Click on a speaker or panelist below to view their photo and professional bio. To view the pre-SECO event schedule, click here. For the SECO Conference schedule, click here.
SECO18 Speakers & Panelists
George Allen,
CPM Emeritus, MHM-Master
George Allen, CPM Emeritus, MHM-Master. Author & freelance consultant re: factory – built and affordable housing, as well as land-lease-lifestyle communities! Founded the Community Owners (7 Part) Business Alliance, a.k.a. COBA7. George authored textbooks on real estate development, investment, property management & history, plus a Chapbook of Business & Management Wisdom, and Collection of Figurative Language & Figures of Speech – a writer’s guide. Also pens the Allen Letter professional journal, & the Allen CONFIDENTIAL! business newsletters. Contact him via: Box # 47024, Indianapolis, IN. 46247 & (317) 346-7156 & FAX 346-7158. Or email: gfa7156@aol.com Visit website: community-investor.com to read his weekly blog posting! Republic of Vietnam combat veteran, retired lieutenant colonel of U.S. Marines
Maxwell R. Baker
Maxwell R. Baker founded The MHP Broker in 2010 as a commercial real estate broker specializing in helping Investors purchase and sell mobile home communities within the Southeast. His family has been involved with mobile home parks since 2000, and he has been a part of management, rehabilitation, and selling mobile home parks ever since they purchased their first park. The MHP Broker offers mobile home community owners and investors brokerage services, mobile home park audits, in-depth market research, and mobile home park financing consultation.
The MHP Broker has successfully closed well over $500 Million dollars worth of mobile home communities since Maxwell founded the company in 2010. Maxwell’s core competencies include structuring and negotiating complicated transactions, owner financing, research and outsourcing, and his “deal-making” capabilities.
Maxwell, along with his expert team of researchers, compile and maintain the industry’s most extensive database of mobile home communities in the Southeast and have over 10,000 communities the company closely monitors for the most comprehensive sold data. Maxwell and The MHP Broker are recognized as a trusted advisor in this rapidly growing multifamily, affordable housing sector.
Heather Blankenship
Heather Blankenship has been the proud owner of Bear Cove Village RV Park in Pigeon Forge, TN for eight years. Heather recently converted to Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park at Pigeon Forge-Gatlinburg. She is also the Director of Business Development for the specialty group at Collier’s International that focuses on selling, apprising, and financing MH & RV Communities. Colliers is the 4th largest commercial real estate brokerage worldwide, has the number one RV appraiser and is number one in brokering of RV parks worldwide.
She received her undergraduate business degree from Western Illinois University before moving to Tennessee where she got her start in the camping industry. Heather is a former TNARVC board member and current co-chair for the ARVC Young Professionals. She has also taught classes at the national ARVC convention. She is certified in Outdoor Hospitality Management and is working to finish her MBA.
Ben Braband
Ben Braband – saddlebackpro.com
-Family owned, MHP Owner Operator
-Currently approx. 2200 sites in several western States
-Park owned home experience, currently approx. 500 POH
-President of the Rocky Mountain Housing Association 2014-2018
-Deep real estate housing experience includes apartment and single family homes.
Susan Brenton
Susan Brenton has held the position of executive director of the Manufactured Housing Communities Association of Arizona (MHCA) since 2003 and is presently secretary of the new National Association of Manufactured Housing Community Owners, Inc. Prior to her position with MHCA, she represented the manufactured housing residents in Arizona for 18 years.
Susan received her Accounting/Business degree from Arizona State University, served for 9 years on the national Manufactured Housing Consensus Committee, and has held various positions such as on the Arizona Manufactured Housing Board.
Jerry Bretton
Jerry Bretton is a Business Development Executive for Credit Human’s MH Direct lending. Jerry has been with Credit Human since 2010 and has been in Manufactured home lending since 1999. He is responsible for bringing awareness, support and education to communities, listing agents, Realtors® and other financial institutions. Jerry brings Credit Human’s direct loan programs that deliver a high level of service to customers allowing business partners to focus on their core business.
Kolman Bubis
Kolman Bubis is a real estate entrepreneur, broker and investor focused on the niche Manufactured Housing and Recreational Vehicle asset class. An industry veteran with almost 13 years’ experience, he is a founding principal of Real Estate Advisors. Kolman is also an active/passive investor and owner operator of Manufactured Housing Communities.
