Pack Your Clubs – Buying a Home in 55+ Golf Community

Retirement is a time to relax and enjoy the good things in life. If one of your passions is golf, you might want to check out all the amazing amenities offered by senior manufactured home communities. Here’s just a taste of some of the gorgeous 55+ golf communities across the country.

They all have beautiful homes and golf carts in the driveway!

Golf Communities Around the Country

Fairways Country Club – Orlando, Fla.:

Located in sunny Orlando, Fla., Fairways Country Club has an 18-hole golf course, a pro shop, three swimming pools, two tennis courts, a fishing lake and pond, three clubhouses and a fitness center. Of course, Orlando is home to a number of theme parks and vacation destinations. So, this is an incredibly popular destination for all ages. Take a look and prepare to get a round in!

https://youtu.be/EW6rB8_xypU

Golf Vista Estates – Monee, Ill.:

Many of the 55+ golf communities are located in Florida and Arizona. But wonderful golf locations exist in the Midwest as well. Located in Chicago’s Southland area, Golf Vista has a 9-hole course, pool hall and community center with a fitness room. With home prices ranging between $12,000 and $44,000, this affordable 55+ community has a lot to offer retirees!

Palm Creek – Casa Grande, Ariz.:

Palm Creek has a renowned Par-3 course for your golfing pleasure. Furthermore, it offers more than 165 activities per week – so you are certain to stay busy. This golf community has everything from state-of-the-art pickleball courts to workshops on stained glass and painting. Located in Arizona’s “Golden Corridor”, Casa Grande is only 40 minutes south of Phoenix and an hour north of the historic districts in Tucson.

Schalamar Creek – Lakeland Fla.:

Ron Garl designed the 18-hole championship course at Schalamar Creek, renowned among golf communities. They have tournaments year round for fun, trophies and even cash prizes. Schalamar Creek is a great location for golfers and bird watchers alike – this 55+ Golf and Country Club Community is located alongside the 750-acre Saddle Creek Park, a protected bird sanctuary. Many interesting birds can be seen during a round of golf. Lakeland Florida has a legendary historic downtown area and is known for antiques, architecture and community gardens.

ViewPoint Golf Resort – Mesa, Ariz.:

This beautiful 55+ retirement mobile home community offers you a whopping 27 holes of on-site golf! Add in shuffleboard and tennis courts, horseshoe pits, a fitness center, billiard facilities, and a community swimming pool, and the activities seem endless. Additionally, Mesa has such beautiful weather! With better than 300 days of sunshine each year, it is a great place to play year round. Not only is there a golf course on site at ViewPoint Golf Resort, Mesa is home to some of Arizona’s most well-known golf courses designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr, Jack Nicklaus, and Pete Dye.

Water Oak Country Club – Lady Lake Fla.:

This gated community not only boasts an 18-hole golf course, it also has four tennis courts, bocce, horseshoes, and an Olympic-sized swimming pool. The 300 acres of fields, trees, lakes and winding paths are a plus. Another reason to look at Lake County also is for camping, kayaking, and wonderful fishing. It’s only an hour north of Orlando, so tourist attractions for the family are close by.

This is just a sample of some of the wonderful opportunities manufactured home and golf communities offer for retirement. Social activities, pools, great locations with beautiful weather, and fabulous courses to refine your swing!

How to Find a Retirement Community

Find a retirement community illustration

Looking at How to Find a Retirement Community? MHVillage Has A Few Ways to Narrow Your Search

Location is one of the biggest – A lot of consumers on our site look to move to warmer climates.

We have quite a number of Senior communities in Florida, California, Arizona, Texas, Nevada and South Carolina advertising on our site, for instance.

As you get ready to dive into your search for the ideal retirement community, you may find it helpful to check out some of our tips and background information about senior mobile home parks. Once you’ve read through the guide, then you will be fully equipped to browse with a purpose!

