Built From Nothing: How Morgan Ehrenzeller Created a Seven-Figure Real Estate Portfolio Before 25

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In this conversation, Morgan Ehrenzeller shares his unique journey into real estate, starting from humble beginnings and evolving into a successful commercial investor. He discusses his early experiences, acquisition strategies, and current focus on multifamily properties and RV parks. Morgan emphasizes the importance of understanding the construction aspect of real estate and the need for innovative management strategies in the hospitality sector. He also highlights the ongoing housing shortage in the U.S. and how it influences his investment decisions.

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Morgan Ehrenzeller (00:00)
there’s roughly a 7 million housing shortage in the United States right now. The last administration claims they let 11 million people in the southern border. I don’t believe that. I think that’s bullshit. I think it’s probably closer to 35 million.

Uh, so, know 35 million plus 7 million housing shortage. We’re at 42 million You know housing shortage here between everyone that left

there’s no surprise to anyone that it is, you know, getting harder for the average American to buy a house. Where is this going to push everyone?

They can’t afford a single family house. They sure as can’t afford by multi-family.

they’re gonna get pushed out to cheaper affordable housing.

like mobile home parks and RV parks because it’s cheaper.

Dylan Silver (02:11)
Welcome back to the show. Today’s guest, Morgan Ehrenzeller, is a commercial investor based out of St. Petersburg, Florida. You can find him at ehrenzeller.com or on his YouTube channel. Morgan, thanks for taking the time today.

Morgan Ehrenzeller (02:26)
Dylan, thanks for having me. I appreciate the time this morning.

Dylan Silver (02:30)
Absolutely. And we were talking a little bit before hopping on here, but I always like to start off at the top of the show by asking guests really how they got started in real estate.

Morgan Ehrenzeller (02:41)
Great question. How I got started in real estate was kind of an accident. A little bit about me. I came from very humble beginnings. wasn’t, you know, handed down a legacy portfolio. I didn’t have rich parents and have a rich uncle, rich aunt. So it was built. Everything was built from the ground up by myself. ⁓ Growing up, my father was a carpenter, third generation carpenter. So ever since I could walk, I had the pleasure of holding the flashlight, so to say.

You know fast forward what I do today extremely thankful for that that skill set So a lot of people know buildings from a spreadsheet, but don’t really understand the construction aspect and how it all goes together So when you start from nothing, no one can bullshit you on how much something costs or how long it takes So that was you know, my early years probably put my first roof one at the age of 11 and then I ended up I

made a promise to myself I wanted to change my bloodline at 13. So at 14, I created a software company. But at that time at 15, we were scaling, was getting pretty decently sized at 15, age of 15, I was making more money than my parents. I didn’t know what to do with the money. I didn’t wanna take my parents advice because you wanna drive a Ferrari, you’re gonna listen to someone who drives a Ferrari or drives a Toyota.

So I quickly realized every…

rich or wealthy person I thought I knew at that time was involved in real estate. So I pushed myself off a cliff and I said, all right, at 17 years old, I bought my first duplex. And that was my start into the real estate journey at 17 years old. That’s how I got started.

Dylan Silver (04:22)
Was there pushback from your parents? I’m imagining you living under their roof and you’re saying, hey, I’m going to go be a real estate investor. What was their feedback at the time?

Morgan Ehrenzeller (04:33)
My dad was the first one to tell me I was going to fail and I wasn’t going to work. And that lit a fire inside of me.

Dylan Silver (04:43)
They must have been intrigued when you bought the Duplex. Were they helping you manage your portfolio at that time or was it hands off? What was the conversations like with your folks?

Morgan Ehrenzeller (04:54)
No, I mean, at that time, mean, it was 17. It’s only a duplex. Like, it’s really not that big. So I bought it because I needed somewhere to park the money. I didn’t want to waste and piss the money away.

So I parked the money in there, bought it, went to college at 17, went to Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania, graduated from there in 2020. I really do much with it until after I graduated because I was taking student loans out to pay for my college.