Sunstone Real Estate Advisors is the nation’s largest independent advisory firm focused exclusively on the manufactured housing and recreational vehicle asset class. The firm possesses an unparalleled history of success by focusing on its core values of accuracy, diligence, integrity, reliability and trust; some of the lost art in real estate transactions. Our clients realize the benefit of our vast relationship network and industry expertise. Sunstone strategically operates nationwide with offices in Chicago, Dallas, Houston and Nashville.
Keith Campbell
Keith Campbell is president of Campbell Properties LLC. He and his youngest son, Jeffrey owns and manages two manufactured home communities in Weaver Alabama. He purchased his first one in 2002. He started his dream while residing in both parks at a young age. Both parks occupy 44 pads with 28 owned units. When he is not managing his parks he is advising clients that make up a very successful career in personal lines insurance. He and his wife Beverly reside in Oxford, Al.
Steve Case
Steve Case has owned and operated 13 different manufactured home communities since 1999. He co-founded Mobile Home University in 2005 to provide a training platform and an environment for investors to help maximize their success in this asset class. MHU was subsequently sold in 2011 to Frank Rolfe and Dave Reynolds. Steve has served on the Georgia Manufactured Housing Association Board of Directors and has been a part of SECO since its inception. His expertise also includes self storage, which is the bulk of his portfolio. He is very active in helping those in the manufactured housing and self storage industries.
Jayne Cohen
Jayne Cohen founded Jayne L Cohen & Associates in 2012 and has over 40 years of outdoor hospitality and customer service experience. She owned a large and very successful family camp resort in New Hampshire until it was sold in 2003. For 8 years, until the latter part of 2011 she was the President of Adventure Bound Camping Resorts, a privately owned company with 10 camping resorts.
Jayne has extensive knowledge and experience in park operations and uses her skills and experience to assist clients to improve their revenues and profits by creating better experiences for their guests and creating systems, procedures, and strategic plans to obtain a client’s financial goals.
James Cook
James Cook entered the MH and RV asset class in 2005 with a listing of a small hybrid community in North Florida, where he grew up. After discovering the stability of the asset class as well as the strong demand, James decided to build a full-time practice around it. In 2007, he left the family business he had been managing to launch a brokerage dedicated exclusively to MH & RV communities.
Over the last 11 years, that firm has now grown to 4 regional directors covering the nation, and James has now closed nearly $1 billion in in sales production personally.
In 2012, he launched Yale Realty & Capital Advisors as a fully integrated financing and brokerage advisory. Today, Yale Capital Advisors is overseen by James’s counterpart Chris San Jose and is estimated to be the fastest growing, exclusively, MH and RV financing advisory. We are pleased to have closed $500m+ in loans in the last five years and were honored to be awarded MHI’s lender of the year for 2018.
Ken Corbin
Ken Corbin has an extensive background in business accomplishments for our industry going back to the 1970’s.
As President of the #1 housing company in the country, there we’re MORE homes sold at Ken’s address than ANY other address ANYWHERE in the United States. That record still stands today.
He’s worked with over 800 manufactured housing communities, retailers, manufacturer’s and associations
Ken Corbin has been recognized 3 times as the Professional Speaker of the Year in specialized housing and development. He’s also the author of countless books on business growth, sales management and the problems facing the manufactured housing industry today.
Ken’s newest writing, “Selling the American Dream of Home Ownership” was just completed. The audio book is over 10 hours in length and was just released this summer.
Brett R. Danko
Brett R. Danko, CFP®, CRPC® has worked in the financial services industry for nearly 20 years and is a featured nationwide lecturer on matters of personal finance. He is regularly called upon by the financial services industry to provide financial planning training to top tier financial advisors and to consult on complex planning issues affecting their clients.
Brett is the Founder and Managing Partner of Main Street Financial Solutions, LLC, specializing in financial planning and asset management. In that capacity, he helps the firm’s clients address their complex financial planning and investment situations. In addition, Brett is a dynamic speaker with the ability to deliver complex information to professionals and clients in an easily understandable way. He teaches all the required CFP® Certification Education Courses (Financial Planning, Insurance, Investments, Income Tax, Retirement and Estate) and CFP® Board Certification Examination Prep Courses throughout the United States. He also provides classroom continuing education to industry professionals. Brett is a regular speaker at key client events where he presents on emerging and hot topics in the financial planning arena.
