Mobile Home Investing: How Keith Hand Builds Affordable Housing Wealth in Small Markets

Keith Hand (00:00)

You know, I love the mobile home space. think that it’s right now probably the biggest opportunity, you know, in real estate because there’s such a lack of affordable housing. And so you’re going to see, think we’ve already seen a lot more, ⁓ you know, mobile homes being put on land instead of building a house because

It’s just so expensive to build right now. So a lot of people are turning to mobile homes and these mobile homes are much nicer than people think.

Scott Bursey (02:05)

Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast powered by Investor Fuel. I’m your host Scott Bursey. Pros today we’re getting a masterclass in building wealth. Literally. We have a guest who is laying the foundation for massive success in one of the hottest, most specialized markets in the country. The Low Country. He’s the driving force behind Low Country Homes and he’s bringing the highest octane fuel on scaling, quality construction,

and navigating regional demand to create lasting value. Get ready to build your knowledge base because Keith Hand is in the house. Keith, welcome to the show.

Keith Hand (02:46)

Thank you, thank you.

Scott Bursey (02:48)

What really caught my attention

about you was the way you’ve been able to, you know, dominate a specific high demand regional housing market and maintain quality construction while consistently scaling your operation. It’s a master class in regional deployment.

Keith Hand (03:05)

Thank you very much. I don’t know if it’s a master class, but we’ll see.

Scott Bursey (03:09)

And for our listeners who may not be

familiar with your journey, please tell us how did your career begin and what’s your main focus now?

Keith Hand (03:20)

Okay. Yeah. Um, so it’s been nine years now, I guess, almost 10 years ago. Um, I was actually in the health and fitness industry. I owned a couple of, well, I a fitness company that worked out on several gyms in Southeast Georgia. And, um, I really wanted to get into real estate, but I didn’t have any money. And so I told one of the gym owners that I worked with that and he said, well, I don’t, I don’t have time to do real estate, but I do have some money. So we partnered up and I did all the work and he put the money in and we wound up buying.

a hundred units our first year together. And ⁓ so we started buying mobile home parks. We just kind of stumbled into that. And in our area, ⁓ usually the park owns the home. It’s not like a traditional mobile home park where you sell the house and then you rent the lot. And so we bought some distressed mobile home parks. We fixed up the homes and then we rented those out. And over the course of, guess, six or seven years,

We built that business and we wound up selling to a large ⁓ fund and then started the process over. I’m developing a subdivision now on another two mobile home parks and looking at buying a few more.

Scott Bursey (04:32)

Wow, that is incredible. That is really a unique journey. Let’s shift gears now and talk about some strengths. Keith, what is your team’s top advantage over national mass production builders?

Keith Hand (04:48)

Well, I think there’s a couple of things. I think that we have ⁓ really good management and we kind of learned this when we sold to that large company. We found out that it was really hard for them because they own 20,000 doors. So they’re a big company and all over the country. ⁓ whenever we were selling, we told them how we ran our company. And he said, it seems like you guys have a tight ship here and that’s what makes this work.

think that is really what kind of sets us apart. We’ve sort of developed really good management strategies over the last 10 years. And I think it’s a lot harder at scale to do that. And so we have sort of that advantage. And then another advantage that we have is just building relationships in the community because we invest in sort of one area where, you know, I’m from the area and my business partner who helps me, he’s also from the area. And so, you know, we…

We kind of have relationships there and we’re able to build sort of a good structure in our company.

Scott Bursey (06:37)

That’s huge, Keith. Focusing on those localized relationships and quality control is what separates the two pros from the competition.

Keith Hand (06:47)

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I agree with that. Yeah.

Scott Bursey (06:50)

As far as ⁓ your business goes, for somebody that’s listening and they’re saying, this is somebody that ⁓ I’d like to follow or maybe even partner with, what would you like them to know first about your business?

Keith Hand (07:05)

⁓ you know, I think that just, our strategy is a little different. ⁓ it’s not, the traditional mobile home park. It’s not in big markets. We focus on small markets. We focus on kind of the, kind of build our business around sort of staying away from, from that huge competition that you would have in a larger market. And I think that’s kind of another thing that sets us apart. And that kind of is modeled after my other, my business partner that bought these, properties with me. ⁓

He owned gyms and he owned them in small markets where Planet Fitness didn’t go. And so he kind of stayed away from that big competitor. And that was something that gave him a big advantage. And I think that’s kind of, we’ve adopted that strategy in our business where we kind of stay in these smaller markets. ⁓ But we build portfolios that are ⁓ attractive to larger investors too, in case we do want to sell to larger investors. But we kind of focus on smaller parts.

