Anybody own(ed) rental/retirement property in FL? Specifically in pre-fab/mobile home community?

My wife and I are starting to think about long term plans.  As many of you know, I currently live in Atlanta.  However, I'm a Philly native, spent my first 42+ years there.  I really miss home and want to go back.  At the same time, I have utterly zero desire to experience winter again.  Therefore, I want to be a traditional snowbird.  My kids are here in Atlanta, living with me part time (shared custody), so we're not ready to completely move just yet.  We wouldn't buy our PA home until we sell this house in GA, so that's likely many years down the road.  However, we both work from home, so the possibility of having a property in FL now isn't out of the question.  Since we plan to only live there 4 months per year when we're ready, that property would be far less "fancy" and less expensive than the property in PA.  Having spent a E36 M3 ton of time in FL (huge Disney fan), I know there are plenty of nice pre-fab/mobile home communities near beaches there.  Many are in 55+ communities.  We're both 50, so I'm sure we'd find some that would allow us if we wanted.  If we bought it now, pending my kids schedules, we could easily spend a week at a time there while we work from home.  However, we'd want it to be in a location that allows short term rentals.  If we can't rent it out now, it would make no financial sense to do it.  However, if we can get one that's rentable, it would very much make sense logistically.

Does anyone own, or has owned, property such as this in FL?  Tell me about your experiences.  We're open to either coast, as long as it's central FL.  On the east coast, Daytona/Cocoa Beach area, on the west coast Tampa/St Pete vicinity.  Basically near the water, but less than 90 minutes from WDW and 8 hours from Atlanta.  I'm doing my due diligence in the financial side of things, location, etc...  If anyone has real world experience with owning a rental, I'd love to hear it.

My mom has her primary place in Bonita Springs and is in a similar situation. She's in a 55?+ and they specifically don't allow rentals/airbnb etc. I would make sure you do some research there are that's a main point in your plan.

55+ and short term rental is going to be difficult. 

Sorry, I somehow cut that sentence short.  We'd be open to a 55+, but realize that many don't allow rentals.  Therefore, we'd be open to a pre-fab/mobile home community that isn't 55+ and does allow rental.

No direct experience obviously but I would have concerns about the durability of construction of a prefab/mobile to put up with the harder use of a short term rental.  At the least some additional maintenance budget should be part of the plan. 

I had this exact idea a few months ago, since short term rental is a huge cash cow in Orlando. I never looked into it beyond that. I'm not sure what trailer park communities think of short term rentals. I almost wonder if there isn't HOA style rules against it. 

As a Florida native, I also wonder how those communities would fare if they took even a glancing blow from a hurricane. You mentioned near the water, which increases the odds of such an event unfortunately. 

Yes, weather is certainly a consideration.  Insurance is part of the financial equation I'm looking at.  My ex-FIL lives in a place like I'm talking about in Venice FL, but I don't have communication with him anymore...nor do I want to.  I know he's been brushed by a few hurricanes and knock on wood, had no damage.  I wouldn't be opposed to a condo, perhaps not on the ground floor.  The idea behind potentially buying something now is to build equity and/or small income if it's something we can rent.  Getting one in Kissimmee would be an option too, but my concern there is two fold.  First, supply and demand.  There are SO many short term rentals near the theme parks that I'd be concerned about being able to rent it out enough to make it worthwhile.  Second, they are at the mercy of the theme parks.  If they have a major slump, so does the rental.  I think that's more true than a beach location.  

Keep in mind that since it won't be your primary home, property taxes will be substantially higher than if it was your primary residence. Plus our governor has been pushing for a property tax increase as well.

We love the Palm Coast/Flagler Beach area. Still pretty sleepy, but not too far from Jacksonville and Orlando (not to mention GRM World HQ!).

