Life Stories from a Manufactured Housing Professional (with Varied Interests)
Anyone who’s taken the time to sit and chat with manufactured housing industry veteran Barry Cole knows… well, anything is possible. And you should prepare to be surprised.
Perhaps he’s lived two lifetimes or more. But when Cole starts his professional story, and begins to tell of his childhood, it seems fantastical — like something from a feature film.
In fact it is, but from the mind of someone who didn’t really experience the story. The story is fiction. Cole lived it.
One word of note, from the source; typically the kid who lives at hotels and gets dropped at school by the bell hop gets beat up for a bit, has a 15 year old body guard and has to make some plans to normalize his relationships.
“It’s an odd life, and you have to get creative,” Cole said.
Charles W. “Curly” Cole, Cole’s father, was a protege of the legendary hotelier Conrad Hilton. Cole said his father, during the time he ran The New Yorker Hotel, an art deco masterpiece that remains in business today where he was the president of the hotel association and seemed to know everybody and was best pals with Yankees slugger Mickey Mantle, was close to many celebrities and had been “honorary mayor” of Hell’s Kitchen, alongside theater and screen icon Sydney Poitier.
The hotel was famous worldwide. It had an indoor ice rink, direct access to the subway, and was the first hotel to have a TV in each room.
His mother, Lola (Cogan) Cole, was a dancer, and worked with Carmen Miranda, Esther Williams, and Betty Davis. She is in the Three Stooges Hall of Fame Museum and was crowned “Queen of the Stardust Ballroom” in Hollywood and is in the California Swing Dance Hall of Fame. She met Curly Cole while singing in big bands and they married in 1945.
He lived in The Senator Hotel in Sacramento before the move to the New Yorker, and the family returned to California by the time he was out of grade school. During that time the family had interests far and wide, including in Albuquerque where the Cole Hilton was and remains the only co-branded hotel in Hilton history. They owned The Deshler in Columbus, Ohio, included in the best-selling book “Harry Truman’s Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip.” Flamboyant Curly had ladies on swings in the lobby and horses in elevators going to the top floor.
It was with all that he saw in front of him and from those early “hotel offices” that Cole began to have thoughts about his own future, business ideas, and how to capture the imagination of customers.
High School Ideals
By the time he was back in Southern California in his high school years, Cole was the first President of West Coast Surfers.
“I was a terrible surfer and they felt sorry for me but I had a garage in Hermosa Beach storing boards,” he said.
He also started Cole Racing Enterprises, because he and many young people of that day thought Corvettes were beyond cool.
“I went to the drag strip and sold T-shirts with the logo,” Cole said. “We sewed in first and last names, too, or whatever they wanted. They were really great and people loved them.
“Then I got the cease and desist letter. Corvette got mad at me,” he said.
Live and learn.
He was a member of the Screen Extras Guild appearing in shows Hogans Heros, Time Tunnel, please don’t eat the daisies, the Man from uncle, Bob Hope Chrysler Theater, Felony Squad and many others.
Six Years of Service
During the Vietnam War, Cole enlisted in the Navy. He was active for two years at Port Hueneme, during which he worked in a records office and as a yeoman at builders school, then had two years of meetings, and two years of inactive service, he said.
“At some point I was asked how it was I hadn’t been assigned to a Sea Bee Construction battalion, which is how you ended up seeing combat,” Cole said. “I said ‘I don’t know, probably coincidental bad records.’”
Cole admitted that returning from the military he expected to be a famous actor. Instead, he got married to his first wife in St. Louis, moved back to California, and got a job selling beer.
“All I did was drink beer, play darts, and shoot pool all day while buying patrons drinks,” he said. “I got up to a 40-inch waist.
“Then I started selling mobile homes in 1972,” Cole said.
Cole gained his footing in retail sales in Compton, and also spent much time with the builders, in operations with Lancer Homes, Levitt Homes, and Westway Homes.
“In mid-1976 I was speaking with the paper easel and stick pointing to all the stuff HUD is doing and that we wanted everyone to start calling them manufactured homes… and 50 years later people are still calling asking about mobile home insurance and mobile homes.”