⁓ in these smaller markets where we have good relationships and we’ve built good systems and good teams and we’re able to kind of be the biggest fish in this small, small sea. So that’s kind of our focus and I think that kind of helps set us apart from other people.

Scott Bursey (08:20)

And I think that’s a wonderful focus. Let’s shift gears here a little bit. And where do you see the next big opportunity for custom value add home features?

Keith Hand (08:33)

Yeah, you know, we’re in smaller markets in rural communities and people need affordable housing. ⁓ That’s an important thing right now. And there’s not a lot of it, at least in our area. There’s a huge demand for that. And that’s been our focus from the beginning. And it wasn’t necessarily that we wanted to focus on that, we ⁓ kind of stumbled into a mobile home park in the beginning.

and got into the mobile home industry and now we sell new mobile homes as well. So we will buy lots and put new mobile homes on there and we’re able to get those to the end buyers for a lot cheaper price. Same thing with rentals. We’re able to kind of stay in a rent range where people can afford. And that’s a huge thing right now because it’s, it’s really difficult to find affordable housing. So that’s a big thing. And then also ⁓ sort of specific to us, we’ve built relationships in these smaller markets over the years.

And so now we’re kind of getting opportunities from people that we’ve been talking to for 10 years now, other people that we’ve met in the business and we’re kind of able to buy, ⁓ able to buy good deals at with seller financing, which is a big deal for us right now because interest rates are a lot higher and it’s it’s a lot harder to find good deals. So that’s kind of been a big opportunity for us.

Scott Bursey (09:47)

And that was a really well broken down explanation. And on that same note, what is some of your strategy that you’re employing short term and then long term in regards to your niche?

Keith Hand (10:35)

so short-term strategy, ⁓ couple of things. are doing those land home packages that I discussed. So we’ll buy a piece of land. We’re able to buy new mobile homes at wholesale prices. So we’ll put the mobile home on there. We’ll sell it. Then we take that capital and we put it into long-term rentals. And that’s kind of our whole strategy at what we’re doing right now. ⁓ And so…

I think that ⁓ being able to do that, use that capital to make down payments on properties that we’re getting at seller finance with lower interest rates, longer terms, better terms on the loans has been a big thing for us. So that’s kind of our short-term strategy is ⁓ continue to do the land home packages and then take that money and just buy more rentals and build a bigger rental portfolio.

We, uh, it was kind of interesting because in 2022 we sold, um, all of our mobile home parks that we had. So it was kind of like starting over. And, so, uh, you know, I purchased another one in 2023. Uh, and then we kind of, we started developing that subdivision, which is a mobile home subdivision as well. So we split it up into 47 lots and we’re, um, developing that land, putting homes there and selling them. And then we’re just taking that capital to put it back into our long-term goal, which is to, to build, you know, bigger rental portfolio.

Scott Bursey (11:55)

That’s solid, Keith. And I know our listeners are going to want to know this. Which local permitting or environmental regulation changes might concern you the most right now?

Keith Hand (12:12)

Yeah, so that is kind of the hardest thing for us to deal with, especially where we are, because we’re not dealing with like city, ⁓ you know, typically, typically we’re outside of city limits, we’re doing this in rural communities. And so we have to deal with different permits, different, you know, different rules and regulations about septic tanks and wells and things like that. So that’s, that’s kind of our biggest struggle with that. ⁓ It’s different in different places, but

A good example is that subdivision, whenever it was built originally, the original owner developed about half of it and then he passed away and he didn’t continue the development. so, but he never had any of it recorded, like, like a subdivision. He did it like a mobile home park, basically. But, ⁓ so I had to come in and redo all the, all the plats and now there’s different codes. So I had to redo the well, redo the water system, run all new water lines, had to bring everything up to code.

⁓ and, and then we had to have bigger lot sizes too. So there’s a lot of things that go into that. And I think just understanding those regulations beforehand is a huge part of it. Whenever we work with other people who bring us deals, ⁓ you know, there’s always like a checklist of things that we have to look into to make sure that we can even do what we want to do there. there’s a lot of regulations about mobile homes as well. It’s not necessarily an environmental thing, but a lot of municipalities have,