It may be pretty beneficial for you to spend more than 4months per year in FL. Living there for 4months per year could cost you thousands more in taxes than if you were there 6+ months per year as a resident. By becoming a resident of FL, you'd save money on property taxes for the FL home and you'd avoid all income taxes instead of paying whatever they'd be in PA.

dyintorace said:

As a Florida native, I also wonder how those communities would fare if they took even a glancing blow from a hurricane. You mentioned near the water, which increases the odds of such an event unfortunately. 

Tampa hasn't been hit by a hurricane in something like 100 years.  Worth thinking about. 

Also, housing down here is stupid expensive. There's a bunch of talk about a potential bubble bursting in the future. 

I will offer my tiny piece of knowledge in this bit knowing that it may not help.

When my mom's parents retired, they kept an acre of their PA farm and put a 2-car garage on it as a "home base."  They rented a lot in a 55+ park in Ruskin (just outside of Tampa) and put a nice double-wide on it.  They would more or less summer in Canada, spring and fall in PA or traveling somewhere neat, and Oct-May in FL.  After they passed, we kept the trailer for about 5 years and did short term rentals (like AirBnB before it was a thing) and we would use it for a couple weeks a year as a vacation spot.   When we decided to sell it we thought we would look into a long-term rental first to see if we could make some money and the general answer was that it was a headache... especially in a 55+ park.  Not only do your tenants have a high probability of being ... um... beyond their sharpest years, but the people you find to hire for upkeep are equally, uh... close to expiring, or have a higher probability of an illness, surgery, or other thing that prevents them from being effective at their job.  It was going to be a little money for a lot of job.

We ended up selling it for pennies.  The trailers in those parks sell for challenge money sometimes.  I think we got $3800 for a perfectly good 15-year-old Fleetwood in flawless condition.  It's about demand.  The supply is non-stop because people in retirement parks end up dying and leaving vacant trailers, but since they aren't just a hitch-and-go travel trailer, you're only going to sell to a person who wants to live in THAT park.

The name of that park was Hawaiian Isles and it was lovely.  Nothing fancy about it, and not proximal to anything wonderful, but great activities, quaint bay towns.  They allowed rentals but not sure if that's the norm.

I'm trying to think.  They bought their first trailer for that lot in 1979 I think.  They upgraded the trailer in the early 90s to the double wide.  They stopped going to FL about a year before they died which was early 2000s.  So let's guess 25 years.  In those 25 years they only ever had very minimal hurricane damage... as in lost a couple shingles, or a downspout fell off.  That's partly the fact that they were on the gulf side and its pretty rare that the winds are super awful just because of physics.  If the hurricane comes across from the Atlantic, it has a couple hundred miles of land to temper it.  If it comes up the gulf coast you often get offshore winds first and then a south wind, but rarely a direct onshore.

STM317 said:

It may be pretty beneficial for you to spend more than 4months per year in FL. Living there for 4months per year could cost you thousands more in taxes than if you were there 6+ months per year as a resident. By becoming a resident of FL, you'd save money on property taxes for the FL home and you'd avoid all income taxes instead of paying whatever they'd be in PA.

I'm pretty sure that PA is like Mississippi and Illinois in that they don't tax income/withdrawals from 401ks, IRAs, or pensions. So it wouldn't be as big of an impact as you'd expect.

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

Not only do your tenants have a high probability of being ... um... beyond their sharpest years, but the people you find to hire for upkeep are equally, uh... close to expiring,

Quote for truth. It's basically God's waiting room down here.

SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) said:

I'm doing my due diligence in the financial side of things, location, etc...  If anyone has real world experience with owning a rental, I'd love to hear it.

I'm currently selling my duplex and empty lot on the gulf coast of Florida. From a seller perspective the demand for a lot started drying up in late December and the people interested in the duplex are currently having trouble getting financing because rates are going up quickly. OTOH, supply hasn't increased either so prices seem steady. I'm not telling you to time the market, but that's my perspective. 

Make sure to spend time in the place you want to live before buying. Seasonal traffic can add misery to an otherwise acceptable location. Understand what the demographics of an area will look like in 5-10 years, and how developer friendly the local government is.