Ok, to kick things off, we recommend starting with a few state-wide searches on MHVillage to get a feel for the cities that interest you most.

If you go to our parks search page, get started on your state-wide search via our “Search By State” map.

Once you select your state, we list to the right all cities and towns that have manufactured and mobile home sales listings. You can click a location link, or click the city/town on the map that mosts interests you.

Search Criteria for Retirement Communities Beyond Location

Often, our customers looking to retire will choose the community tab from the top navigation since they are looking for a community that is 55+. The “Showcased” communities on MHVillage have more information. They have more photos, more extensive community information and added contacts detail.

Each community will list pet restrictions, amenities and activities. As an option, they will provide ways to make contact. They also will list the homes on MHVillage that are available in their community. But if you have more questions, you will want to contact the community directly.

Plus, you can stay in the know on homes or communities you like! This is done by clicking the “Like” option on the listing. If the community updates information, photos or changes a home price, you will get an email notification. You also can view your “Liked” listings from your free account on MHVillage.

Looking for somewhere affordable?

If you’re in the market for a home and would prefer to find a place that’s budget-friendly, you’ll want to check out these 10 cities with the best prices for manufactured homes in the country.

In the meantime, if you have any questions about shopping for your retirement on MHVillage, let us know! We would be happy to walk you through the process.

California Tiny Homes

The Tiny Homes Movement Has Popped Up in Palm Springs

The first 10 tiny homes are available for sale in Palm Springs, Calif., at the Palm Canyon Mobile Club, 1880 S. Palm Canyon Drive, with options between 600 and 800 square feet starting at $126,000.

Median home prices for a single-family homes in Palm Springs is more than $500,000.

The vintage mobile home park in this popular resort community is set to receive 100 tiny homes, a first of its kind project in Southern California. Watch a virtual tour of one of the community’s California tiny homes.

“Palm Springs has a vast collection of architectural and modern homes,” said Paul Kaplan, who heads the agency marketing the homes and community. ” We wanted to do something modern that would fit with the existing homes of the 1960s and 1970s that are in the park.”

About the California Tiny Homes

The pre-fab style tiny homes are delivered whole to the homesite after being factory-built with the interiors complete. Outdoor decks and porches will be added once the home is situated. Walkways, driveways, carports, fenced yards and landscaping complete the package.

Designed to avoid being too tiny, the homes are all single level structures. There are no ladders or sleeping lofts, features commonly found in tiny homes. The one-bedroom home includes up to 550 square feet of outdoor deck space. Inside is 600-square feet with glass walls for plenty of natural light. Additionally, the home offers nine-foot ceilings, sliding glass doors, full-size kitchen appliances and a bathroom. The 2-bedroom has about 250 square feet of deck space.

Marketing to Seniors, First-Time Buyers

Kaplan anticipates the community being popular with winter visitors, retirees looking to downsize and some first-time manufactured home buyers. The community has had about 100 people come through each recent Saturday.

Designers deliberately kept the homes slim as a strategy to maximize outdoor space. The tiny homes are placed on a traditional double-wide mobile home pad. Each lot provides room for a garden, grill and a dog run. Kaplan said these and other lifestyle amenities rarely are found at area condo developments.

The homeowner rents the lot space for $650 per month, about $100 more than the average condo association fee in the area.

Mobile home park amenities include paved drives, driveways, walkways and landscaping, clubhouse, pool, grill areas, dog park, gym and common areas.

An added bonus of tiny home living: if you want some new scenery, you can put the wheels back on your home, and tow it to a new locale.

Is Your Home Priced to Sell?

Here are some factors to consider when deciding on the selling price for your home

Though we work in the advertisement world of our industry and do not directly sell homes, our communication with our home sellers, professionals and buyers can give us a unique perspective when it comes to the appropriate selling price for a mobile home. This article will talk about a few trends we see when it comes to homeowners who are listing their own home.