Brett grew up in Pittsburgh, PA and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. He lives in Lawrenceville, NJ with his wife and two children
Candice Doolan
Candice Doolan graduated from the University of TN in 2004 and has been with 21st Mortgage Corp for 13 years. She started in their Servicing Division and moved to the Marketing Department to work with retailers. As the community business at 21st Mortgage has grown, Candice moved into a role to focus specifically on community business a couple of years ago. Her current role is Senior Communities Business Development Manager where she works with community operators across the nation in the 45 states we service to get setup with 21st Mortgage and to grow our community-specific business.
Kevan Enger
Kevan Enger is a Partner and Manufactured Housing Director for Capstone MH. He specializes in helping mobile home park owners across the country successfully position, market and sell their properties to maximize returns. Capstone has seven offices in five states through Florida, the Southeast, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions.
David Gorin
David Gorin founded David Gorin & Associates in 2002, the predecessor to the new Gorin+Cohen Consulting Group established in 2015. From 1987 to the end of 2001, he was the President & CEO of the National Association of RV Parks & Campgrounds, an association which thrived and grew under his leadership for 14 years.
He is recognized as a leading expert on the RV park and campground business, consulting across the US, speaking widely before park owner audiences and regularly contributing articles to industry publications. He’s consulted with hundreds of park owners and aspiring owners and developers on issues from A to Z – from accessibility to zoning and just about everything in between. He founded the National School of RV Park & Campground Management, Outdoor Hospitality magazine and the leading industry consumer Internet site, GoCampingAmerica.com. David established Best Parks in America in 2004, a national brand for highly-rated RV parks and campgrounds that he sold in 2011, and was the co-developer and owner of Holiday Cove RV Resort in Florida.
Dawn Highhouse
Dawn Highhouse is the Vice President Customer Experience for MHVillage.com. She joined Datacomp Appraisal Services in 1999. In 2004 Datacomp leveraged their manufactured housing expertise to develop MHVillage (www.MHVillage.com), the Manufactured Housing Institute’s only endorsed national listing website. Today MHVillage is the industry’s largest and most active website with over 27,000 manufactured home listings and more than 25 million visitors annually. Dawn travels the country speaking with manufactured housing professionals on internet and digital marketing strategies.
Curtis D. Hodgson
Owner, Legacy Housing Corp. 38 years industry experience. Entrepreneur. Attorney. Graduate Engineer. Four children; seven grandchildren.
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 an 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 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 Mobilehome 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.
Brad Huffines
Brad Huffines brings his 33 years as a meteorologist and 22 years as a certified emergency public information dissemination instructor for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Emergency Management Institute. He also teaches for the California Specialized Training Institute for the California Office of Emergency Services. He is the Chief Meteorologist of WeatherCall Services, an MHI partner organization, promoting community safety through teaching, understanding and delivering solutions. His subject matter expertise includes all aspects of meteorology and earth sciences, emergency management training and exercise, emergency public information, the use of social media in disasters, strategic messaging, mass communication technology, and media, as a former broadcast meteorologist in local markets and the national stage at CNN.
Dave Jackson
Dave Jackson is a Commercial Realtor and Broker with Keller Williams Commercial/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 a 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.
Shea Jones
Shea Jones started working in the factory at Guerdon Industries in 1975. In 1976 got into sales until 1981 where at that time went to Scott Housing Systems as Director of Sales up until 1987 where he opened Jones & Veal Homes with a partner Todd Veal for 19 years. While at Jones and Veal he served 10 years with the Georgia Manufactured Housing Association. He left Jones & Veal in 2006 to be the Sales Manager and Executive V.P. @ ScotBilt Homes where he currently works. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus charitable organization. ScotBilt Homes main plant opened in 2004 built from the ground up in Waycross, Georgia by Sam and Greg Scott. ScotBilt recently built a new facility in Millen, Georgia. Sales at ScotBilt last year were $53,000,000. ScotBilt has done a number of government contracts with FEMA. The largest $30,000,000. ScotBilt Homes is well known for its service department and well built homes.
Kurt Kelley
Kurt Kelley is co-founder and managing member of the American Insurance Alliance and serves as the president for Mobile Insurance, a Texas-based agency that specializes in insurance for manufactured home communities and retailers. It has been named the top commercial insurance agency by American Modern Insurance Group, and is one of largest manufactured home specialty agencies in the country.
Kelley also is a community owner and manager, is founder and owner of Expert Climate Control, is a member of numerous insurance companies’ policy development and advisory teams and serves on the board of directors for the Texas Manufactured Housing Association.
