Interview with Andy Freeman of Enjoy Communities

Welcome back to the Passive Mobile Home Park Investing Podcast, hosted by Andrew Keel. On this episode of the Passive Mobile Home Park Investing Podcast, Andrew talks with Andy Freeman from Enjoy Communities. Andrew and Andy discuss what passive investors should look out for before investing into mobile home parks. They also discuss how agency financing (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) and supplemental loans fit into the mobile home park model and the lessons that they have learned from managing mobile home parks in northern colder states.

Andy Freeman is the founder of Enjoy Capital Group. Enjoy Capital is an emerging real estate private equity investment group with a growing portfolio of mobile home parks. They currently have over 300 lots under contract. Before this, Andy worked as the Vice President of acquisitions for Third IV Properties from 2020 - 2022 helping to facilitate the purchase of 10 mobile home parks in the midwest and actively participated as a member of the general partnership to help operate, enhance, and add value to these 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 2,000 lots under management. His team currently manages over 30 manufactured housing communities across more than ten states. 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. Inorder 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. Are you getting value out of this show? If so, please head over to iTunes and leave the show a quick five-star review. Thanks ahead of time for making my day with your five-star review of the show.

Talking Points:

00:21 - Welcome to the Passive Mobile Home Park Investing Podcast

01:30 - Andy's story and how he got into manufactured housing

04:22 - Partnering with others

05:05 - Mobile home parks in the midwest

06:21 - Enjoy Communities

08:00 - Utilities in mobile home parks

09:23 - The toughest hurdle for acquisitions

11:37 - Finding deals and cap rates for acquisition

15:30 - The hardest value-add component

17:53 - How Andy's strategy has changed over the years

19:20 - Mistakes to learn from

21:05 - Important things passive investors should look out for

24:55 - Tenant owned homes versus park owned homes

26:08 - Andy's team at Enjoy Communities

28:40 - Andy's perfect mobile home park

30:07 - The future of mobile home parks

00:00 - Getting a hold of Andy

00:00 - Conclusion 

Links & Mentions from This Episode:

Andy’s email: [email protected]

Enjoy Communities: http://www.enjoycommunities.com/

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:

“With Enjoy Communities, the whole goal was to acquire stabilized parks with a good tenant base and a good history of paying tenants. Especially in this current market, the whole goal is not to take on too many large value-add projects.” - Andy

“Value-add just gets tossed around day in and day out. Bringing in homes is a challenge.” - Andy

“At the beginning, I didn't necessarily look at the end game, which is the refinance.” - Andy

“I don't know if I could have prepared for that or not, but just not knowing everything. You're going to make those mistakes and you learn by doing.” - Andy