Deeded RV lots

[DRM796]

So the wife and I are considering purchasing an rv lot as we approach retirement. I am having a difficult time searching for them. While doing our search too many times sites that are listed as rv communities are more like mobile home parks. Anyone have any search suggestions or websites that cater to listings of rv lots for sale? Or any search suggestions. We are looking for something in the southeast US.

[DRM796]

tjfogelberg wrote:
Other tips before buying into a deeded park..
Rent a site if possible in the park and spend some time in it.
Read the newsletters, financial reports, and board meeting minutes.
Research state laws for probate or transfer on death applicable to the lot if you die before you sell it.
With housing prices going through the roof in most areas, the same is happening with the prices for deeded RV lots. Tred slowly and carefully...you don't want to get stuck owning something you can't later resell if the market turns down.

Good ideas, thanks

[DRM796]

soren wrote:
We bought a deeded lot, in Florida, two years ago. It has been a true love and hate situation. Oddly enough, we spent time in that park, everything from a month to an entire season, for the previous five years. We had heard than, in the past, the place was fairly tumultuous,to the point of fist fights breaking out at board meetings.We learned the hard way that the reason for a decade of calm was the board president, a benign dictator who understood that there are many, mostly older male, lot owners who are power hungry, obsessed with taking control of every situation, and will cause chaos any time they are given any little position of responsibility.

Last year, a cabal of these power hungry chucklenuts took control. They did so using some extremely underhanded techniques that mirror our current political situation, in the states. Lots of lying, false claims about past performance, the use of "us VS them" clique building, etc, Since all the new members wanted to be in charge, they divided the various responsibilities of running a large park, with an HOA owned, for profit campground attached, into sub-kingdoms, and gave each new member his own territory to rule.

It's been a never-ending mess. Their cult leader (the one that guided this current "leadership" into the mess they ended up in) eventually felt that his continued presence in the park was not comfortable, or safe, so he and his wife sold out. The clowns with their mini-kingdoms don't really like to put the actual work in, so they are paying various entities to do their duties. They rang up $80K in legal bills, over their battles, divided the owners of the park, and destroyed any sense of common community. Now several of them announced that they no longer want their positions. It seems that wanting to be in charge, and strutting around like you are somebody, is a little different that being a hard working, mature adult, who has been given a lot of responsibility and a lot of unpaid work to do. Especially if you are doing it to "serve" a membership that you cleaved in half, with your behavior, and a huge portion of those members know what your game is.

At this point, we are not sure if we will be heading south this winter, and will watch how Florida fares with it's latest, "Corona, what Corona?" handling of the virus, by the governor, before we make our final decision. We will, like most owners in our park, who haven't "drunk the kool-aid" keep a watchful eye on the HOA board. If the place returns to some sense of rationality, we would be happy to stay. If it continues on the path of 24/7 stupidity,division, and destruction, we will sell.

At this point, the ONLY way we would buy another lot in an HOA controlled campground, is if the park members support an HOA that has handed over the majority of control and daily management to a management association, and has a long history of peacefully respecting the performance of the management company. And yes, at least in FL. these places do exist. Another poster here mentioned some lots that are actually sold by, and managed by ownership of a for profit park. Essentially the campground takes a portion of their property and sells individual sites off. We know several folks that bought into a beautiful newer resort that fits this model. 5-6 years after they did it, the whole resort is tanking, street lights are dead, since the owner can't afford to fix them, the cable TV is dead, and so on. At this point, IMHO, I would not take the deed to any one of our friend's resort lots for free. Those properties went from being $40-60K investments to a liability that will be tough to sell, if they sell. My guess is that the bank will foreclose on the place, and the lot owners will spend many years in limbo, until that place is stable again.

Sorry to hear about that but thanks for sharing. We have only owned 1 home within a HOA and that was one of reasons for selling. By some chance would you be willing to share the name of either location?

[2012Coleman]

DRM796 wrote:
So the wife and I are considering purchasing an rv lot as we approach retirement. I am having a difficult time searching for them. While doing our search too many times sites that are listed as rv communities are more like mobile home parks. Anyone have any search suggestions or websites that cater to listings of rv lots for sale? Or any search suggestions. We are looking for something in the southeast US.

We have stayed at Hilton Head Harbor RV Resort twice and enjoyed ourselves. There are usually lots for sale but pricey. There is an HOA there.

Another one close by that you can check out is Hilton Head Island Motorcoach Resort

[soren]

We bought a deeded lot, in Florida, two years ago. It has been a true love and hate situation. Oddly enough, we spent time in that park, everything from a month to an entire season, for the previous five years. We had heard than, in the past, the place was fairly tumultuous,to the point of fist fights breaking out at board meetings.We learned the hard way that the reason for a decade of calm was the board president, a benign dictator who understood that there are many, mostly older male, lot owners who are power hungry, obsessed with taking control of every situation, and will cause chaos any time they are given any little position of responsibility.

Last year, a cabal of these power hungry chucklenuts took control. They did so using some extremely underhanded techniques that mirror our current political situation, in the states. Lots of lying, false claims about past performance, the use of "us VS them" clique building, etc, Since all the new members wanted to be in charge, they divided the various responsibilities of running a large park, with an HOA owned, for profit campground attached, into sub-kingdoms, and gave each new member his own territory to rule.