Darren Krolewski
Darren Krolewski is Co-President and Chief Business Development Officer of MHVillage, the number one website for manufactured homes, retailers and communities online. Leads generated by the more than 25 million consumers who start their home search with MHVillage.com result in home sales transactions exceeding $3 billion annually.
Darren began his manufactured housing career with a large, regional retailer that eventually grew to become part of the industry’s largest vertically-integrated manufacturing, financing and sales organization.
Prior to joining MHVillage in 2014, Darren held senior marketing positions in the telecommunications, advertising and financial services industries – and was a partner in a marketing consulting firm serving the housing industry.
An award-winning marketing professional for more than 20 years, Darren has been instrumental in the success of numerous real estate developments, communities and retail sales operations across the United States.
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, Owing and operating Communities in several states, Owing 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.
Jefferson Lilly
Jefferson Lilly is a mobile home park investment expert and educator. He is the founder of Park Avenue Partners, and co-founder of Park Street Partners. Collectively he owns 25 MHPs coast-to-coast totaling over $56mm in value. Jefferson started the industry’s first podcast dedicated to investing in MHPs (MobileHomeParkInvestors.com). Prior to managing investors’ money in 2013, he spent seven years investing his own capital in mobile home parks. Jefferson has been featured in The New York Times, Bloomberg Magazine, and on the Real Money television show. He holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business.
Robert T. Love
Robert T. Love, CPM, is President and founder of Love Properties, Inc., an Atlanta-based AMO, full service, real estate firm. Love Properties, Inc. is presently operating about 1,000 multi-family units in addition to several commercial properties. Love Properties, Inc. has developed or managed 115 income-producing properties over the last 40 years, with a value in excess of $575,000,000. Mr. Love is a graduate of the University of Miami and holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Georgia State University.
Mr. Love is a past president and director of the Atlanta Apartment Association and the Georgia Apartment Association and past director and secretary of the Georgia Manufactured Housing Association. Love Properties, Inc. is also a member of the Atlanta Commercial Board of REALTORS®.
Mr. Love was appointed to serve a 5 year term as a commissioner on the Georgia Real Estate Commission in 2006 and as Chairman in 2011. Within the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM), Mr. Love was the National President in 1993. He also served as President of the Atlanta Chapter of IREM in 1981 and 1982, and was elected Property Manager of the Year for the Atlanta Chapter in 1983 and 1990.
Mr. Love was inducted into the Georgia Apartment Association Hall of Fame in 2011.
Tim Manson
Tim Manson started in commercial real estate ten years ago, specializing in the construction side of the business. He began his real estate career at Clark Construction Group, based in Bethesda, Md., where he served as a Superintendent responsible for multi-family construction at the CityCenterDC and Square 54/The Avenue projects. He later served as Project Manager at Ditto Residential in Washington, D.C., overseeing the development, design and construction for the company’s urban infill, multi-family deals.
Most recently, Tim served as the Director of Development of Johnson Development Associates Self-Storage Division, leading the development, design and construction efforts for all of the company’s self-storage projects. At JDA, he orchestrated the growth of an $800 million, 70 deal self-storage pipeline with a focus on top 20 MSAs along the East and West Coasts. Tim hired and lead a team of 25 real estate professionals across 4 regional offices and under his leadership, they delivered ~2MM RSF of investment-grade, class A self-storage products with another ~2MM RSF under construction.
Originally from Lookout Mountain, Tenn., Tim earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Washington & Lee University.
Larry R. Mathews
Larry R. Mathews is the Director of American Commerce Bank and retired Community Bank President. He holds a B.S. in Finance from the University of Alabama and an M.B.A. from the University of Alabama, Birmingham.
Susan McCarty
Susan McCarty is co-owner of Spotlight Strategies, a marketing specialties firm, EMS Real Estate Enterprises, and Star Homes USA. Susan began her entrepreneurial journey in the early 1980’s earning her Real Estate Broker’s license and working in the family real estate business. Her first experiences with asset management, business finance and administration began in the manufactured housing industry under the tutelage of her father, George Allen. Over the past 28 years, together with her business partner, Erin Smith, they’ve grown their marketing and commercial real estate companies to be multi-million dollar enterprises, putting them in the top 2% of women business owners in the United States.
Susan has a strong work ethic and is committed to a servant leadership lifestyle. Additionally she commits her time serving in a Christian women’s ministry, and is co-owner of the not-for-profit, Pay It Forward Johnson County, which facilitates fundraising events supporting causes and organizations in her community. This mentally and physically demanding lifestyle is fueled by her passion for CrossFit workouts.