I had to pay for my housing, my food, my classes, course, university, all that. So I didn’t do much with it because I didn’t want to bring the income in that would affect me getting student loans to finish off ⁓ education there. So I didn’t really do too much with it until 2020. And then I went to a foreclosure auction. was COVID was just happening. And I was the only person that showed up and this was in my college town. So I ended up picking up a house.

for I was $10,000 there’s like an hour to two grand or 2500 in fees. Nonetheless, I the house for like 12, 12.5 K 12 K. I put 17 grand of sweat equity into it. And about three, four weeks, it was worth about 140 K, give or take. And then at that point, I was 22 years old. And I quickly realized, okay, Morgan, you know, you don’t really come from money, you don’t have a you know, Harvard

Harvard or a Yale degree or Columbia. ⁓ Probably no other job’s gonna do this for me at my, where I’m at in my life. So I decided to run with the real estate, know, picking up 100K in three, four weeks. That was pretty good money to my net worth at that age, right out of college. ⁓ You know, first couple months out of college. So that was really my climb into real estate and what got me hooked was that big jump right out the go.

Dylan Silver (07:35)
Now that deal of course is gonna be jet fuel to any ⁓ investor, right? Especially someone in the on-ramp and getting going. At that point, you had the duplex, you had that property. ⁓ Did you end up selling that property after three or four weeks? Was that a flip for you?

Morgan Ehrenzeller (07:53)
No, I actually refinanced it. still have it. So I refinanced it, pulled out all my equity. I went and bought another four houses with it. So I did a borough on it. So I refinanced it, pulled all my equity out. I my monthly payment is like 460 and it’s running for 1600 a month. So pretty healthy margins.

Dylan Silver (08:13)
Yeah, that’s incredible. At that point, so you’d been to the auction, did you continue to acquire deals through the auction? At that point, what was your primary acquisition strategy?

Morgan Ehrenzeller (08:24)
Great, great question. So like one to 10 was a lot of foreclosures because I hit that one out of the park as I need to keep doing this. So I was doing a lot of foreclosures, stuff like that. And then, I mean, in college too, was hustling everything I could to get money. Like at one point I got free, got dogs, was picking up free dogs and selling dogs on the side because all I needed to get money for real estate. So I was educating myself a lot in college, but ⁓

you know, execution first mindset and I was willing to do anything and everything it took ⁓ to get there.

Dylan Silver (08:59)
Now, when we talk about the on-ramp to real estate investing, there’s so many different ways to get on, right? You could do wholesale, foreclosure auctions. There’s also door knocking, mailers, et cetera, right? You could JV with someone and find their deals. ⁓ You went about it really, hey, I’m gonna do whatever I have to do to get my nest egg and I’m gonna go to the auctions. If you had to do it over again, would you have done anything differently?

Morgan Ehrenzeller (09:31)
Maybe I would have maybe changed the asset class from what I know today versus what I knew then. Now, don’t get me wrong. All those were great, great deals, phenomenal deals at my age, know, good cash on cash returns, good equity multiples the whole night. They were phenomenal deals. ⁓ But I would ⁓ I would do it again because my my first year out of college, I was, you know, I was building a seven figure net worth year over year. You know, not many industries you can do that.

without having resources or a lot of money or getting brought into that.

Dylan Silver (10:01)
Sure.

Morgan Ehrenzeller (10:40)
So I mean, at 22, 23 years old building multi-seven figure, net worth year over year, I wouldn’t redo that. I would maybe change the asset class, but you don’t know what you don’t know when you first get started. But I mean, can’t really complain for at that age and what we’re doing.

Dylan Silver (10:55)
Yeah, I’ll,

The seven figure net worth right out of college, I think any young ⁓ real estate entrepreneur would be thrilled with. You mentioned the asset class. I know you’re involved in several different segments right now. Which segment are you currently targeting in your marketing right now?

Morgan Ehrenzeller (11:18)
Good question. So I’m a big, I am primarily multifamily heavy. Multifamilies my bread and my butter, but I’m shifting focus a little bit, not necessarily shifting focus, but opening up other arms and branches specifically for RV parks and mobile home parks. And the reason for that is one, I’m after cashflow right now. So I want to get a ridiculous amount of cashflow and then pork it and more high growth corridor areas, so to say. But

What all that looks like and why, you know, the RV parks and mobile home parks is, you know, cheaper price per pad than, you know, a unit basis. So it’s easier to get into. And generally speaking,

there’s roughly a 7 million housing shortage in the United States right now. The last administration claims they let 11 million people in the southern border. I don’t believe that. I think that’s bullshit. I think it’s probably closer to 35 million.