It's been a never-ending mess. Their cult leader (the one that guided this current "leadership" into the mess they ended up in) eventually felt that his continued presence in the park was not comfortable, or safe, so he and his wife sold out. The clowns with their mini-kingdoms don't really like to put the actual work in, so they are paying various entities to do their duties. They rang up $80K in legal bills, over their battles, divided the owners of the park, and destroyed any sense of common community. Now several of them announced that they no longer want their positions. It seems that wanting to be in charge, and strutting around like you are somebody, is a little different that being a hard working, mature adult, who has been given a lot of responsibility and a lot of unpaid work to do. Especially if you are doing it to "serve" a membership that you cleaved in half, with your behavior, and a huge portion of those members know what your game is.

At this point, we are not sure if we will be heading south this winter, and will watch how Florida fares with it's latest, "Corona, what Corona?" handling of the virus, by the governor, before we make our final decision. We will, like most owners in our park, who haven't "drunk the kool-aid" keep a watchful eye on the HOA board. If the place returns to some sense of rationality, we would be happy to stay. If it continues on the path of 24/7 stupidity,division, and destruction, we will sell.

At this point, the ONLY way we would buy another lot in an HOA controlled campground, is if the park members support an HOA that has handed over the majority of control and daily management to a management association, and has a long history of peacefully respecting the performance of the management company. And yes, at least in FL. these places do exist. Another poster here mentioned some lots that are actually sold by, and managed by ownership of a for profit park. Essentially the campground takes a portion of their property and sells individual sites off. We know several folks that bought into a beautiful newer resort that fits this model. 5-6 years after they did it, the whole resort is tanking, street lights are dead, since the owner can't afford to fix them, the cable TV is dead, and so on. At this point, IMHO, I would not take the deed to any one of our friend's resort lots for free. Those properties went from being $40-60K investments to a liability that will be tough to sell, if they sell. My guess is that the bank will foreclose on the place, and the lot owners will spend many years in limbo, until that place is stable again.

[tjfogelberg]

Other tips before buying into a deeded park..
Rent a site if possible in the park and spend some time in it.
Read the newsletters, financial reports, and board meeting minutes.
Research state laws for probate or transfer on death applicable to the lot if you die before you sell it.
With housing prices going through the roof in most areas, the same is happening with the prices for deeded RV lots. Tred slowly and carefully...you don't want to get stuck owning something you can't later resell if the market turns down.

[Guy_Roan]

DRM796 wrote:

Guy Roan wrote:
We own our lot and winter in it, and leave our trailer in it year round.
We are constantly getting letters in the mail from realtors who have buyers like yourself looking for their own RV lot.

With that said I offer two suggestions:

Pick the area where you would like to be and contact several realtors in that area

Second; if it is in Florida look for a "condominum camp ground" that is solely owned by the each resident there. If you buy a lot from a privately owned person or corporation that owns the RV park you have to abide by their rules and regulations, and you have no say in them

Guy

I was under the impression that they were all in some kind of association with rules. Either a POA of HOA type of situation. Are you saying there are some that are "do as you please"? If so that could be a bit of a gamble, don't you think?

No, I am not saying that. I am saying that each property owner also owns the campground. We have a board of directors made up of ourselves who are voted in annually by the other owners.
We naturally have rules and regulations which in most part are common sense ones to keep the place beautiful.
If we want, we can rent out our sites by ourselves, or let the association rent them out for a fee, which indirectly comes back to us.
Every single lot is privately owned, and when someone puts their lot up for sale, it goes immediately and usually for the asking price

Check us out on line if you want to. We are "Key Largo Kampground and marina"

Guy

[DRM796]

Guy Roan wrote:
We own our lot and winter in it, and leave our trailer in it year round.
We are constantly getting letters in the mail from realtors who have buyers like yourself looking for their own RV lot.

With that said I offer two suggestions:

Pick the area where you would like to be and contact several realtors in that area

Second; if it is in Florida look for a "condominum camp ground" that is solely owned by the each resident there. If you buy a lot from a privately owned person or corporation that owns the RV park you have to abide by their rules and regulations, and you have no say in them

Guy

I was under the impression that they were all in some kind of association with rules. Either a POA of HOA type of situation. Are you saying there are some that are "do as you please"? If so that could be a bit of a gamble, don't you think?

[Guy_Roan]

We own our lot and winter in it, and leave our trailer in it year round.
We are constantly getting letters in the mail from realtors who have buyers like yourself looking for their own RV lot.

With that said I offer two suggestions:

Pick the area where you would like to be and contact several realtors in that area

Second; if it is in Florida look for a "condominum camp ground" that is solely owned by the each resident there. If you buy a lot from a privately owned person or corporation that owns the RV park you have to abide by their rules and regulations, and you have no say in them

Guy

[tjfogelberg]

I find these deeded parks often don't come up in campground searches. I also don't find any national databases. Best approach is to zero in on areas of interest and then do in depth searches using things like 55+ retirement communities, real estate for sale etc.

[tjfogelberg]

My advice would be to look for something like this (in Northern Georgia) as an example and sneak away during the 2 or 3 coldest months.

https://arrowheadvalleyrvresort.com/

[DRM796]

JoeH wrote:
In addition to the links in the above post , there is a facebook group called "RV Lots For Sale or Rent - United States" that may be of interest.
What area of the country are you interested in ?

We don't have any particular spot in mind. We prefer to stay east and away from the cold winters.

[DRM796]

Thanks all.

[JoeH]

In addition to the links in the above post , there is a facebook group called "RV Lots For Sale or Rent - United States" that may be of interest.
What area of the country are you interested in ?

[LadyRVer]

I lived in one for many years. Definitely not a mobile home community. It had a class A section only and the rest of the resort was for park models, Class A's, B's, C's, travel trailers or fifth-wheels. POA (like HOA) restrictions, but not unreasonable. Could come and go as I wanted to, could rent the lot out or in the end I sold it. Very upscale. In FL.