LOS ANGELES, CA - Happy Home Communities (HHC), the mobile home park and RV park investment arm of Gelt, Inc., a Los Angeles-based multifamily real estate investment and asset management firm, has acquired Y-Rancho, a 113-space mobile home park in Sparks, NV (a city just east of Reno). Originally built in 1961, the park is situated on 7.24 acres of land at 501 El Rancho Drive. HHC acquired the fully occupied property from a private seller.
“HHC plans on infusing capital into Y-Rancho to help improve the quality of life for our residents and enhance its overall curb appeal. We will also have the opportunity to purchase and upgrade older homes as they become available,” said Ellie Davis, director of acquisitions and asset management for Happy Homes Communities. “Additionally, we believe we can optimize the asset’s expenses to deliver better than budgeted returns to our investors.”
The community is less than one mile away from a variety of shopping, dining, recreation, and entertainment venues including Walmart Supercenter, Starbuck’s, Deeri Park, Paradise Park, West Wind El Rancho 4 Drive-In Theatre, Walgreens, and several schools. The Reno-Tahoe International Airport is also 2.6 miles from the park.
Keith Wasserman, partner with Gelt added, “Y-Rancho is well-located close to Reno’s commercial hubs and the Reno-Tahoe International Airport. This fast-growing area has shown stability in rental occupancy and is at record high rental rates. We liked this asset as it fit well within our acquisition criteria for a value-add play. Assets like these are harder and harder to come by as we are seeing this property sector growing in demand from institutional investors entering the sector.”
Jack A. Cardinal of Cooper, Cardinal and Company brokered the transaction on behalf of HHC and the seller. HHC secured financing of the property through Berkadia’s San Diego team which was led by Chad Williams.
Gelt officially launched Happy Homes Communities in May 2017. Since that time, the firm has completed three acquisitions totaling 730 spaces across the nation. The company plans to acquire an additional 1,000 mobile home park spaces over the next 12 months.
About Gelt, Inc. Gelt Inc. is a regional real estate investment and asset management company that seeks to acquire properties in strategic markets in the Western U.S. Since the company's inception in 2008, Gelt has acquired nearly 8,000 apartment homes and mobile home sites valued in excess of $1 billion. The firm’s philosophy is to be a prudent steward for its investment capital, to invest wisely, with confidence and intelligence in emerging, constrained markets. Gelt seeks appropriate risk adjusted returns while achieving income from current cash flow and appreciation through superior performance of its assets.
Gelt consists of a team of real estate professionals that possess a wealth of knowledge and expertise in law, real estate, finance, property and asset management, and construction.
Gelt’s additional entrepreneurial companies include Domuso.com and Gelt Venture Capital. Gelt developed Domuso.com, the first financing-as-a-service resident portal for the $540 billion rental payment industry. Domuso offers online certified and financing options for move-in payments, one-time rent payments, debt payments, refunds, and late payments. The company developed its own proprietary risk scoring model to offer point-of-sale financing utilizing rental application data, property operational data, and historical payment history. Gelt Venture Capital is a seed-stage venture capital firm investing in companies capable of making large global impacts. We believe automation, mobility, robotics, artificial intelligence, and space tech form the fundamental technology layer transforming our world and we focus on applications of these foundational technologies.
The firm strives to stay on top of industry trends and is always on the lookout for new technologies that simplify life for its leasing agents and help its properties run smoothly.