About Us

Calling all small- and mid-size community owners from the U.S. and Canada!

As the old saying goes, a rising tide floats all boats

Network with Fellow Community Owners and Managers
Hear the Good, the Bad & the Ugly from Fellow Community Owners
Explore New Ways to Run Your Community
Acquire the Knowledge to Better Your Bottom line
Get Tips from the Experts – Steps to More Efficient Ways to Finance
Share Ideas and Best Practices to Ensure Greater Success
501(c)(3) dedicated to community education

More than 400 community owners, managers, vendors and other industry personnel from 35-plus states are expected. Educational workshops, presentations and panel discussions will complement three days of networking.

SECO is a non-profit organization exclusively serving the needs of community owners and property managers. All aspects of our program are planned by, and for, community owners. As a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, net proceeds fund projects for veterans and first responders living in manufactured housing communities.

Who should attend? Anyone who owns or has an interest in the health and operation of manufactured home communities. Programming is focused on tactics that can benefit those owning one to 100 communities. This certainly includes the owners and investors, but also is beneficial for general managers and managers. The networking opportunity with owners/operators will be beneficial for lenders, suppliers, home manufacturers and corporate property managers as well. But there is no mistake – this is a gathering directed by community owners for community owners.

We are in this together and everyone has something important to share!

MISSION STATEMENT

SECO Mission Statement
Educate, inform and inspire manufactured home community owners.

OBJECTIVES

SECO Objectives:

Encourage community owner networking and education
Promote community-series-home (CSH) acquisition, financing and sales
Facilitate community acquisition, financing, management and sales
Provide affordable housing
Improve the community segment of the manufactured housing industry as responsible business owners and professional managers.

ELEMENTS

Small- & mid-size community owners and managers
Panel discussions by operators
Specialized individual presentations
Vendors
Sponsors
501(c)(3) dedicated to community education

A bit more than 12 years ago, about a dozen community owners in Georgia came together to talk about mutual concerns and aspirations for their parks and the residents who live in them.

Later that same year, about 50 southeastern community owners met in a hotel conference room in Atlanta with the same idea in mind. David Roden, one of the organizers, recalls telling himself “If we’re successful, they’ll be successful.”

Each year the effort has grown, with contributions from about 10 other southeast community owners, and topics of conversation have ranged from basic maintenance to resident screening, web marketing and finance strategies.

SECO stays close to the needs of small- to mid-size community owners, addressing issues that even with today’s technologies are not easily addressed from this middle market position.

Each year is a set of new topics and speakers, but the goal remains the same.

“This is a program put on by community owners for community owners,” Spencer Roane, another organizer, said, “This is not an outside party trying to talk to you about your business and hoping to make some money.

“We want to create and promote nice looking, healthy communities filled with nice homes and people who are happy to be where they are,” said Roane. “We don’t think that’s too much to ask, and we find we’re not alone.”

Introducing the SECO Planning Team

Spencer Roane

Spencer Roane, president of Pentagon Properties, Inc., Atlanta, Ga., owns and manages four land lease communities in Georgia and Texas. His firm has sold over 450 new and previously-owned manufactured homes in his communities over the past 40 years via Lease-Option contracts. Over the past 8+ years, they sold and seller-financed over 70 new manufactured homes with only 3 defaults. Since the passage of the S.A.F.E. & Dodd-Frank Acts he has written about and spoken often to advocate the use of Lease-Option contracts to sell new and pre-owned manufactured homes in communities in most states.

He is a member of the Georgia Manufactured Housing Association (GMHA) where he served as an officer and member of the board of directors. He served on the National Communities Council (NCC) and the Disaster Housing Task Force of the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI). He is one of the organizers of the Southeast Community Owners (SECO) conference which attracts upwards of 400 small and mid-size community owners annually. Spencer holds a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering, an M.S. degree in Industrial Management, and both Mortgage Loan Originator and Mortgage Broker S.A.F.E. Act licenses. Contact him at (678) 428-0212. Pentagon Properties, Inc. website. LinkedIn profile.