Foundational in Susan’s life is her commitment to her faith and family. Susan continues to celebrate married life with her high school sweetheart, Drew. Together they have two adult children, Heather Falks, and Travis McCarty. Susan also finds much joy and blessings in watching the developing lives of her two grandchildren, Hunter & Peyton Falks.
Amy McMahan
Amy McMahan was born and raised in Marshall, Texas. She currently resides in Longview, Texas. Amy’s Bachelor’s Degree is in behavioral science. Her work experience is diversified and includes public school teaching, keeping books for the family business, personal fitness training and group fitness instructor. She enjoys an active lifestyle. Amy’s hobbies include traveling, sports and spending quality time with her family and friends.
Amy and her husband, with another couple, purchased their first mobile home community in Longview this past November. They have thrown themselves into the business by trying to learn as much as possible attending conferences and trade shows. Amy’s role in their park has developed into the liaison between the partners and the residents. Their park manager reports to her, and between the two of them they facilitate a very positive and friendly environment. Amy’s main goal has been to beautify the community and help the residents take pride in ownership. She has personally met each tenant living in their park and she enjoys communicating with them.
Chuck Meek
Charles (Chuck) Meek is President of Bay Acceptance, Inc and has owned and managed apartments, houses and mobile home communities for 25 years. He bought his first park in 2004 loves the MH community business. He’s a proud founder the “Trailer Park Kings” along with David Protiva and Mark Titshaw. The Kings started meeting in 2006 with like-minded community owners to share ideas on improving their parks and portfolios. Chuck lives in Jacksonville AL with his wife Sara and daughter Savannah and currently manages about 150 sites in 5 locations.
Steve Mehrer
Steve Mehrer of CountryPlace Mortgage, Ltd. a Cavco Industries Company is the director for consumer lending with more than 24 years of experience in the field. He is a results-oriented leader with extensive sales and management experience in driving operational excellence. Mehrer consistently exceeds goals with profit and loss responsibilities for the sales and operations platforms, guiding more than 500 employees in a multi-branch and call center environment.
Steve has held senior positions in lending for manufactured housing prior to his work with CountryPlace, and for the last eight years has led initiatives for community finance programs, including launch of the recent Cavco Industries new home rental program REvive.
Cavco Industries, Inc. designs, produces, and retails manufactured homes primarily in the United States. It operates in two segments, Factory-Built Housing and Financial Services. The company markets its manufactured homes under the Cavco Homes, Fleetwood Homes, Palm Harbor Homes, Fairmont Homes, Friendship Homes, Chariot Eagle, Nationwide, and Lexington Home brands. It also builds park model RVs; vacation cabins; and systems-built commercial structures, including apartment buildings, condominiums, hotels, workforce housing, schools, and housing for the United States military troops. Further, through CountryPlace Mortgage, Ltd. it provides conforming mortgages, non-conforming mortgages, and home-only loans to purchasers of various brands of factory-built homes sold by company-owned retail sales centers, as well as various independent retailers, builders, communities, and developers. Additionally, the company offers property and casualty insurance to owners of manufactured homes through our company owned Standard Casualty Company. Cavco Industries, Inc. was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.
Matt Nelson
Matt Nelson is a Managing Partner of The Four Leaf Companies, a privately held, owner and operator of manufactured housing communities and provider of MH Property Management Services. Following almost a decade of property acquisitions and management, Four Leaf sold the 24 property portfolio to YES! Communities in the spring of 2018. Since that time, Four Leaf has begun rebuilding the asset portfolio and launched innovative MH Property Management services driven by the proprietary FLOhome digital platform for digital marketing, sales and online resident financing.
Matt left the banking industry in 2014 to partner with long-time clients and founding members of Four Leaf Properties, Michael Callaghan and Kevin Shaughnessy. Supporting their growing portfolio, The Four Leaf Companies co-founded an independent manufactured housing mortgage loan company (First Choice), an insurance servicer (Smart Choice), and an asset management company (Asset Management Partners). This multi-faceted platform integrates all aspects of the business including acquisitions, capital sourcing, management, development and disposition of assets.
Prior to Mr. Nelson’s partnership with The Four Leaf Companies, he was Vice President at Clayton Bank and Trust where he extended loans to manufactured housing owner/operators nationally.
Mr. Nelson graduated from the University of Tennessee with degrees in Finance and Accounting. Matt lives in Chicago.
