Interview with Jason Janda from Rochester Property Group

Welcome back to the Passive Mobile Home Park Investing Podcast, hosted by Andrew Keel. On this episode, Andrew talks with midwest mobile home park owner and operator, Jason Janda. Jason's background in apartment acquisitions and syndications has enabled him to have a unique perspective on the manufactured housing industry. Jason shares some of the mistakes he made as well as the important lessons he has learned throughout his mobile home park investing journey. Jason provides invaluable advice for passive investors (limited partners) and he also shares his thoughts on the future of the manufactured housing industry. Jason discusses his mobile home park investment strategy, which leads to a deep dive on the mobile home park opportunities he is reviewing and potential obstacles that come with investing in the southern United states.

Jason Janda, the CEO of Rochester Property Group, is a real estate tax attorney and mobile home park investor/ operator. After working in various legal and business capacities, both in private equity and within law firms, Jason decided to create his own firm to acquire and operate mobile home parks throughout the midwest. Jason currently operates 15 communities in 6 states.

***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 2,500 lots under management. His team currently manages over 30 manufactured housing communities across more than 10 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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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:

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

01:24 - Jason's journey into manufactured housing communities

02:45 - Jason's acquisition experience at an apartment/multifamily syndication group

05:38 - Variable rate loans on acquisitions

08:28 - The toughest hurdle to overcome in mobile home park investing

09:23 - What are the types of mobile home communities that Jason targets?

12:40 - Managing in-house and leveraging technology

13:41 - How does Jason find his mobile home park deals?

14:25 - Where do you think the best mobile home park strategies are?

17:37 - Slowly walking up lot rent to market rent

20:09 - Mistakes that Jason has made in mobile home park investing

21:10 - How did Jason get educated on mobile home park investing

22:56 - More mistakes that Jason has made

24:46 - Current deals in Jason's mobile home park portfolio

25:57 - One-off syndications (mobile home parks)

29:27 - The most important things passive investors need to look out for

30:42 - Jason's perfect mobile home park looks like this!

32:04 - What does the future in mobile home park investing look like?

33:58 - The biggest threat to mobile home park investing

34:30 - Getting ahold of Jason Janda

35:05 - Jason's final piece of advice for passive mobile home park investors

35:52 - Conclusion


Links & Mentions from This Episode:

Jason Janda's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonjanda

MH Communities: https://www.mhcommunities.com/

Rochester Property Group: http://www.rochesterpg.com/

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

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

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

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

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

Twitter: @MHPinvestors

Quotes:

"From the passive side, [the hardest part about passive investing] is just getting comfortable with the actual operations." - Jason Janda

"We try to leverage technology and whatever platforms we can use as early as possible, just to streamline." - Jason Janda

"It's a balancing act, you also don't want to increase [the rent] enough that someone says, 'Oh, you know what? I'm taking my home out of here." - Jason Janda

"I'd rather, you know, continue to do what we know very well rather than to start learning something else" - Jason Janda