Resident Owned Mobile Home Parks (55, beach, communities, retired)
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Any retired folks living in a resident owned mobile home or manufactured home community where you pay property taxes and no rent? Can you give me the pros and cons of such living. Any unexpected fees or problems come up? Please mention your community and show photos too.
ROCs are more common now, so perhaps all these years later some folks might answer. I was surprised at the number of ROCs that are pet-free. Not my dish of tea, for sure. I was hoping they would be less HOA-ish and more "village" like ( not The Villages).
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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ROCs come in all shapes and sizes, as are their cost structures and obligations.
Most will have similar costs to a home
Mortgage
Insurance
Maint
Taxes
AND possibly... employees / services / pools
If fairly recently converted to a ROC, then mortgage may be huge.
Since the residents are the owners, expect HOA type rules and strict compliance. +/-
Here is one in Texas that is quite old, and is cherished by the residents and longed for by those on the wait list.
They established a section for LT RV rentals which brings in additional revenue to cover employees / pool.
ROC should be fine, stay away from the ones where you rent the land. You put your home on it, but you pay rent for the lot.
And then.. The park decides to sell the land and residents are told to get their homes out.
Personally, if I was doing this.. I'd just buy a plot of land and put the home on it, outside of a 'community'.
But.. If it's one where you actually buy the land.. Short of all the normal problems with manufactured housing (they use cheap, weird parts that you generally can't get at Home Depot).. I can't really see an issue.
I'd make certain to read through all the bylaws and the like .. Just to make sure there are no gotchas.. But, that goes for about anything.
A good friend of mine, who unfortunately passed away a couple years ago, had a mobile home in a park that was very similar to condo's. Everyone owned their own mobile home and it wasn't rent but an HOA deal.
Being a mobile home park I didn't know what to expect but was very surprised in that it was really a nice place especially if you were a snow bird like Bob and his wife were.
To live there you had to own it.... no riff raff renters.
It was a 55 and up community a PERFECT setup for snow birds.
A good friend of mine, who unfortunately passed away a couple years ago, had a mobile home in a park that was very similar to condo's. Everyone owned their own mobile home and it wasn't rent but an HOA deal.
Being a mobile home park I didn't know what to expect but was very surprised in that it was really a nice place especially if you were a snow bird like Bob and his wife were.
To live there you had to own it.... no riff raff renters.
It was a 55 and up community a PERFECT setup for snow birds.
There are several, perhaps numerous ones, like that in Florida. You just have to shop around and seek them out.
A friend in Santa Cruz, CA lives in a co-op mobile home park, where the home owners jointly own the land. It's much more expensive to buy in, but you get more equity. She's happy with it.
We came across a park in Oregon that was owned by a non profit organization set up specifically for the park. Rents were low, and the nonprofit bylaws did not allow the park to be sold.
And my mom had a place in a park where the land was leased from the Catholic church. The church sold the land and evicted everyone.
I live in a 55+ mobile home co-op in Midtown Tucson, walking distance to Trader Joe's/Fry's, and true, you pay more for a mobile in a co-op, but the assessment fees on my single wide is $220 a month. I would never, ever live in a mobile home park and pay rent fees, as the next owner could jack them up for no reason at all. I couldn't live with that kind of insecurity.
ROCs come in all shapes and sizes, as are their cost structures and obligations.
Most will have similar costs to a home
Mortgage
Insurance
Maint
Taxes
AND possibly... employees / services / pools
If fairly recently converted to a ROC, then mortgage may be huge.
Since the residents are the owners, expect HOA type rules and strict compliance. +/-
Here is one in Texas that is quite old, and is cherished by the residents and longed for by those on the wait list.
They established a section for LT RV rentals which brings in additional revenue to cover employees / pool.
I lived in a resident owned community while attending UC Berkeley in the early 1970's. The students ran the houses and apartments as a student co-op. You had to be a student at UC Berkeley to live in the co-ops.
It was definitely a case of the inmates running the asylum. The STUDENTS ran the coop with a Board of Directors structure, that were ALL STUDENTS. The living expenses were dirt cheap and a great way to afford a university education
Now in my 70's I own a lot in a RV Co-op park.
It is definitely a case of the inmates running the asylum!!! Nothing really changed in 50 years of aging for most folks. The good news it is dirt cheap to live in retirement. Unfortunately, because of this it is becoming more of a trailer park than a RV park for folks that needed a home base in winter.
As the Rabbit mentioned, they have strict HOA's. Lots of folks that had boring jobs working are spicing up their lives be managing other peoples lives in the park!!!
It is the most basic level of government where you know everybody else and they know you. That is either a good thing or a significant downside based on your view of life.
Having practiced living in a coop in my 20's definitely helps with owning a lot in a RV coop in my 70's.
I would do it again, but like everything in life. There are good and bad things about a coop setup.
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