Chris & John
- May 26, 2020
- 2 min read

Ep 56: The Mobile Home Park Investing Scene with Andrew Keel

Andrew Keel is the owner of Keel Team, LLC. He started out as a Lonnie Dealer, selling individual mobile homes out of several parks throughout central Florida. After graduating to the mobile home park investing scene and buying his first park in June of 2017, he has quickly amassed an impressive portfolio, and his team currently manages 17 manufactured housing communities across seven states in the US. His expertise is in turning around under-managed manufactured housing communities by utilizing proven systems to maximize the occupancy while reducing operating costs. Andrew's strategy involves buying directly from small Mom and Pop owners, bringing in homes to fill vacant lots, implementing utility bill back programs, and improving overall management and operating efficacies, ultimately increasing NOI. In this episode, Andrew tells us how he found financial freedom for himself and his family by getting out of the fix-and-flip world and into mobile home parks. He explains the unique supply and demand for mobile homes and why it’s easier to acquire them from Mom and Pop owners. Andrew shares why he prefers to increase occupancy rather than increasing rent, why he owns his own mobile home transport company, and well as some of the pros and cons of public and private utilities. We also discuss what it has been like for Andrew as more sophisticated investors have entered the mobile home market and what role stigma plays on perceptions of manufactured homes, as well as some as rules of thumb when doing your due diligence.

Key Points From This Episode:

Getting out of the fix-and-flip world and into mobile home parks.
Unique supply and demand and affordability in mobile homes.
Mom and pop owners are more flexible and easier to acquire from.
Rent increases versus increasing occupancy.
Owning his own mobile home transport company rather than relying on a third party.
Pros and cons of public and private utility infrastructure.
How Andrew has dealt with competition as more sophisticated investors enter the market.
What sort of deals Andrew is targeting going forward.
How frequently Andrew travels to his parks and what operations systems he puts in place.
What role stigma plays on perception and how Andrew has seen perceptions change.
With new and institutional owners coming into the market, perceptions are changing.
If affordability will decrease with dwindling supply and increasing demand.
Rules of thumb and measures to look at when doing due diligence.
Mobile home prices versus stick-built home prices.

Tweetables:

“When I learned that supply was limited, it just seemed like an ECON101 home run” — Andrew Keel [0:07:27]

“Where we find a lot of our value add is through increasing occupancy, bringing in homes, doing modest rest increases over a few years as we execute our business plan. That has been very powerful for us” — Andrew Keel [0:14:45]

“With these properties starting to be owned by… institutional owners, I’m optimistic. I think that these properties will be turned around and we will provide more affordable housing units for a country that desperately needs it. I’m excited for the future” — Andrew Keel [0:34:33]