Interview with Paul Stout of KP Asset Management

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 Mobile Home Park Investor and Operator Paul Stout. Paul is the founder of KP Asset Management and they specialize in mobile home parks and self-storage facilities in Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio. When Paul decided to get into real estate investing, he started out like all of us: diving in deep and doing the necessary research into different asset classes that allow scale. When Paul found mobile home parks, he knew he had found his niche. He dove in head-first, by investing in a mobile home park and managing it himself to learn the business.

Today, Paul offers up some great advice on what sort of things he looks for when he is researching a potential mobile home park acquisition. Paul tells us about how he got into the mobile home park business and what hooked him about this asset class. Paul also gives his advice for new passive investors who are looking to invest in the mobile home park asset class.

***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
01:04 - Paul's story and journey into the business of manufactured housing
04:30 - Advice for passive investors: things to look out for
08:30 - Paul's research into the market
21:40 - The toughest hurdles for Paul
25:28 - The state and future of manufactured housing
31:10 - Strengths and weaknesses for KP Management in terms of management
35:00 - Paul's perfect mobile home park
37:05 - Experience with manufactured home loans
43:00 - Proforma mistakes
46:50 - Infill
48:57 - Getting a hold of Paul
49:20 - Conclusion

Links & Mentions from This Episode:

Quotes:

"You should always have a backup plan. Everybody basically puts in a pledge or they even fund it at a certain point. But if that can't happen for whatever reason, what is the backup plan?" - Paul Stout

"If you build it they will come. If you have a product that will sell in a good market, you're going to be able to sell it. It just becomes so much easier to do that. ." - Paul Stout

"But overall, the industry seems to me it's going to keep going up because it has gone up dramatically in the last five years since I started. When you look at the fundamentals of it, there's just still so much room. It certainly hasn't gone to the top yet." - Paul Stout

"We talk to the people and we try to find out what would bring value to them. One of the big pushes that we've got right now is we've got one of our managers looking at every property and basically trying to figure out what will bring value to the community." - Paul Stout