Age restricted, mobile home communities, Sarasota-Bradenton

[City__Datarer]

Yes, I know I'm exploring options that, because of low price, also have some real downsides to research/consider, and I appreciate your taking the time to share your experiences and help me with my decision process. And I wish you the best of luck with the homes you inherited.

I've read newsletters/websites posted by some of the resident-owned 55+ mobile/manufactured home co-ops and condos, and I'm impressed that in many cases they've managed to create affordable housing where the community is safe (neighbors know and look out for neighbors etc.) and there are amenities and activities (pools, clubhouses, trips, transportation to stores and doctors for those who can no longer drive, etc.) that not only make life pleasant but also make aging in place more possible, with the (to me very acceptable) trade-off being that for all this to be affordable, one's own home is modest (with at least one aspect of modest being a real plus for me: that they offer an option where you aren't paying utilities and insurance on greater square footage than you actually need, though of course this is subjective and YMMV).

I'm also impressed by the foresight of the people who did the hard work of transitioning their mobile/manufactured home communities from rental lots to co-op/condo ownership (resident owned) so that their homes could not be sold out from under them when the real estate boom hit. Now we take the existence of such communities for granted, but at the time these people were really thinking outside the box.

Of course, I don't mean to paint a rose-colored-glasses picture that every place has worked out that well (if it were all roses I wouldn't be hesitating), but it seems that in some cases this option has worked out well for people (but it makes sense that those would be the communities who have it together enough to be posting such info on the web; I do understand that for some others, the story/outcome has not been as good).

The biggest problems I see are the risk of wind damage, and, as you noted, depreciation (with the depreciation meaning not just aging of the structure but also to what extent people who buy now can expect the community to keep its appeal and remain as good an option for the next 30 years of its life as it was for the last 30 years--in other words, even if you do your homework on what a place is like now, the depreciation factor may make it a little more unpredictable than other types of homes/communities in trying to plan long term).

Where I live in Southwest Florida, I would say the majority of manufactured/mobile homes pre-date Hurricane Charley (which hit in late 2004), and it's tempting for me to think of them as possibly viable (at least structurally) for me for that reason (they're still standing even after a major hurricane), but I have to say that when I do see that a home in the area of Hurrican Charley was built later than 2004, it seems like 2005 (the year when a home totaled in that hurricane would most likely be rebuilt with insurance money) is a very common year for that newer home (just my impression, haven't actually done the math).

Condos in theory would be a solution (for anyone like me who is not high-income and is hoping to be able to still afford my preretirement home after retirement and is therefore looking in the low price range of these resident-owned mobile/manufactured homes). But in practice, my understanding (not a lawyer, not giving legal advice, just my understanding) is that in Florida, even though the association board is supposed to draw up a budget that funds reserves for big-ticket items like roofs (having reserves, by the way, doesn't mean paying for the whole roof way early, but just gradually putting aside the right amount so that by the time the roof is needed the money will be there for it without a big special assessment), in practice the owners have the option to say, "No, I would rather not fund reserves and instead keep that money in my own pocket because I might not even be here anymore when the building needs a new roof." And so any condo complex that doesn't fund reserves can be thrown into financial disaster at some point when either leaky roofs don't get repaired or there's "suddenly" a special assessment of thousands of dollars.

I think that while for some people affordable housing is of course not a need/issue at all, there are many of us for whom it is. For anyone reading, if you know of a community that is low cost and yet you see it as continuing as a good community (of any-type housing) into the future, this info would be helpful to me and, I'm sure, other readers.

Partly too, I post on this topic not just for info that helps me (though it does, and it's always much appreciated--thanks, everyone!) but also because I wonder whether, if all the people who share this need brainstormed creatively, we might come up with something viable, in much the same way that the seniors who are a generation older than me acted on the really at the time radical idea of owning their own mobile home parks. Will be interesting to see what solution, if any, comes along that's innovative and viable for the boomers who are lower income but want a good place to call home.

[nancy thereader]

In California many of the mobile home parks are rent controlled and the rents which include gas & electric average less than $300 p/m have really gone up less than 10% in as many as ten years. I wonder why they do not do that in Florida.

[patipalmer]

We purchased and moved into our mobile home on May 31, 2014. The park manager told me the previous tenants had not paid May's lot rent & to let them know to pay it. She mentioned that we would have to pay it if they didn't. I told her they would pay it because we would not since we didn't live there the month of may. After a few months of living there, they sent us a letter saying we had to pay it and started adding late charges. Now we signed a contract to buy another home in the park and have paid a down payment with closing in one month and they are telling us we cannot buy it because of this other person's rent for May 2014. I have looked through the documents we signed with them when we moved in and nothing is stated about us or anyone having to pay previous tenants lot rent. I have also researched florida mobile home statutes and can't find anything. Help! We're going to lose this other home and maybe our down payment.

[Sunshine Rules]

Originally Posted by patipalmer

We purchased and moved into our mobile home on May 31, 2014. The park manager told me the previous tenants had not paid May's lot rent & to let them know to pay it. She mentioned that we would have to pay it if they didn't. I told her they would pay it because we would not since we didn't live there the month of may. After a few months of living there, they sent us a letter saying we had to pay it and started adding late charges. Now we signed a contract to buy another home in the park and have paid a down payment with closing in one month and they are telling us we cannot buy it because of this other person's rent for May 2014. I have looked through the documents we signed with them when we moved in and nothing is stated about us or anyone having to pay previous tenants lot rent. I have also researched florida mobile home statutes and can't find anything. Help! We're going to lose this other home and maybe our down payment.

I suggest contacting a local attorney to assist you with your questions as what you need is legal advice at this point in time.

[Cardiff by the Sea]

Originally Posted by patipalmer

We purchased and moved into our mobile home on May 31, 2014. The park manager told me the previous tenants had not paid May's lot rent & to let them know to pay it. She mentioned that we would have to pay it if they didn't. I told her they would pay it because we would not since we didn't live there the month of may. After a few months of living there, they sent us a letter saying we had to pay it and started adding late charges. Now we signed a contract to buy another home in the park and have paid a down payment with closing in one month and they are telling us we cannot buy it because of this other person's rent for May 2014. I have looked through the documents we signed with them when we moved in and nothing is stated about us or anyone having to pay previous tenants lot rent. I have also researched florida mobile home statutes and can't find anything. Help! We're going to lose this other home and maybe our down payment.

Something went wrong in escrow. The escrow agent should have checked that the rent is current and if not, then paid it from the seller's proceeds.

[Sunshine Rules]

In Florida if the mobile home is sitting on land that is owned by the seller and is attached to the land, the lot with MH is considered real property and you would have a closing with escrow. If the mobile home is on a rented lot, FL considers the mobile home to be a vehicle and must carry a FL license tag and you have to get a new sticker for your tag each year (double wides require 2 tags, 1 for each section). So, if you are selling just the mobile home the sale would require transfer of the MH title and registration thru the DMV, the same as a car.

Mobile Home