Uh, so, know 35 million plus 7 million housing shortage. We’re at 42 million You know housing shortage here between everyone that left and the people that came up through the southern border And i’m not I don’t mean to say this in a negative way But they probably aren’t making the highest of wages than actual americans here who’ve been here Um, you know a lot of the legal so they’re probably doing a lot of under the work type of stuff or cash And where i’m getting at with this is you know, you have the 7 million housing shortage all these illegals that come through

You know, it’s no, it’s no surprise that the gap to buy single family housing and for the average American is getting bigger and bigger and bigger is getting it’s harder for them to, you know, your purchasing power is, is losing hand over fist year over year. So I don’t think that there’s no surprise to anyone that it is, you know, getting harder for the average American to buy a house. Where is this going to push everyone? Where is this going to push the 7 million housing shortage?

for Americans and then 30, 35 million illegals, what options do they have? They can’t afford a single family house. They sure as can’t afford by multi-family. So they really have two options. One, they’re gonna move in with friends and family and they’re gonna live together to bring your housing budget down. Inflation is still going up and you know, it’s came down a little bit since the past handful of years. Or two, they’re gonna get pushed out to cheaper affordable housing.

like mobile home parks and RV parks because it’s cheaper.

So I’m a big Africa. That’s why I’m buying a lot of mobile home parks and RV parks right now, because I think in the next five to 10 years, when this really starts coming home, I think that one, there’s going to be a huge shortage of them. ⁓ And they’re going to explode from the amount of affordability from the affordability crisis of people needing housing.

And then on the flip side of that coin too example, ⁓

Not many municipalities, cities, townships, they’re not allowing more of these to be created, especially in high growth corridor areas. Because, I mean, how often do you open up the news and you see, someone bought this mobile home park. Now they’re developing a huge tower. Cities are capping it. They’re not letting more mobile home parks come in because it kind of attracts the wrong type of people that they don’t want there. know, so you have this storm of everything that I just mentioned.

You have a dwindling supply factor of them as well. I’m not a rocket scientist, but I supply and demand. ⁓ So I think in the next five to 10 years, you’re really gonna see RV parks and mobile home parks really start exploding. So that’s why I’m positioning really heavy right now and really getting a lot of these one on our books to buy and hold, if that makes sense.

Dylan Silver (14:54)
Yeah,

I agree ⁓ certainly with the growth of mobile home and RV parks. I’m licensed in Texas and so

see it in Texas, but I also see the need in other states as well where you don’t immediately think of mobile home and RV. was raised, born and raised in Northern New Jersey and I just see the price of, you’re from Pennsylvania, right? So the price of the homes out there.

You know, in a very middle class area of Northern New Jersey where I grew up, you’re looking at like $800,000 for a middle class home. You know, probably on the low end.

If you know, if you know, ⁓ Montclair, New Jersey, I’m the town next door, the Caldwells in Essex County.

Morgan Ehrenzeller (16:18)
Okay, one of my best friends lives in North Jersey and I go visit him. That’s why I know these areas a little bit. I’ve gone and visited them, but that’s cool. know you’re from North Jersey.

Dylan Silver (16:28)
Yeah, mean, so I certainly growing up, I didn’t ever think of mobile home and RV parks just because I didn’t see too many of them. But it’s like who’s living in these homes, right? So certainly it’s not the majority of people that I grew up with. It’s people that are commuting in medical professionals or tech or finance into New York. And that urban sprawl is just getting larger and larger.

You know, people are going to have to look into different asset classes or think like real estate investors in order to to get into these deals. I do want to pivot a bit here, though, Morgan, and ask you about managing these these properties. Do you self manage? Do you do you hire out for that? How do you manage these properties?

Morgan Ehrenzeller (17:12)
I am self I self manage vertically integrated everything vertically integrated construction, property management, marketing and leasing, resident retention, everything I’m an in house operator.

Dylan Silver (17:25)
Now for that, you also ⁓ do management for other businesses as well or is it just for your businesses?

Morgan Ehrenzeller (17:32)
No, I won’t manage for anyone else. I will only manage my own projects.