Now, we know nobody knows your home like you do. So it is not surprising that we see a lot of individuals home sellers over-pricing their home on our site. This totally makes sense, considering you know the all of the upgrades and special features the home has to offer. Plus, if you are like most homeowners, you have invested in your home quite a bit over the years and hope to regain some of those costs with the sale.

These are all completely logical and rational reasons to list your home on the higher end of the price range. However, there are some risks that come with pricing too high.

Things you risk with a price that’s too high:

A “Hard Pass”– Some buyers look on our site and from the search results will scroll right past homes that are simply outside of their budget. So, if you are pricing your home higher, you risk them scrolling past and not seeing your advertisement.
Quality Buyer Leads Missed: Similar to number 1. Let’s say a buyer receives your home in one of their search alerts and decides even though it might be priced higher than they are looking, they will see the details. Your buyer might take a look at your advertisement but if the price is not justified with your home listing then you risk them moving on.
Buyer’s Appraisal; Lower than Selling Price- If a home buyer is getting financing for your home, their lender will need an appraisal. If that number comes in substantially lower than the selling price you risk the buyer backing out before closing.
Selling Other Homes: By pricing your home too high, the other homes in your area that are priced lower get the advantage. Knowing your market is important since buyers can also research the selling prices for other homes in that area.

Pricing your home to sell is something that takes research and perspective.

Take some time to learn how to correctly price your home for the market. If you are working with an industry professional, or real estate agent, they will be able to tell you about nearby home prices, and where your home fits in the spectrum. They should be able to guide you with their industry knowledge, which is a benefit to hiring a local professional who knows your market.

If you are selling your home directly, then you might want to invest in a home appraisal or at the very least a Book Value. Not only can these options give you a number to start with, but a report or an appraisal is also something you can offer your buyer. We currently have offer a manufactured and mobile home value report for free. Our report can be viewed as a mobile home blue book value, as our appraisal staff will search for the resale value of the property in our system using information about your home. You can get just the value for the home for free with your home listing, or if you want the full report (which includes a market analysis report) you can purchase that option too.

For home appraisal options, we recommend contacting Datacomp Appraisal.

They have a few different appraisals and report options and can give you a quote for service right over the phone!

The next step is how you advertise the home.

While you know your home, the buyers don’t have any of that experience with the space. They are seeing a price tag on your home and they have to be sold on why it’s worth that number.

If you are advertising on MHVillage, we not only let you list all of the amenities and features of the home, we also have a spot where you can enter a full description. This area of the listing is incredibly important to buyers. Plus it’s your chance to really describe the space and prove that your listing price is accurate. Last but not least, photos photos photos. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so why not support your selling price with them too!

Hopefully, this article can give you a little perspective from the buyer’s side of things as you continue the process of selling your home. If you have any questions about the services MHVillage offers, please give us a call or send us an email. Our customer service staff is happy to help!

The Power of Your Sales Caption

Is Your Home Sales Caption as effective as it could be?

MHVillage offers a space in its home listings for a “Sales Caption” for Featured and Premium Home Listings.

This space will allow you to enter a sentence that will show above your listing in a search result. You want to include an offer or something that is eye-catching. The goal is to get the customer to click on your ad from the search result.

This one is an attention grabber.

Often, I come across Featured and Premium Listings on our site where the seller has entered a caption, but it’s not as effective as it could be.

Actual Sales Caption on MHVillage:

Example of information unnecessarily repeated.

While “Best Value”, “In A Great Community” or “Beautiful New Home” sales captions sound okay, they’re not very inviting. Often, the same simple sales caption appears on multiple listings, even on the same page. Try for some varied language that will hook the reader.

Also, if you have one of the more expensive homes in the area, a sales caption can help you explain why. I mean, if your home is priced significantly higher than others in the area, there is probably good reason. However, browsers might skip the most expensive homes if the caption fails to explain why the home is costs more. Some likely features that increase home value include a home located on land, or one that is newly renovated or fully furnished.

So how do you ensure you are getting the most out of your sales caption?