It was in those years that Cole’s desire to start his own operation re-emerged. In 1986, he started Red Label Housing, a retailer in Orange, Calif., which evolved into Community Mobile Home Sales in 1992 which was a top dealer for eight years.
In 1999 he launched Manufactured Housing Insurance Services, the entity under which he continues to do business in 38 states. He and his team provide only manufactured home insurance, an anomaly in today’s market.
Insurance In California
Manufactured housing insurance premium rates are regulated by the state. Fire risk, regulations, and fraud have caused much of the pain and carriers could not raise their rates to maintain profitability, Cole said.
It also has caused many providers to discontinue writing new policies, he said, in a state where they are losing billions as the state makes it unreasonable to raise rates.
“Aegis, Century National, Foremost, Cabrillo Coastal, Pacific Specialty, they and others have all left. American Modern and American Bankers are still here but will only do newer homes, homes built within the last 30 years and will only do business in designated areas. That leaves out most of the homes in the state,” Cole said. “When there is a catastrophe the unfortunate homeowner loses everything – memorabilia, cherished possessions, valued property, and lives.
“It’s a tough deal, it’s tough to get insurance. We get 300 calls a week and unfortunately many times respond and say ‘Sorry, wish you the best’ to most of them,” Cole added. All of this will be supported soon, because within a year all the renewals come, most of those customers will go with the California FAIR Plan.”
The plan is an initiative to help state residents get fire insurance, though it only covers the home. A second plan is required to cover contents.
“It’s a lot more cumbersome than our regular manufactured home insurance,” Cole said.
Cole has felt the pain himself, having his commercial coverage pulled after being with the same group for 24 years.
Manufactured Housing Insurance Services had 300 sub-producers at one point. He’s paring that back. Several years ago he sold off part of his insurance interest of 10 offices in Southern California to concentrate solely on manufactured housing clients.
It is a business he loves.
In addition to providing insurance for the industry’s customers, he also is a partner in 32 communities in California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, North Carolina, Utah, Virginia, and Washington.
Cole is a founding member of the California Manufactured Housing Institute, has served multiple terms as chairman, and continues as a CMHI officer to give resources toward state and regional efforts within the industry. Nationally, he has served on the Board of Governors for the Manufactured Housing Institute, has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors, and in 2014 was elected into the RV/MH Hall of Fame and is Chairman Emeritus in Elkhart, Ind., an organization he has supported steadfastly throughout his career. Cole has been on the board of non-profit Affordable Community Living Corporations for 22 years and ACLC has placed over 300 veterans in Manufactured Homes.
Dipping Back Into Hospitality
After decades of work, Cole’s tireless energy and optimism for all things good brought him back into hospitality, but not hotels. Cole, along with being a manufactured housing professional, is a noted restaurateur.
“We have two restaurants in the desert, RD RNNR (‘roadrunner’) and the DSRT CLUB,” Cole said. “They get really great ratings, most days and nights there are lines to get in. RD RNNR is top rated in the area as a bar and restaurant, and the beautiful DSRT CLUB is new, it’s only been open a few months.
“It was fun when so many of my friends and colleagues, about 140 people, were in town last fall for an MHI meeting and dined at the RD RNNR. It was a great night, I felt like the maitre d in a classic old place, going to each table and saying hi, asking how things are.”
Cole said RD RNNR is a lively place frequented by the younger crowd, including many celebrities and the famous golfers who come to the Palm Springs area for the famous golf courses.
“DSRT CLUB opened for fine dining, a place that some of the older crowd likes to duck into because it’s a little quieter,” Cole said.
Unsurprisingly, Cole says he has no plans to retire. He continues to live and work primarily from Orange, Calif.
“My old friend, boxer Jerry Quarry, who fought Muhammad Ali, was living with me and convinced for me to a young lady named Donna working at American Mobile Homes to go out with me,” Cole said. “We did go out, and she never left, so Jerry had to move out.”
He and Donna have been happily married for 38 years.
“I have two girls, two grandsons, and four great-grandchildren,” he said.
When he’s not running his businesses or doting on his dog Sammi, he’s engaged in his favorite hobby, restaurant and bar hopping.
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