About Saratoga Group

Our Story

Most investors love Real Estate's tangibility and longevity. They don't love it's cyclical nature. We are no different.

In 2017, Sam was introduced to the often-overlooked manufactured housing sector. He was drawn to the stability of the asset class during economic down cycles. His research confirmed that the two largest REITs focused exclusively on manufactured housing and had, over 18 years, the "same-store NOI growth" every quarter. With the support of individual investors, Sam purchased Saratoga Group's first manufactured housing community that year.

Since that day, Saratoga Group has become one of the largest MH operators backed by individual investors with over 100 communities and 115 employees worldwide.

Leadership

Sam Hales

Founder & CEO

Private Equity Real Estate fund manager with $360M+ AUM and Founder of the Saratoga Group. Sam has 15 years of Real Estate and Management experience in distressed asset workouts, land development, redevelopment, single family and mobile home communities.

DJ Birnie

Chief Financial Officer

DJ Birnie is a long-time investor in Saratoga Group. He has a proven track record as a seasoned investor in many real estate deals and leads with extensive industry knowledge. Prior to his joining Saratoga Group, DJ has held roles as CFO and management consultant.

Shawn Felkley

Chief People Officer

Shawn is a trusted advisor in people operations with over 25 years of experience. Prior to Saratoga, she was VP of Human Resources for 4 years for a Real Estate & Development firm with $884M+ in assets. She has championed people operations for up to 3,000 members nationwide.

Steve Sacher

Chief Operations Officer

Steve is passionate about developing a strong company culture that leads to increased engagement and performance. Since Saratoga's beginnings in 2017, Steve has had significant success in transforming distressed mobile home parks into thriving communities.

Luke Hales

Chief Technology Officer

Prior to joining Saratoga Gorup, Luke worked on multibillion-dollar oil and gas developments in Qatar, India, and Indonesia. In March 2018, Luke joined the team. He has a passion for finding distressed parks and cleaning them up to make them safe for families.

Brandon Schilling

Development Partner

Brandon is a tenured real estate executive with 13+ years of experience. He has led the acquisition and development of over $1 billion of assets across 22 U.S. states and 3 Canadian provinces. Brandon has been the driver to numerous RV/MH developments driving over a $150 million in property value.

Join our team.

If you have interest in executing on the Saratoga vision, we'd love to connect with you.

Please fill out this form and we'll be in touch.

The Bus Test

"We talk about it at Saratoga Group all the time.

As a sixth-grader on the middle school bus you try your best not to stick out to the eighth-graders. The wrong clothes could turn into a long ride home.

If kids are dropped off at the bus stop in front of our communities and are teased because of how crummy the community looks, we just failed the Bus Test.

Almost every community we purchase starts out as an "F". We want to move them into the "A" and "B" range as quickly as possible.

Being a kid is tough.

Responsible owners should be part of the solution - not part of the problem."

Sam Hales, Founder & CEO