I visited a retired friend living in a Florida trailer park and was pleasantly surprised. (communities, state)
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It's HOA is about $230, which is cheap in this area.
Our community is gated, has a wonderful, Olympic sized pool, with a jetted hot pool beside it, 5 on premise staff, a very important part, a large reserve fund, and excellent maintenance. I bought 3 years ago, and would do so again in a second.
OH MY! I need to move from Fort Myers to new Port Richey! How long ago did you buy your condo?
We own two rental houses in a 55+ community in Ocala, FL. We own the lots they sit on and they're both stick-built homes. Current value is about $60K on each of them. There are houses in there selling for between $40K and $70K, depending on how much remodeling has been done. The amenity fee is $105 a month and includes basic cable, trash and garbage pickup, and use of all amenities including two pools, hot tubs, community centers, exercise room, pool tables, a library, shuffleboard, tennis, pickle ball, etc.
As a landlord, I don't get a homeowner exemption and the taxes run about $900 a year on each house. Florida has a $50K homeowner's exemption which would bring the taxes down drastically. Again, as a landlord I pay about $700 a year per house for insurance. As a homeowner it would probably be in the same range as the homeowner would require contents coverage which I don't have.
Each house sits on about a quarter of an acre. There are few deed restrictions as to birdhouses, that sort of thing, but you can't tacky-up the house. We don't have an HOA per se. The monthly fee is to pay for the amenities, cable, and trash/garbage.
There is a hospital within about 4 miles of the subdivision as well as doctors' offices, Walmart, Publix, Winn Dixie, Save-a-Lot, CVS drugstore, Dollar General, Big Lots, restaurants, Lowes, and hardware stores. There are three other 55+ communities in the same area, one of which has a public golf course. This area is serviced by an electric co-op so power is cheap. County water is about $20-30 a month. They're on septic tanks so no sewer fee.
There's lots to do in Ocala and we're about an hour and a half from a nice beach. In the area of these homes, the crime is very low. There are parts of Ocala where one doesn't want to live, but every town has those areas.
Just pointing out there are houses available in the price range of the trailer noted in this thread, so you don't have to settle for something that will blow away!
I think Ocala is beautiful especially compared to Fort Myers but I've heard a lot on the news here about sinkholes. How much of a problem is it in that area?
I don't' really get the idea of buying a mobile in a park when you can buy a condo, own the thing, for less money and your monthly maintenance fees are less.
I chose to buy a condo in Florida rather than a mobile for that reason, although I agree, some parks are very nice. Still, it just doesn't make sense to me.
It depends on where you live as to how cheap the condos will be. Where I live the market is very hot. If I want to spend $50-$65K on a condo I will have to buy one that is over 40 years old. We had a tornado recently that blew the roof of one of the condos that I was considering buying a year ago.
There are no condos in my area that are nice that are under $100K and that is the high end of my purchase limit depending on how much the HOA fees are. There are some where the HOA fees are $125 a month but unfortunately there is a high crime neighborhood a mile away.
When you are a 60 year old widow, safety is your number one concern. I'm in good shape physically but I certainly don't want to put myself in harm's way if I don't have to.
I don't' really get the idea of buying a mobile in a park when you can buy a condo, own the thing, for less money and your monthly maintenance fees are less.
I chose to buy a condo in Florida rather than a mobile for that reason, although I agree, some parks are very nice. Still, it just doesn't make sense to me.
It's very simple. My dad recently sold his single family home and bought a very expensive condo in Vancouver, BC. Despite high end owners he is constantly dealing with loud music through the walls. The guy upstairs works late hours and he can hear him walking around, dropping a dish etc at 2 in the morning. Besides owning a mobile home is a fraction of the cost of owning a condo in every market I have seen.
Me? I lived in an apartment once and will never do it again. Not a chance I take 2 trips up and down elevators after a day of big shopping in order to get everything home. I hated walking through the lobby after a night out, not that I was stammering drunk or anything but I hated dealing with people at that time of the night even if it's just a security guard. I will never share a wall or ceiling with a neighbor again. If I want to grow tomatoes or flowers a mobile home provides me with just enough yard to do that.
I live in a townhouse sharing walls on either side and I hear nothing!
Townhouses are generally better than apartments or condos IME. You don't have upstairs or downstairs neighbors and since they have an interior stairway that gives them something of a buffer (the other side of a bedroom wall is often up high above the stairs in the next unit).
I think Ocala is beautiful especially compared to Fort Myers but I've heard a lot on the news here about sinkholes. How much of a problem is it in that area?
Sink Hole Alley is pretty much Bradenton up through Spring Hill. I don't think it's much of an issue in Ocala.
How far from the beach? I might buy it if you don't...
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