Dylan Silver (17:38)
Got it, got it. Any feedback for folks who may be managing, let’s pick one of those asset classes, RV parks. Any feedback for folks who are looking at acquiring RV parks and managing them themselves?

Morgan Ehrenzeller (17:51)
You know, I heard something in one of the groups I’m in the other weekend. The guy was telling me, oh, I want to buy RV parks because, know, it’s really passive. You know, just sit there and hook the utilities up. And that’s that. And I said, you know, that’s a great thing for someone to say who’s not involved in the business. said, you have a very rude awakening. said the RV park business, if you think it’s you’re just going to, you know, get there, set it and forget it and collect checks room for rude awakening. Because ultimately RV parks is outdoor hospitality is

what it is in a nutshell, outdoor hospitality. So unless you’re really ready to start catering to someone from an outdoor hospitality lens, I would recommend not getting into it. You know, your majority is short-term transient stuff. What we like to do with a lot of ours is we have a heat map and we see where all of the active people go and where the least active, where the least active people go is we actually go and we buy RVs for anywhere from 20 to $30,000. Nice ones, you know, build them within the last couple years.

updated and what we do is so we buy them for 20 30 000 put 10 down two to three k and then our monthly payment is you know maybe 250 bucks meanwhile at some of our v parks we’re running these out for i’ll be you know 1300 a month so we have a nice spread there and a nice margin so that’s how you help keep occupancy up during your tougher months um if you’re in you know the midwest or the you know northeast regions or the frontier region

You know, when is your occupancy and all that’s going to drop? so your revenue is going to drop. So this is what we do when we, you know, create other things to supplement this and the harsher months that we keep the revenue up. ⁓ so, you know, this could be one RV park we’re buying right now. We’re under contract. It’s along the river in Minnesota. You crossed the, you crossed the river and you’re in Canada. So what are we doing in the river there? Okay. We’re running, ⁓ you know,

skis and snowmobiles. We’re ⁓ partnering with a fishing guy at fishing tour and doing revenue share with him to do ice fishing on the river. So, thinking outside of the box, from the main income source, how can you drive more revenue outside of that in the tougher months? It’s a couple of things we do as an RV operator, how we can keep some income coming in on the books in those tougher months where most people

aren’t, you are shutting down for, you know, the season, so to say.

Dylan Silver (20:18)
Yeah, I think, you know, being able to take advantage of those strategic relationships in the market that you’re operating in is huge, right? Because when you talk about RV specifically, people could say, yeah, set it and forget it. It’s a pad, but then it’s hospitality, right? ⁓ And you could neglect that. And that would, you know, do you in very quickly and you’ll become a distressed RV park, right? So

especially when you’re in RV park spaces and similar segments, if you don’t enjoy, or if you’re not at least enthusiastic about being a host of some kind, then it’s not gonna build well for

Morgan Ehrenzeller (20:58)
I would say that on any asset class though, you’re pretty passive on it, it will drive itself to the ground. This isn’t a hands-off business by any means.

Dylan Silver (21:09)
We are coming up on time here, Morgan. Any new projects that you’re working on or how can folks in our audience reach out to you or your team?

Morgan Ehrenzeller (21:17)
Yeah, we’re actually working on quite a lot of projects. have 168 multifamily coming in the great state of Texas actually. So we have that coming. Another hundred units coming right in your backyard in Fort Worth. This is multifamily. Another 425 coming in Arkansas as multifamily. ⁓ Another RV park in Tilden, Texas in your home state as well. That’s coming some other smaller stuff in there, but yeah, we’re pretty.

Active. mean, we’re buying I mean, today I forgot buying 49 town homes in Pittsburgh So we’re buying deals pretty much every week, but if someone wants to reach out to me mean you can reach out to me on LinkedIn Instagram Facebook any social media. It’s just Morgan Ehrenzeller ⁓ or you could email me [email protected] or you could reach out to [email protected]

Dylan Silver (22:14)
Morgan, thank you so much for taking the time today. Thanks for coming on the show.

Morgan Ehrenzeller (22:18)
thanks for having me, Dylan.

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Investor Fuel

Built From Nothing: How Morgan Ehrenzeller Created a Seven-Figure Real Estate Portfolio Before 25

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