David Roden

David Roden is co-owner of Mountain View Estates in Rossville GA., along with his wife Judy. Mountain View Estates broke ground on 46 acres in 1988 and built this community from woods and hay fields to one of the nicest communities in the southeast. He and his family live on-site and have one of the only Tornado Shelters in the area that can hold every resident of the community. Rated for 250 MPH and FEMA approved, it is one of the most satisfying accomplishments in their companies history.

With his wife as partner and his dad as manager for the past 25 years, it is truly a family-run operation of which he is very proud.

Tom Lackey

Tom Lackey first started in the industry in1988 when he was the General Manager of a Manufactured Home Dealership in Michigan. Tom’s experience has been diverse in the industry from managing multiple Communities, Owning and operating Communities in several states, owning and managing multiple dealer sales locations, operation of manufactured home insurance brokerage, and ownership of a national mobile home rental corporation. Tom is a member of the Georgia Manufactured Housing Association (GMHA), and the Michigan Manufactured Housing Association -having served on PAC Committee for the MMHA.

Maryuri Barberan

Maryuri Barberan is comptroller and executive vice president of Pentagon Properties, Inc. Pentagon Properties owns and manages four communities comprising about 500 lots in Georgia and Texas, and has sold over 550 new and previously owned manufactured homes via Lease-Option contracts over the past 32 years. Exceptionally low default rates are achieved with new Community Series Homes (CSH) and very thorough underwriting of L-O “buyers”. She is a member of the Executive Committee for SECO which attracts upwards of 500 small and mid-size community owners annually. She is also a member of the Veterans Assistance Program Committee and is a founding member of Women Advancing Manufactured Housing (WAMH). Maryuri holds a B.S. degree in real estate and finance from Georgia State University.

Maiara Spinetta

Maiara Spinetta is a native of Brazil, where she obtained her law degree in 2010. Her career has involved various areas of real estate, including development with one of the largest firms in Brazil – MRV Engineering. There she handled contract administration, interaction with various public and governmental agencies, and financing of large projects. She also worked in the real estate risk division of the Federal Bank CE in Brazil where she handled compliance issues, insurance, and various bank services, including new client acquisition. In the US, her career with Atlanta’s Pentagon Properties has involved all forms of property management, including resident relations, property management software, manufactured home floorplans, features, and options, home sales, and all forms of social media promotion at the four communities comprising almost 500 sites owned and managed by PPI. Maiara is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish, and English. She has been a HUGE help to SECO, handling all forms of promotion, conference management, and administration.

Maria Horton

Maria Horton serves as both Director of Marketing and Regional Manager for Newport Pacific Capital Company, Inc.

Newport Pacific is a full-service property management company located in Irvine, CA, specializing in manufactured home communities, apartment complexes, condo associations, and RV resorts. Newport Pacific has been a leader in the property management industry since 1980 and oversees properties throughout the United States. Maria has exceptional business acumen in the manufactured housing industry. She also has extensive experience in property management, home sales, leasing, marketing, budget preparation, vendor contract negotiations, and the development of on-site personnel. She holds her MCM, MHM, CAM, CMCA, and AMS designations and also is a licensed manufactured housing salesperson.

In 2009, Maria was appointed by the Mayor and City Council of Carson to sit as a member of the Mobile Home Rental Review Board. She currently remains an active member of this board. The City of Carson is known throughout the state of California for its strict rent control ordinances.

Maria shares her passion through her dedication to continue to improve her knowledge in our industry with exemplary service. She is a frequent speaker and attendee at industry conferences throughout the United States where she proudly represents her company and its accomplishments.

Ryan Narus

Ryan Narus co-founded Archimedes Group, owners of 20 Mobile Home Parks spanning roughly 1,800 lots. Ryan graduated from Wake Forest University in 2009 with a major in Psychology and in 2016 with an MBA, concentrating in Operations and Business Analytics Statistics. Ryan started his career in sales and quickly became an award-winning salesman, selling nearly 900 cars in just under 4 years. He then authored a book sharing how to use psychology to negotiate the best price at a car dealership. After achieving his MBA, Ryan joined Wells Fargo as a part of their leadership development program. Since 2015, Ryan has participated in over $30,000,000 of transactions while driving millions of equity creation by his systems-based approach. Currently, Ryan focuses on locating new opportunities and stabilizing the portfolio.

