In this episode of The MHP Broker’s Tips and Tricks podcast, Maxwell Baker, president of The Mobile Home Park Broker, interviewed Cole Phillips, president of Phillips Investment Properties, on his experiences buying and managing the mobile home setup and major renovations of a Mobile Home Park in Perry, GA. We also chatted a bit about SECO22, this year’s edition of the Southeast Community Owners annual conference.

This and every Tips and Tricks podcast episode are brought to you by The MHP Broker’s’  proprietary Community Price Maximizer. Use this four-step system to get the highest price possible for your mobile home park or RV community when you sell it through The MHP Broker. Guaranteed. Ask Max for details.  

Here Are the Show Highlights:

• Cole Phillips is a park owner and third-party service provider to the industry. (Max, 1:03)
• This edition of Tips and Tricks discussed Cole’s work with a mobile home park in Perry, GA. In addition to owning parks, Cole’s company also specializes in such services as setups, which is moving mobile home into client parks, and dealing with movers. (Max, 1:37)
• Cole had looked at the park years before, with his partner Steve Case, and both had shown no interest. The park was in shabby shape and in trouble with the city of Perry. In early 2021, a broker contacted Cole and asked him to look at the park again. By then it was in such bad shape that the city was fining it on a daily basis. The difference at that tim was that the city had done a beautiful job of renovating the surrounding neighborhood, so Cole convinced his partner to take another hard-edged look. If the city let them do things their way, they’d step in, buy the park and make the necessary renovations. (Cole, 2:37)
• Cole called the first meeting with about 10 city officials, introduced themselves and pitched their track record with parks. He said they’d document what they did, every step of the way. (Cole, 5:23)
• Cole pitched some pretty aggressive proposed improvements, including the removal of what would turn out to be 200 trees and major road repair and repaving. For proof of what they could do, they showcased their park in Centerville, just 15 miles down the road and said they wanted to do the same thing in Perry. (6:30)
• By the time Cole went to the second meeting with the same local team, they’d brought up additional questions and apparently got the answers they wanted to hear. The city officials were anxious to add affordable housing to the neighborhood. The daily fines with the current park owner had reached six figures, but the officials said they’d discontinue the daily fines if Cole’s company bought the park and they made the improvements within an agreeable timeline. That was the carrot. The stick was that if Cole’s company missed the timeline or didn’t complete the improvements as agreed upon, the fines would continue. Cole enthusiastically agreed. (Cole, 7:47)
• Cole signed with the city and took on the project in February, 2021. (Cole, 9:25)
• By December of that same year, ten months after they’d started, the project was successfully completed. (Cole, 10:05)
• Beyond the park itself, the true benefit was that the company now had an entire town’s worth of officials as references to the fact that Cole and his people made ambitious promises--and lived up to them. Park owners often have an adversarial relationship with cities, but he showed how at least one company could work in harmony with a city to not only beautify but bring back to life a park and make it a city showcase. (Cole,10:28)
• There are now 60 brand new homes on that property. They’re still working on final touches. (Cole, 11:47)
• One of Cole’s main services is still home setup for other park owners. He’ll bring in homes, and deal with the movers. He estimates that he’s setup an average of about 375 homes a year over the last five pre-COVID years. (Cole,13:53)
• COVID impacted that total considerably, because manufacturers were slowed down, but business is returning. (Cole,14:09)
• For SECO22, which is Oct. 3-6 in Stone Mountain Park in suburban Atlanta, Cole will have some presence, but not as much as usual. He’ll probably be part of a panel discussion to discuss the Perry project and other issues, but he won’t have a booth because he’s just too busy. (Cole, 17:09)
• SECO22 will be the first physical show after COVID turned the conference virtual for the last two years, and about 500 people are expected. (Max, 18:03)

Reach out to Max to see how The Mobile Home Park Broker can evaluate your community, help you get the best selling price, and, if needed, bring in such partners as Phillips Investment Properties and other experts to increase the value of your community. Just drop Max a line at [email protected] or give him a call at 678-932-0200.

Power Quotes on This Episode:

“(Cole’s company is the) here-are-the-keys type of third party that you can hire to come in and essentially get your homes in there, and deal with all of the knucklehead movers that are out there who are unreliable.” (Max, 1:37)

“The city manager, housing development guys, code enforcement was there, the utility companies were there. There was a roomful of people; I think there was 10 people in this first meeting.” (Cole, 5:23)

(Despite the) six-figure fine, it took me every bit of two seconds to answer. Sure, we’ll do it, because I knew what I could do.” (Cole, 9:07)

“Within that 10 month stretch, you know, we moved mountains and what we accomplished in that 10 months, you know, the park was great.” (Cole, 10:28)

“We’re the last frontier for affordable housing. (Cole, 11:47) 

“We are months, a couple months away from being completely done with this project, meaning every lot’s cool, brand new houses in, two-car parking pads. It's just a beautiful thing.” (Cole, 11:47)

“If you've got a completely vacant park, Cole is the guy to call, because he will just hand

you the keys and really talk to the city and the county and can manage all the paperwork

and all that jazz and manage all the movers, which, if you've been in this industry long

enough, you know how hard that is.” (Max,  12:44)

“I love SECO. SECO is a great place to network.” (Cole, 17:34)