Interview with Jefferson Lilly of Park Avenue Partners

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 interviews one of America’s largest mobile home park operators, and one of his mentors in Mr. Jefferson Lilly from Park Avenue Partners.

Jefferson is a mobile home park investing expert and educator. He is the General Partner at Park Avenue Partners and has acquired over 43 mobile home parks across 15 states since 2007, totaling over $81 million in asset value. Jefferson started the mobile home park industry’s first podcast and the largest group on LinkedIn dedicated to investing in mobile home parks. He holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business. 

Jefferson was also a speaker at the SECO conference for mobile home park community owners, back in September and he had a couple of great sessions including one on valuing mobile home parks in 2023.

Jefferson is back on the show after almost 3 years since our previous recording with him on episode #33 and in this episode Jefferson discusses with Andrew how his current mobile home park portfolio is performing, agency debt versus CMBS financing, and he shares a couple of golden nuggets, tips and advice, for new mobile home park investors. 

We are fortunate to have Jefferson Lilly share his expertise with us on today's show!

***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 40 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. Check out KeelTeam.com to learn more. 

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.

Are you getting value out of this show? If so, please head over to iTunes and leave the show a quick five-star review. I have a goal of hitting over 500 total 5-star reviews, and it would mean the absolute world to me if you could help contribute to that. Thanks ahead of time for making my day with your five-star review of the show.

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

01:06 - Introduction to Jefferson Lilly

02:09 - The rise in interest rates

04:38 - Assuming agency debt for a loan when purchasing a mobile home park

09:00 - CMBS vs agency debt

13:42 - Jefferson’s journey into the Mobile home park industry

16:02 - Jefferson’s current mobile home park portfolio

18:00 - Mobile Home Park team members and managers

23:55 - Due Diligence: Outreach and test ads

24:57 - Scaling and prioritizing for your mobile home park business

30:31 - Jefferson’s perfect mobile home park

32:17 - Resources for new mobile home park investors

33:35 - The Mobile Home Park Investors Podcast

34:50 - Mobile Home Parks and their recession resilience

37:46 - Do your homework and jump in

38:50 - Reaching out to Jefferson Lilly

39:56 - Conclusion

Links & Mentions from This Episode: 

Park Avenue Investors: https://www.parkavenuepartners.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: 

“So the agencies have standards. [laughs] We do always try and get agency debt. We've looked a little bit about trying to get the really cheap debt, which is direct from an insurance company.” - Jefferson Lilly

“I guess mobile home parks are multifamily and would have, you know, stable site income. And if they're cheaper, I don't know, why wouldn't I buy one?” - Jefferson Lilly

“I got into the business too late. When I did get into it, I took too long to scale up basically to start raising outside capital.” - Jefferson Lilly

“At some point you do your homework and at some point you've got to just kind of jump in and make a decision again whether it's to buy a park or to invest in a fund.” - Jefferson Lilly