Here are a few tips:

Research for the Sales Caption: You want your home to stand out above the rest in your area. So, do a few searches on MHVillage in your area and make sure you aren’t using the same language another seller is using for their home.
Unique Details for the Sales Caption: Try to find something unique about your ad that you can highlight in the caption. For example:

“Fully furnished, renovated home, with open floor plan”

Current and Updated Sales Caption: One of the benefits of online advertising is you can update your information at any time. So you can change your caption at any time, based on any incentives you might be willing to offer as the seller.

This feature really can make the difference for your traffic on our site. It can be the detail that turns a shopper into a buyer!

And, if you you would like assistance or if you have any questions, please feel free to contact our customer service.

Home for Sale

Tips for the New Home Buyer

If you’re looking at a home for sale, whether it’s new or previously owned, in a community or on private land, there are a few things that people with experience want you to know.

Do your research. When a make, model or design is suggested, find out about the competitors. This holds true, too, for associated services, like financing, transport or setup.

For a previously lived in home, check the roof, water heater and furnace. These are expensive components to replace, and you should know that there is significant life left in them at the time you’re looking to purchase.

Think about drywall versus wall panels. Step heavily on high-traffic areas to ensure the floor is solid. Check windows for leaks. Check skirting for holes and moisture underneath the home.

None of this is very pleasant, but all of it is necessary.

Be Your Own Advocate

Maralee Dougherty, of Leesburg, Fla., recently lost her husband and moved to a new home in a new community. She moved to a resident-owned community, so she could own the land beneath the home, and to a home that was a bit smaller in size. Beyond the expanded amenities in the new community, Hawthorne at Leesburg, Dougherty said the home “showed very well.” An inspector and friendly contractor helped assure her of the value of the home for sale.

“It’s very open,” Dougherty said of the new home. “The living and dining rooms are one big L-shape. A lot of the more expensive stuff has been replaced, including roof, windows, and siding. There also was new laminate floors. Everything the previous owners had done, they seem to have bought the best.”

It’s always best that you watch for problems with a home for sale, or have someone you can trust do it for you.

David Murphy, of Las Vegas, Nev., said he prefers to live in an all-ages community as opposed to a senior park, and that he’s mindful of staying above flood level to help protect his investment.

“I like new-from-the factory,” Murphy said. “It is vital that the roof is sealed and taken care of. The home would be no good if it leaks on the beams… then the heat and AC need to be working well, with plumbing up to date and electrical up to date.”

On the more pleasurable side, every home shopper has a unique interest in amenities.

Pick your package

Bruce Thelen is director of sales and development for Champion Homes, one of the largest makers in the market. He has detailed what Champion and its product designers have implemented in the way of customer demand.

“Our consumers want to see the features and color pallets and design elements that they see on HGTV, and that they see in higher price stick-built homes,” Thelen said. “We spend a lot of time figuring out features and colors that go into our homes while maintaining the price points everyone is accustomed to in our industry.”

Pink remains a popular color with homes for sale in Florida. Darker tones play well in the Midwest and Great Lakes, while much of the rest of the country is going to lighter brown-beige and off-white tones.

“We try to offer the consumer as much choice as possible,” Thelen said. “There are two ways we do that. One is in the actual design of the house. We create a ‘family of homes’, focusing on the living area, kitchen, and bath. We perfect those as much as we can, and then build the remainder of the house around it in multiple dimensions.

“Maybe it goes from a three- to four-bedroom, or turns a 56-foot house into a 60-foot house,” he said. “We can offer the consumer this variation, along with three different bathroom designs and maybe certain cabinets, varying roof pitch or an optional dormer.”

The Finishing Touch

Champion customers want to see built-in components – architectural designs that look somewhat like free-standing residential furniture. For instance, a kitchen island that uses table legs on one side rather than a full cabinet, or a fixed computer desk, or storage cubes in an entry “mud” room.

