Interview with Matthew Ricciardella, Founder of Crystal View Capital

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 an amazing guest in Mr. Matthew Ricciardella, founder of Crystal View Capital.

Matthew Ricciardella is a glowing success story in the mobile home park asset class. He is a self made entrepreneur, mobile home park investor and philanthropist.  Matthew is the founder and principal manager of Crystal View Capital, with over 20 years experience in the real estate industry. Matthew Ricciardella has personally been a principal in over $1B in real estate transactions. He presently has over $500M in assets under management across the various fund’s that he sponsors.

Today, Matthew shares his wisdom with us as he talks about his mobile home park deals and how he has been able to acquire his huge portfolio of commercial real estate. Matthew discusses buying mobile home parks in blue states and what metrics he looks for in the markets he buys in. Matthew also highlights what good mobile home park operators can do to stay out of trouble. 

***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

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

00:40 - Matthew Ricciardella’s journey into mobile home park investing

04:05 - Getting educated on mobile home parks as an asset class

06:00 - Matthew Ricciardella’s first mobile home park and how his strategy has changed over the years

08:23 - The footprint for Crystal View Capital

10:23 - The perks of self-managing mobile home parks

13:38 - The mobile home park industry is very hands-on with operations and property management

15:26 - The infill process in Mobile Home Parks

18:00 - Tenant-owned mobile homes

19:44 - Jeremiah Boucher and Patriot Holdings.

21:05 - What not to do: Placing the park-owned mobile home income into your top-line revenue and applying a cap rate to that net-operating income

24:32 - Expense ratios

26:00 - Buying Mobile Home parks in Blue States

27:27 - Understanding the local mobile home park market 

28:50 - Self-storage versus mobile home parks

30:30 - Going to scale with fragmented mobile home park business models

36:50 - Matthew Ricciardella’s perfect mobile home park looks like this

38:09 - Threats to the Mobile Home Park industry

38:55 - Characteristics of good and bad mobile home park operators

40:00 - Reaching out to Matthew Ricciardella

40:48 - The importance of educating yourself in mobile home parks as an asset class

41:20 - Conclusion

Links & Mentions from This Episode: 

Crystal View: https://www.crystalviewcapital.com/ 

Osptrey Managment: https://www.osprey-management.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: 

“You learn from your mistakes.” - Matthew Ricciardella

“Really, our strategy and our focus is identifying underperforming assets and adding value to them.” - Matthew Ricciardella

“It's very management intensive. We manage all of our own assets, by the way. A lot of groups are more or less capital allocators.” - Matthew Ricciardella

“Don't let the tax tail or the regulatory tail wag the dog. Just understand what you’re getting into.” - Matthew Ricciardella