For short-term rental advice I'd post/read the air b-n-b forums or similar. Short term rentals appear pretty profitable but make sure to build in expenses like cleaning and management fees.

In reply to SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) :

I'm sure you know this already, but there is no slump right now. COVID kicked us pretty hard in the dick, but as soon as Mickey turned the lights on we were back to slamming. The last time that happened was the market crash in 2008. Honestly the best value I see in rentals like that is Airbnb/whatever. I worked enough on the repair side of short term rentals near the parks that I know I don't want anything affordable. "Value tourists" will come in and absolutely trash the joints, in ridiculous fashion. My favorite story was the guy that came in to try and cover his damage deposit because one of his kids ripped the TV off the wall. We stocked firring striped and 1x4 to replace broken bed slats. I sold vertical blind fins by the case. Dozens of toilet and sink repairs. I got to the point I had lists of colors for local rental groups because the walls got so berkeleyed up. Airbnb seems to have less of an issue with all of that. 

My parents have a place in Hudson, FL in a 55+ community. They bought there years ago when my grandmother was living there full time. They planned to go down for a few months of the year, but it never really worked out. There was nothing to do, the fishing wasn't good in FL when it was cold in PA and when Grandma passed, they barely went back. Now ,they tend to go once a year in January to check on the place and do maintenance. (We used to meet them in Disney pre-covid, but even that died out). 

Not sure why they don't just sell it, but it was purchased for next to nothing and costs like $10 a year to have it, so its pretty easy to just let it sit. (I'm exaggerating, but its real cheap). Hudson is a great area if you like pickups with testicles, Nazi-sympathizers and opioids. I jest (or do i?) but it would not be my first pick. I would stay closer to Tampa, Clearwater/St Pete. 

In reply to Mndsm :

Yeah, I hear ya.  I've rented townhomes in your area dozens of times, through VRBO.  Typically I'd rent from a private owner and had good experiences.  I did see some that were clearly abused.  That would certainly be a concern.  It may not be realistic for us to buy right now, but I want to at least see.  With our schedules, I would love to be able to kick back and work from Florida one week per month or so.

I'd throw out there that a more expensive place will be more desirable and rent for more (and generally be less abused) that the cheap place.   My brothers' wifes' godparents have a place on the water in Melbourne Beach.  Rent on it is $5000 a week and it's a gorgeous location.  They are both CPAs so I assume they knew how to make their money work for them the most effective way.

And the turtles lay eggs there every year in June, it's awesome!

One more thing of note, try and buy directly from a private owner, and for the love of God, check the history. If it's been a rental property or handled by a management group at any given time, it's hacked. Rental owners are cheap berkeleys, so even when it does break they want to slap a bandaid on it and call it a day. I had a guy ask me once what caulk would be good for sealing the toilet to the floor so it would pass inspection. No motherberkeleyer I will not help you with that. Fix the wax ring. Don't try and berkeley the next guy. 

I was thinking about this same thing today but I am 35 years or death away from retiring.  My new job is allowing some virtual time, especially during the winters and when the kids are off, but it's a 1000 miles away so I would have to hire a service for upkeeping so I was of the mind of getting a condo in a gated community.

Timely this came back up.  I'm actually in Cape Canaveral right now on vacation.  We're looking at properties on the Space Coast and Kissimmee.  

My parents have a place in a 55+ park in Bonita Springs. Before they bought it they rented one from a lady who lives in Canada and couldn't make it. The rent was so cheap it barely covered lot rent. They really liked it so they bought a place. They stayed there 5 months this year. The place was cheap and it's reasonably nice. They drive their golf cart around and do old people things with all these friends they made there. I'm sure it isn't a great investment but it's cheap living. I recognize that's not exactly what your looking for just thought I'd share. 
Someone said this already, there are a ton of deals when people die and they don't have family or the families don't want to bother. 

This can't be a bad life....