Randy Newby
As Director of Information Technology (IT), Randy Newby has over 28 years of progressive web development, hardware/software support and management experience. With roots beginning in hospitality management, Randy is well attuned to the needs of servicing the customer and in building systems to service residents, investors and community owners. Randy’s credentials include Fortune 500 experience and entrepreneurial skills gleaned from his own web development and computer support business where he directed a team of developers and technicians that serviced over 200 customers worldwide.
Michael Nissley
Michael Nissley leads the Manufactured Housing Group as Executive Vice President and National Director. He oversees the execution of the team’s Manufactured Home, Recreational Vehicle Community and Marina assignments. This includes strategic positioning of offerings, coordination of the financial and underwriting processes, and interaction with key decision makers within industry REITs, large institutional investment firms, family offices and owner operators.
Nissley has been an integral part in the sale of more than $2 billion of commercial real estate assets, including the recent closing of an 11-property Florida portfolio that ranks as the largest-brokered marina transaction ever in the United States. In addition to selling several portfolios in Georgia, he sold the Morgan RV portfolio, one of the largest RV portfolios in the United States. He also facilitated the largest Canadian manufactured home, RV Resort, and marina portfolio acquisition for a prominent Canadian pension fund and two of the largest Canadian RV portfolios, Parkbridge and Castle Vacation Parks. Before joining Colliers, he was the founder, top producer, and director of both the MHRV and Marina groups at CBRE for over 10 years.
The Colliers Manufactured Housing Group focuses exclusively on Manufactured Housing Communities and RV Resorts across the United States and Canada. Our group offers a diverse collection of relevant industry experience including community ownership and management, acquisitions, disposition, debt and equity finance, land development and assemblage, property marketing and market research. We have developed significant influence within the local, regional and national investment communities as trusted advisors for a wide range of clients. We deliver superior results for our clients by leveraging extensive property marketing resources and real-time market knowledge and research. Our group has been involved in more than $2 billion transactions and has consistently ranked among the top producers in the industry.
Gene Norman
Gene Norman is a veteran broadcast meteorologist having earned Emmy and Associated Press awards over a 20-year period as the Chief Meteorologist at TV stations in Atlanta, Houston and Birmingham. His continuous reporting during Hurricane Ike in 2008 and the 2014 Alabama tornado outbreak is credited with saving lives. In 2015, he relocated to Atlanta and represents WeatherCall – a nation-wide severe weather monitoring service. This role combines Gene’s weather expertise with his passion for public safety. Gene is a sought-after speaker educating civic, community and business groups on weather risk management. He is a member of the National Weather Association, holds the Seal of Approval from the American Meteorologist Society (AMS) and has earned a Certified Broadcast Meteorologist (CBM) designation. He also previously served as president of the American Meteorology Society’s Broadcast Board.
Tammy ORourke
Tammy ORourke retired from a 33 year career in the financial banking industry with experience in mortgage lending, small business lending and management.
Tammy and her husband of 41 years looking at their future wanted to create income in their lives and get out of corporate. Tammy took her financial experience, along with her husband’s construction background and together became real estate investors in 2001. After purchasing several rental investments we purchased 2 parks moving from Florida to Georgia.
Both parks were not a place where most anyone would want to live or feel safe. As parks owners we soon realized who we wanted to attract and have transformed both parks into quiet communities that draws families, retirees and those on disability. Through this transformation we took these communities from being unprofitable to profitable and became very proficient in cash management.
Cole Phillips
Cole Phillips started his mobile home career in 1995 at the age of 18 on a mobile home retail lot selling new mobile homes. In 1997 he was promoted to assistant manager where he stayed until 2000, when he was promoted to run his own retail lot. He managed that retail center for five years. In 2005, Cole purchased a 166 pad mobile home community and then another 85 pad community. Two years later From 2005 -2014 he bought and sold countless foreclosures along with running his two communities. April of 2014 Cole added a 189 pad community strictly as a park rehab and flip. He rehabbed the complete park and in October 2016 sold it making a sizable profit as expected. Knowing he was not going to keep community three, Cole wanted to offer a service he felt was needed in the mobile home park industry. So in 2015, he offered a wide range of services to community owners. Services provided ranged from rehabs, new home installation, due diligence assistant and much more. Today, Cole still owns two parks while also helping community owners better their properties.
