What is a mobile home lot rent?
People who are not familiar with mobile home living may get confused by the concept of lot rent. Basically, renting a mobile home lot is different from renting just a mobile home. Paying for the lot rent means you own the mobile home while paying for the lot where your mobile home is sitting. If you are just renting a mobile home, whether you pay the lot rent or the owner depends on the agreement between you (the renter) and the mobile home owner. The lot can be owned by the mobile homeowner or the park owner.
What lot rent cover
In most mobile home parks in the Sarasota Florida area, lot rent covers most of the following:
- Water bill (some parks don’t)
- A piece of land to place your manufactured home on
- Access to the amenities and maintenance (the staff can guide you about the exact offerings)
- Swimming pool
- Playgrounds or play area
- Community center
- Laundry rooms with washers and dryers
- Lawn maintenance and mowing
- Trash collection
The amenities included in the lot rent vary from park to park, and sometimes, the number of coverages can affect the lot rent amount.
What lot rent does not cover
Taxes: While property taxes may not be your headache, there will be taxes on the mobile home.
Insurance: Lot rent does not cover insurance. For the safety and security of your property, it is better to get mobile home insurance.
When buying a mobile home inside the mobile home park of your choice, make sure to know what specific amenities are covered by the lot rent. Parks that charge $1,000 and above usually cover most of the bills and other extra things that someone may not need, so it is important to know everything to avoid paying for something unnecessary.
We believe we will see more parks move towards not including water in the monthly lot rent fee in the future as mobile home parks are increasingly turning that charge of the water bill over to the residents directly.
Mobile home parks throughout the Sarasota Florida area may include several different items within the base lot rent.
Some of these may include what we refer to as “The BIG Five”:
- Water
- Sewer
- Trash
- Lawn Care
- Usage/Upkeep Of Park Amenities
As you can quickly see, many mobile home parks charge lot rent that is less of a land rental price and more of a condo fee as there are so many things included within the base lot rent.
Recently, the Sarasota Florida mobile home community has begun to shift its focus and has started to begin charging its residents more in an a la carte fashion. What this means is that some mobile home parks around Sarasota are starting to charge their residents for the usage of water, sewer, and even at times lawn care.
As you can see, this then adds several different bills that need to be paid each month by the resident on top of their lot rent fee.
Although it is too early to tell, we are not sure if this will continue to be a growing trend within the area.
Assuming the mobile home park that you are living in does include The Big Five, then you are looking at an extremely affordable way of living since the only monthly carrying costs that are associated with the property are that of the lot rent, electricity, and whomever you select for the usage of cable and internet.
While mobile parks are starting to change the way they view some of these included features that are normally a part of the monthly lot rent, one thing cannot be debated — the affordability of living in a land-leased mobile home park!
The Mobile Home Dealer are licensed mobile home brokers in Sarasota Florida and the surrounding areas. We provide professional buy and/or sell assistance to our clients. If you have any questions, please get in touch with us by clicking this link. You may also visit our Facebook Page and send us a message.
This is Mark Kaiser with The Mobile Home Dealer and we help mobile home buyers and sellers get to a better place in life.
See Also:
- Does A Smoke Smell Affect The Sales Price Of A Sarasota Florida Mobile Home?
- What Does A Sarasota Mobile Home Park Check On The Park Application?
- Why Do Sarasota Mobile Home Parks Charge An Application Fee?
- Why Are Sarasota Florida Mobile Home Rentals Hard To Find?
- Sarasota Florida Mobile Home Park Residency Restrictions Explained!