Dave Jackson

Dave Jackson is a Commercial Realtor and Broker with NAI/G2 Commercial Real Estate Services in Columbus, Georgia specializing in the sale of manufactured home communities, multifamily and self-storage properties. He is a business owner and has been associated with the manufactured housing industry for 50+ years as an owner, operator, supplier, property manager, and seller of communities in the southeastern US. Dave is a graduate of the University of Central Florida and the US Army Sergeants Major Academy.

Ekaterina Stepanova

Ekaterina Stepanova was born and raised in Moscow, Russia, and immigrated to the United States 14 years ago and has lived in New York since. She is a partner at M2K Partners, which owns MHP communities across the United States: Michigan, Ohio, Texas, formerly in Florida — and are limited partners in a 64-space community in AZ, totaling close to 500 spaces (www.mhpteam.com). Ekaterina is a Founder of Equity Tree, an online platform for commercial real estate deals and investor relations management (www.equitytree.io). She is also the organizer of a mobile home park investor community “MHP Tribe,” where she facilitates weekly meetings with MHP investors, operators, and owners.

Kim Shultz-Rainford

Kim Shultz-Rainford is a former corporate professional with a background in cash management, accounting and strategic planning. After selling over 65 manufactured homes, she took the leap into park ownership in 2013.

Over the years, Kim has successfully improved the living conditions and park atmospheres for her residents while increasing park capacity and profitability. She has received city infrastructure and utility upgrade approvals, generated a newfound sense of pride in her communities, and exponentially increased consumer awareness of her properties while adding and selling additional homes via owner finance.

Kim holds a B.A from University of Texas at Arlington, M.B.A. from Texas A&M University – Commerce, and is licensed by the State of Texas as a retailer. She is also a member of the Texas Manufactured Housing Association (TMHA) and serves on the SECO Planning Committee, Veterans Assistance Program Committee, and is a founding member of Women Advancing Manufactured Housing (WAMH).

Together with her construction-savvy husband, she continues to purchase and improve communities in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and currently owns two Manufactured Home Communities.

Daniel Smithson

Daniel Smithson is a relative newcomer to the industry, having purchased his first 48 lot park in August of 2018. The park itself is a large infill and turn around the project – definitely the most immersive first experience of the industry you could hope to have. Not to worry, he thinks getting his hands dirty is half the fun and can often be found working on projects throughout the park. Daniel and his wife, Amber, have two kids, Jonah (9) and Hannah (6), who are the “why” that gets him up each morning.

John Gelzer

John Gelzer is CEO and principal of Equity Management Company. John oversees a diverse commercial estate portfolio including multi-family, manufactured housing, hotel, office, industrial, land, and retail assets. As an attorney, he also works as in-house counsel

Paul Martens

Paul Martens is currently an active principal in the acquisition, development, and management of manufactured housing within the continental United States since acquiring his first community in 2006. Paul previously worked as a Project Manager in residential home construction after transitioning from a Program Manager in global manufacturing of plastics, molds, and production metal machining that spanned more than twenty years.

Paul’s responsibilities included customer/supplier relations, consulting on product design, tooling design, materials selection, supplier selection, quality control implementation as well as develop and manage program/project budgets, schedules, and coordinate logistics. Project revenues ranged from $50k to $100M+ for industries including medical, consumer electronics, automotive, and food packaging, and Paul traveled extensively throughout the United States, Asia, Mexico, and Canada working with a network of global manufacturing suppliers.

Paul’s experiences throughout his career significantly helped him navigate the challenges and rewards as an owner/operator, developer, and manager in the manufactured housing industry.

Judy Roden

Judy Roden is co-owner of Mountain View Estates along with her husband David. Mountain View Estates is located in Rossville, Ga on the Chattanooga, TN line. They broke ground on 46 acres in 1988 and built the community from woods and hay fields to one of the nicest communities in the southeast. Building a tornado shelter for residents of the community, which is rated for 250 MPH and FEMA approved, is one of the most satisfying accomplishments in their companies history. MVE is continually bringing in brand new homes to keep the community looking its best. With her husband as partner they are celebrating 30 years in business this year.