David B. Protiva
David B. Protiva’s first involvement with the industry started in 1995 when he purchased his first community. David has since purchased 7 communities and currently owns and operates several parks in the Atlanta area. He also provides financing to other park owners, collateralized either by land or by mobile homes. Since 2000, David has also occasionally provided consultation and brokerage services to individuals considering entering our industry, and holds real estate brokerage licenses in Georgia and South Carolina. David is a member of the Georgia Manufactured Housing Association (GMHA), having received the 2010 Pacesetter Award, and has also have been a SECO volunteer for the past 7 years.
Kim Reeve
Kim Reeve and her husband Rusty live in the suburbs of Dallas and purchased their first MHP in the Spring of 2017 in the Gadsden, AL area. Why would anyone purchase a park at the base of the Appalachian Mountains? We are still trying to figure it out! But the golf course view is stunning!
Our company name is Twenty Nine-Eleven Holdings, LLC based on Jeremiah 29:11 and we truly believe our mission is to bless, lift up, and give hope and a future to all those that live in our park.
With a background in special events, Kim has been able to use those skills to interact with the residents promoting a sense of community, inclusiveness and caring.
Kim’s background includes a degree in merchandising with a career at Gucci and other specialty retailers. She is also a certified legal secretary, and has served as the Director of Programs & Volunteers for a premier senior retirement community in the Dallas area.
Rusty Reeve
Rusty Reeve and his wife Kim Reeve are new to the MH business, having recently purchased a small park northeast of Birmingham. Rusty worked over 40 years in the Defense and Intelligence community. Duties ranged from Engineering and Operations Management to Consulting and New Business Development.
Following his retirement, Rusty shifted his focus towards volunteer opportunities in the community. He is an active member of Bent Tree Bible Fellowship in Carrollton, TX. Rusty has been a mentor in Big Brothers Big Sisters for four years. He serves on the Board of Directors for Lovepacs, a 501(c)3 dedicated to serving children who experience food insecurity. Last year Lovepacs served over 462,000 meals to 5700 children in 139 schools.
Rusty has been happily married to his wife Kim (real boss) for 15 years. They reside in Lucas, TX and enjoy spending time with four children and eight grand children. They own and manage a couple rental properties in the Dallas area. Rusty and Kim enjoy international travel, and try to make one trip each year.
Rusty holds a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from Texas Tech University and did graduate studies in Management at Univ of Texas at Arlington. Rusty is a certified Six Sigma Master Expert and retired from Raytheon Company in 2014.
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. At Hardrock Park alone, her efforts have increased park profitability by 700% and park value by 800%.
Together with her construction-savvy husband, she continues to purchase and improve communities in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and currently owns three RV/Mobile Home parks and the finance company Innovative Housing Solutions.
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 350 new and previously-owned manufactured homes in his communities over the past 27 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 passage of the S.A.F.E. & Dodd-Frank Acts he has written about and spoken often to advocate 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 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, a M.S. degree in Industrial Management, and both Mortgage Loan Originator and Mortgage Broker S.A.F.E. Act licenses. Contact him at spencer@roane.com or (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 south east. He and his family live onsite 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 of.
Chris San Jose
In 2011, Chris San Jose graduated from Florida State University with a dual-major in Finance and Real Estate. Soon after graduating, he joined James Cook, a successful real estate broker specializing in the MHC & RV industry. As an analyst, Chris began to understand strengths of the economics and fundamentals of the industry, and determined that he wanted to commit himself long-term. Therefore, in 2012, James and Chris launched Yale Realty & Capital Advisors, with James continuing to run the growing brokerage division, and Chris focusing full-time on arranging financing for MHC’s and RVP’s nation-wide.
Since 2012, Yale Capital has closed on over $600 million in loans for community financing throughout the country, ranging from $600k loans with local banks, to $100+ million credit facilities with the agency lenders. The firm takes strong pride in taking as much of the risk out of a transaction by providing a thorough underwriting analysis up front and using experience from other transactions to maneuver through obstacles. As a testament to this process and successful approach, Yale Capital Advisors was selected as the 2018 National MHI Community Lender of the Year.
Erin Smith
Erin Smith is co-owner of Spotlight Strategies, a marketing specialties firm, EMS Real Estate Enterprises, and Star Homes USA. Although she is relatively new to the manufactured housing industry, her work ethic and persistent nature has made her a quick study. Smith’s marketing and sales background, coupled with being a community owner, gives her a unique perspective in the affordable housing industry. Her presentation on marketing caught the eye of several at 27th Annual Networking Roundtable held in Indianapolis this past month.
