Interview with Mobile Home Park Fund Manager Sam Hales

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 about the details of investing in mobile home parks with Sam Hales, a mobile home park fund manager. Andrew and Sam chat about how Sam got into manufactured housing, how he and his colleagues got over the hurdle of third party management, and what his perfect mobile home park would look like. Sam also talks with Andrew about the QOZ Finder web bot built to scour the internet and find homes in opportunity zones. Andrew delves into Sam's expertise when it comes to his street lighting implementations and other value add techniques. If you've had any qualms about investing in trailer parks, let Andrew and Sam's skill and knowledge put those fears to bed in this episode of the Passive Mobile Home Park Investing Podcast.

***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 1,400 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.

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Talking Points:

00:18 - Welcome to the Passive Mobile Home Park Investing Podcast

01:28 - How Sam got into manufactured housing

07:33 - The hardest part about the mobile home park business

09:32 - QOZ Finder web bot

14:30 - What is an opportunity zone?

22:45 - Biggest risks that passive investors face when looking at deals

25:45 - The hurdle of third-party managers

29:20 - Value add implementations

35:15 - Infill and other ways to increase NOI

40:00 - Buying homes, and lending programs like the 21st Mortgage Cash Program

42:23 - Sam's perfect mobile home park

52:00 - Pro forma to keep occupancy

54:00 - Typical fees investors should expect

56:13 - Reaching out to Sam

00:00 - Conclusion

Resources/Links:

Asana: https://asana.com/

Link to lighting manual: https://drive.google.com/file/d/14z4IPCdWksHt-YOiw0atOtmdF10GIbbV/view?usp=sharing

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samhales/

Email: [email protected]

Links & Mentions from This Episode:

Mobile Home University website: https://www.mobilehomeuniversity.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:

"Depending on the market, infill can be super challenging." - Sam Hales

"I know you probably hear this all the time: 'Hey, manufactured homes is like owning a parking lot. It's super easy' I don't know where that came from." - Sam Hales

"If you're doing value add, you gotta dig in. You gotta get dirty." - Sam Hales

"Whatever appreciation happens inside the opportunity zone fund is tax-free." - Sam Hales

"My thesis going in was, even if we wanted to do third party at some point, before then we need to do it ourselves so that we know when we hire the third party: Hey, here's what we want them to do." - Sam Hales