Interview with Marcus and Millichap Broker and MHP Fund Manager Charles DeHart

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 Keel talks with Charles DeHart, a mobile home park investment Fund Manager and Broker with Marcus and Millichap. Andrew and Charles do a deep dive into Charles' background in military and private security and what brought him to real estate investing. They dive into the transition Charles made into the world of mobile home park investing while living overseas! Charles has an amazing story to tell, building and managing a mobile home park empire worth over $75,000,000! Andrew and Charles talk about how Charles met Kevin Bupp and how they formed Sunrise Capital, a mobile home park investment fund. They also talk about common mistakes in underwriting, how to properly vet a mobile home park operator, and what you need to do in order to manage upwards of twenty on site mobile home park managers at once!

***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 1,500 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:

00:21 - Welcome to the Passive Mobile Home Park Investing Podcast
00:52 - Charles DeHart's background and his MHP story
08:20 - Building and using a database
10:37 - Forming Sunrise Capital Fund with Kevin Bupp
15:54 - The story of Sunrise Capital
18:38 - Mis-managed mobile home parks
20:50 - The models that Sunrise worked with in the beginning
22:35 - Transitioning from military/security work to the MHP business
26:17 - Becoming a broker
28:38 - Common mistakes in the underwriting of mobile home parks
31:30 - Capitalized vs not-capitalized income
36:36 - The future of the economy
40:15 - Their first park in and out of the $10 million fund
44:20 - Charles' model for their park owned homes
48:30 - The hardest part about park owned homes
50:10 - What Passive Investors need to look out for when investing in mobile  home parks
50:50 - Vetting operators
53:42 - Charles' perfect mobile home park
56:15 - Getting a hold of Charles
57:33 - Conclusion

Links & Mentions from This Episode:

Quotes:

"It took about two to two and a half years to go from learning about the industry to finally buying a park and leaving Baghdad and starting full time with Kevin." - Charles DeHart

"I believe very strongly that Fannie Mae will change their guidelines over the next five to ten years. We don't go into deals with the assumption that, that's going to happen but I'm pretty bullish on Fannie Mae eventually waking up to that these park owned homes aren't really that big of a deal." - Charles DeHart

"Most of our prospective customers come in, they can put a down payment down. We're mostly in-house financing most of them. We've got a rent-to-own program. We make it pretty easy. Most of our homes sell at a price point of about twenty to thirty thousand." - Charles DeHart