Erin brings rare behavioral expertise to the world of small business. With a Master’s degree in social work, and a thriving business she is a sought after advisor, coach and mentor to many of Indiana’s small business owners and support associations. Erin demonstrates unwavering commitment to growth and profitability to any organization to which she directs her time and talent, and is successful in motivating and empowering people whether supporting a cause or building a company. Together, Erin and Susan have grown their marketing and commercial real estate companies to be multi-million dollar enterprises, putting them in the top 2% of women business owners in the United States.
Smith has served on numerous community boards and currently sits on the executive board for JCCF (Johnson County Community Foundation). She is a graduate from the Stanley K. Lacy Leadership Program Class XXXV & the Lugar Series Excellence in Public Service (2014) and volunteers at Mount Pleasant Christian Church’s wellness ministry.
Erin has two sons, Bailey (19) who attends Purdue University’s Aviation program and Ben (17) who is a senior at Center Grove High School and on the football team. She enjoys Friday night football games, bible study and working out in her free time. She is a certified Zumba instructor and teaches several times a week to stay in shape.
Gary Taylor
Gary Taylor is a long term member of the Manufactured Housing Industry. He began his career with Mr. Sam Scott at Scott Housing in 1981. He is a graduate of the University of Georgia (Go Dawgs). He has been associated with the Industry for 38+ years as a salesman, sales manager and General Manager. Gary served on the GMHA Board of Directors and was voted into the GMHA Hall of Fame in 2014. Gary and his wife Patti have been married for 47 years and reside in Waycross, Georgia.
Kevin Thrash
Kevin Thrash has 30 years’ experience in Credit Management, Project Management, Corporate Finance, and Banking. Kevin is American Commerce Bank’s Senior Lender and is responsible for loan production and underwriting. He has a BBA from Mississippi State University, an MBA from Georgia State University, and has completed the Graduate School of Banking at Louisiana State University. Kevin is also a Certified Treasury Professional.
American Commerce Bank is headquartered in Bremen, GA with offices in Johns Creek, GA and Tallahassee, FL. We are a full service commercial bank with state of the art electronic banking services. While we lend in to many sectors of the economy, the financing of the manufactured housing industry has been a very successful business for us. We provide financing for community owners including land and homes.
Chris Turturro
Chris Turturro is celebrating his 20th year anniversary in the manufactured housing industry next month, November, and is the Director of Sales and Marketing for Cascade Financial Services. With his team, Chris provides education, training, marketing material and service to more than 600 accounts across 42 states.
Luis Vela
Luis Vela is a Senior Director of Q10 | Lutz Financial Services. With over forty years experience in commercial mortgage, finance and real estate industries, Mr. Vela has been active as both a principal, direct lender, developer and mortgage and real estate broker in hundreds of transactions exceeding three billion.
Prior to joining Q10 | Lutz Financial Services, Mr. Vela headed the Detroit office in Troy as Vice President for PNC ARCS Commercial Mortgage Co., Fannie Mae’s #1 DUS Multifamily lender for over 9 years. Before PNC ARCS, Mr. Vela was Vice President for National Community Financing for Conseco Finance Corp, and its predecessor Green Tree Financial Corp, both on the New York Stock Exchange.
Before Green Tree, Vela was Senior Vice President of Detroit-based Chateau Properties, Inc. (NYSE REIT), containing more than 40,000 units.
Mr. Vela has a Masters in Finance from Columbia’s Graduate School of Business in New York City and a Bachelors Degree from Michigan State University.
He is a Member of Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), Florida Association of Mortgage Professionals (FAMP), Rotary International and former member of Urban Land Institute (ULI).
He holds a Mortgage and Real Estate Brokers License from the State of Florida.
Kurt Wilkerson
Kurt Wilkerson is the Director of Commercial Lending for Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance, Inc. He has been in the manufactured housing industry for 16 years and worked in all phases of the industry including managing a former Clayton land-lease community converted to a subdivision. His current passion is providing flexible financing options for operators of landlease communities so they can provide more affordable housing for this country. To date, the new group at Vanderbilt has financed $39 million and over 2,800 sites. You can contact his team at CLT@vmf.com and 1-800-309-5008.
Kurt has two children, Luke and Brody, and his wife, Leslie also works at Vanderbilt leading the Direct Sales and Marketing Team in the Vanderbilt Remarketing Department. He graduated from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2002 with a Finance degree.