You know, they don’t want to have mobile homes there for whatever reason. People have a stigma ⁓ in mobile homes because in the 19, you know, before 1976, there were no, codes at all for mobile homes. So you could basically just build anything, call it a mobile home or at least to a degree. And then they added ⁓ codes and they kind of have upgraded that stuff over, the years. then in 2000, there was a, a law passed that

basically made it so that all manufactured homes now are built to a similar quality to houses. And so, ⁓ you know, there’s much less risk involved with those newer mobile homes, but a lot of the municipalities and even insurance providers haven’t caught up to that yet. And so ⁓ a lot of that makes it a little harder. Some communities don’t want mobile homes at all. Some states are passing laws now where municipalities can’t ⁓

they can’t not allow mobile homes to be put in certain communities as long as they meet the codes for that community. And so ⁓ there are places where, ⁓ you know, there’s a lot more opportunity because the state has passed that law. I Indiana passed that law a couple of years ago. There’s a few others. So Georgia doesn’t have anything like that yet. So there are still some places where you can’t put mobile homes. It just depends on the, on the community. So there’s a lot of things that we have to check beforehand. ⁓ Does it allow mobile homes?

you know, what are the, how far away does the septic have to be from a well? How big of a lot size does it have to have? How far apart can driveways be? There’s a lot of different things like that that you just kind of have to look into beforehand. And yeah, it’s not necessarily complicated. It’s just, ⁓ you know, a lot of things you, if you don’t know, then you can make mistakes. You can buy a property that you can’t use.

Scott Bursey (16:11)

With you on that. can’t ignore the compliance side. Staying ahead of the zoning and environmental changes is absolutely critical for continuous development.

Keith Hand (16:22)

Yep, that’s exactly right. You just have to know beforehand what you can do. And most of the municipalities are willing to work with it. You just have to call and get things in writing, make sure that you understand what the codes are, and then do what you can do inside those regulations.

Scott Bursey (16:42)

absolutely. Keith, what sort of ⁓ knowledge, some golden nuggets, some advice could you give our listeners regarding mobile homes?

Keith Hand (16:53)

You know, I love the mobile home space. think that it’s right now probably the biggest opportunity, you know, in real estate because there’s such a lack of affordable housing. And so you’re going to see, think we’ve already seen a lot more, ⁓ you know, mobile homes being put on land instead of building a house because

It’s just so expensive to build right now. So a lot of people are turning to mobile homes and these mobile homes are much nicer than people think.

think people are often shocked when they go into a new mobile home that’s like a high-end house and it’s way nicer than people think. So I think if people are a little bit concerned about the quality, ⁓ you still can get a cheaper one that’s…

you know, the framing is going to be pretty much the same as a house now. Pretty much all of the regulations, you know, it has to have the same wind speeds, all that kind of thing. So it’s going to be pretty much the same as a house. And I think most people still think of mobile homes as these like brittle structures that are going to fall over if you get a good gust of wind. And that’s just not the case. ⁓ Most of the time, these things are going to hold up just like a house would. So I think that’s, that’s probably the biggest misconception right now.

Scott Bursey (18:15)

Keith, we’ve covered so much ground today. If our listeners want to follow your journey or collaborate with you, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

Keith Hand (18:24)

Well, probably Facebook, Keith Hand on Facebook. ⁓ That’s going to be the best way right now.

Scott Bursey (18:32)

Awesome, awesome and for our listeners who want ⁓ to learn more about the industry, what do you recommend? What’s the best way to dive in for them to gain more knowledge on some of the components that you just mentioned like quality and such?

Keith Hand (18:49)

⁓ well, you know, I’m not sure about mobile homes specifically, but, ⁓ for me, I just kind of learned it through, through experience,

you know, just, ⁓ I’ve done it for 10 years now. And, you know, I kind of learned that way, but I will say, ⁓ listening to podcasts while driving was a big thing. Whenever I first started, I was always listening to podcasts. ⁓ I was always reading books. think, ⁓

You know, the obvious ones are like Robert Kiyosaki, learning, learning about money in general was a big thing and how to, how to build assets and how to understand sort of the theory behind it. And then, ⁓ you know, for property management, I Brandon Turner’s book and, ⁓ kind of, we’ve based a lot of our management systems on that. And then for business systems, we were at E-Myth Mastery and that was a big thing. E-Myth, ⁓ the E-Myth and E-Myth Mastery. So those were big things for me. think, I think just in general.

learning those principles is an important part of it. And then you really learn through experience. That’s how you do it. You just have to take action. You got to get started and then you’re going to learn through those experiences.

Scott Bursey (19:55)

Keith, this has been absolute rocket fuel. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Keith Hand (20:03)

Yeah, thank you. Enjoyed it.

Scott Bursey (20:04)

And to our

absolutely and we’d welcome you back at any time. This has been a master class.

Keith Hand (20:12)

Thank you.

Scott Bursey (20:14)

And for our listeners, we appreciate each and every one of you. If you got value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We’ve got a lineup of exceptional guests, just like Keith, who are making huge moves in the market. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you on the next episode, everyone.