Resident owned mobile home park 55+ - Retirement??

[1freespirit]

We still have a few years left as we are not ready to sell our place in North Idaho just yet. Beautiful county and love the weather with the exception of about 8 weeks of each year. We are kind of remote though as I call it "live in the sticks" (we could stay in Idaho and move closer to a larger town/city) but (and no offense to Californians) they are moving here in groves and because of that property values in Idaho have now shot up to close to Calif prices.

It is becoming almost impossible to buy anything under $200 K that isn't a dump/fixer upper. The good about that is when we go to sell our home here in Idaho that we have owned for over 20 years now is worth about 4-5 times more then what we paid for it. Idaho does not really have to many if any 55+ communities that are resident owned either, pretty much Florida holds the notoriety for having those.

My Sister (who lives in Florida) asked me if living in a condo would be an option for us since they offer amenities and maintenance in their HOA fee.. You know never really thought about it.. since I was raised country all my life and have lived on acreage of some sort in all the homes we have ever owned. I think I still would want some type of yard and space between homes, even though small (even when I am in the elderly,elderly years). Some but not all resident owned parks will include lawn care in the HOA fee if they do not. I doubt it would cost much to have someone come and mow a small tiny bit of grass a couple times a month when I am to old to do it myself.

As far as felons and sex offenders, I think that is a risk anyone takes in any area or neighborhood world wide. People can make mistakes in their life and can change. Some people just get a bad rap through the justice system also. Of course "no" we would not want to live in close proximity to a level 4 sex offender, but level 1 ones could have certain reasons behind their charges. Example: Someone who is now 50 years old at the age of 19 yrs dated a 17 year old and parents got upset and charged them with statutory rape. Those type of things happen also. To me those offenders got a bum rap.

I would though use due diligence when researching a resident owned park on their restrictions, back ground checks, regulations etc. and the parks we would be looking into would be ones that would enforce their HOA's.

Like I said we do have time to research and most certainly will check out each park prior to making any decision.