parks and the park owned home model when it comes to the mobile homes in his communities, he also discusses his exit strategy and endgame goals. Andrew and Todd do a deep dive into Todd's management strategies from his choice of working in majority park owned home communities to the perks of having an on-site maintenance team. Andrew also asks Todd about his numbers in terms of turnover and re-leasing and about how those numbers changed because of COVID-19.

Andrew Keel's guest, Todd Sulzinger is the president at Blue Elm Investments. Blue Elm works to develop safe, secure, and recession-proof investments allowing them to build long-term sustainable cash flow through the acquisition of mobile home parks across the United States. Todd also acts as a consultant with CCI Investments, helping buyers acquire and improve mobile home parks.

***Andrew Keel and Keel Team Real Estate Investments (Keel Team, LLC) do not endorse any interviewee. This interview is for informational purposes only and should not be depended upon for investment purposes. ***

Andrew Keel is the owner of Keel Team, LLC, a Top 100 Owner of Manufactured Housing Communities with over 1,400 lots under management. His team currently manages over 20 manufactured housing communities across ten states - AR, GA, IA, IL, IN, MN, NE, OH, PA and TN. His expertise is in turning around under-managed manufactured housing communities by utilizing proven systems to maximize the occupancy while reducing operating costs. He specializes in bringing in homes to fill vacant lots, implementing utility bill back programs, and improving overall management and operating efficiencies, all of which significantly boost the asset value and net operating income of the communities.

Andrew has been featured on some of the Top Podcasts in the manufactured housing space, click here to listen to his most recent interviews: https://www.keelteam.com/podcast-links. In order to successfully implement his management strategy Andrew's team usually moves on location during the first several months of ownership. Find out more about Andrew's story at AndrewKeel.com.

Would you like to see mobile home park projects in progress? If so, follow us on Instagram: @passivemhpinvesting for photos and awesome videos from our recent mobile home park acquisitions.

Talking Points:

00:18 - Welcome to the Passive Mobile Home Park Investing Podcast

01:09 - Todd's Background

02:37 - The hardest part about the business

03:18 - On-site visits

04:37 - What investors need to look out for when investing

06:41 - Todd's value-add secrets for his mobile home parks

09:45 - Todd's preference for majority park owned home communities

15:20 - Performance during COVID-19

18:42 - Todd's perfect mobile home park

21:43 - Tenant turnover and re-leasing numbers

22:40 - Todd's deals: personal investment, recourse, and rate of returns

26:50 - Exit strategy and end game goals

28:27 - CCI and third party management of communities

31:23 -Todd's current projects and deals he is working on

32:40 - How to get a hold of Todd

33:45 - Conclusion

Links & Mentions from This Episode:

Todd's email: [email protected]

Blue Elm Investments website: www.blueelminvestments.com

Reach out to Todd to get a free copy of the book he co-authored called, "The Success Habits of Super Achievers."

Keel Team's official website: https://www.keelteam.com/

Andrew Keel's official website: https://www.andrewkeel.com/

Andrew Keel LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewkeel

Andrew Keel Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/PassiveMHPinvestingPodcast

Andrew Keel Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/passivemhpinvesting/

Twitter: @MHPinvestors

Quotes:

"That's the way I structured these first couple of deals was to make sure my investors get taken care of first, and most of my compensation is going to be towards the back end when we end up selling the parks." - Todd Sulzinger

"I'd say in terms of the collections, we've had a mix of people that really were affected by COVID. They have lost their jobs and came to us and let us know about it and we have been able to work out the payment plans or try to help them find if there's any way to get some assistance, encourage them to figure out, can they look into what kind of unemployment benefits there might be." - Todd Sulzinger

"The park in Georgia, it's about 80% park-owned, 20% tenant-owned homes. I like that model mostly because of the income." - Todd Sulzinger

"The hardest part is management. Running a mobile home park is different than just managing a single-family home or group of single-family homes or an apartment. There's just a lot of moving pieces." - Todd Sulzinger