Interview with Hansel Rodriguez from COARE Communities LLC

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 Hansel Rodriguez from COARE Communities LLC. Andrew and Hansel discuss why choosing the right team for your property management company is so important. They also discuss why finding the right mobile home park properties to buy can be the toughest hurdle when scaling as a mobile home park general partner, syndicator or operator. They touched on why increasing lot rent in mobile home communities without it being justified can have negative consequences and why the most recent population and migration changes are creating new opportunities within the MHP and land-lease community marketplace.

Hansel is the principal of investment strategy and acquisitions at COARE Communities. COARE communities focuses on acquiring manufactured housing communities across the U.S. Hansel began his real-estate career in multi-family and affordable housing development at Taft Development Group, a multi-family developer with 4,500+ multifamily units and 100,000 sq. ft. of commercial developments to date. Hansel also supported the advisory efforts of numerous transactions including Stanley Black & Decker's $1.9 Billion takeover of Newell Tools. In his free time Hansel likes to volunteer on the Friends of St. Judes fundraising committee for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and serves as a Disaster Response Volunteer for the American Red Cross.

***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. 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.

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Talking Points:

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

00:51 - Hansel Rodriguez introduction and journey into the mobile home park industry

06:40 - House flipping as a side hustle

08:30 - The toughest hurdle to overcome in mobile home park investing

12:46 - The evolution of Hansel's mobile home park strategy

19:00 - Mistakes we can learn from in MHP investing

20:30 - Hansel's property management style

23:50 - Most important thing passive investors should look out for when investing in mobile home parks

27:03 - Hansel's perfect mobile home park

28:50 - Go-to value add items

34:53 - The future of the Mobile Home Park market

39:37 - One last tip for investors

43:35 - How important is liquidity as an operator

46:10 - Getting a hold of Hansel Rodriguez and COARE Communities

47:00 - Conclusion

Links & Mentions from This Episode:

Hansel's email: [email protected]

COARE website: https://www.coarecommunities.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:

"[The Sunbelt] is so competitive with prices that-if you didn't keep in mind the context-you could have easily gotten a little too excited and overpaid for things." - Hansel Rodriguez

"Scaling at a reasonable pace is something that requires more than your full time." - Hansel Rodriguez of COARE MHC

"If you walk around midtown in New York and you look, at night, at how many windows don't have a light on, it's terrifying. One out of every two." - Hansel Rodriguez

"Management is so much about the people, and the company, and the brand, and the reputation." - Hansel Rodriguez