Customers want deep, stainless steel farmer sinks, “rainfall” shower heads, wide ceramic showers with no tub, and bright-open layouts.

And overall home design, inside and out.

“A cleaner and streamline look,” Thelen said. “We’ve really followed that trend. It varies somewhat by region, but it’s been more distinct in recent years.”

Ready to see some incredible pictures of manufactured homes?

Take a closer look at some of the latest features and designs of modern manufactured homes. Also, if you’re curious about what some of today’s mobile homes look like inside, we’ve got a guide for that too.

High Tech Home Shopping

Clayton Launches High Tech Home Shopping App; Home Previewer® Augmented Reality Mobile App

MARYVILLE, Tenn. — Home shoppers can use augmented reality to visualize how their potential new home may look like on their land before they break ground.

Clayton, a Berkshire Hathaway company and one of America’s largest homebuilders, announced the release of Home Previewer®, an iPhone® compatible app. The app allows shoppers to envision what a home may look like in 3D on their future home site. The free app is available for download from the App Store®.

National homebuilder takes high tech home shopping to the Next Level with enhanced interactive functionality for homebuyers

See Clayton’s video of their new high tech home shopping app!

Industry Use of Augmented Reality

“We’re pleased to be one of the first builders to introduce augmented reality to the digital home buying journey,” said Kevin Clayton, CEO of Clayton Homes. “Our homes now offer custom designs, innovative features and energy efficient upgrades. We are committed to being a leader in innovation for the home building community and will continue to develop the kind of technology that will support our customers throughout the experience.”

Home Previewer® app is the creation of Boulder, Colo., ad agency Made. It allows users to digitally anchor a home model from a list of model choices to the future home location using augmented reality. The app makes it appear as if the home is actually already there.

Therefore, the user can walk around the 3D rendered image when the home is “anchored”. It then can be viewed from all angles on its future site. Users can take pictures of the house in its physical setting and share them with friends and family.

More High Tech Home Shopping to Come

So, Clayton intends in the coming year to introduce a wide variety of digital tools.

These tools aim to aid customers as they visit local home centers and tour homes on location, devices on hand. We want to make the home shopping experience fun, personal and informative. Home Previewer™ is the first mobile app of its kind in the manufactured home building industry. This app follows the 2015 release of the MyMobi Home Finder® application that provides location, pricing and the ability select homes they would like to visit in person.

“Everyone should be able to have a beautiful, affordable slice of the world to call their own,” Clayton said. “We see interactive digital tools like this Home Previewer® app as one way to deliver on extraordinary experiences for our customers every day. We want our homebuyers to feel confident about the smart choice they’re making.”

Tiny House versus Park Model Home

There’s much talk about the tiny house and how it relates to other types of small manufactured homes.

It can get confusing, we’ve found, to compare and contrast tiny homes versus the park model home, for instance… particularly when you learn that definitions change with how the sun shines, and something to do, too, with grandma’s meatloaf.

Seriously, stick with us here.

Park Model Homes

What are park model rv’s? A brief but accurate way to describe park models is – a regulated temporary living space designed for an RV park setting:

399 or fewer square feet of living space (Fla. is 499 sf)
Can be towed on public byways
No mortgage available
Requires registration, tags and insurance like a vehicle
Ideal for RV park or blended RV/mobile home park
Purchase from maker for ease of registration, travel safety
Retail from $20,000 to $140,000 higher end

In the market? Check out our latest guide with tips and need-to-knows for purchasing a park model.

Curt Yoder is co-owner of Kropf Industries Inc., a Goshen, Ind. company that makes Park Models.

Park Model Home Tiny House — Island Series Park Model by Kropf

“What we sell is destination camping,” Yoder said. “We do not promote our units in any way to be lived in. We’re strictly recreational use.”

On the other hand, tiny houses are primarily seen as residences, even if second residences or guest houses, and are less-so regarded as a getaway property, like the RV or Park Home.

Nonetheless, the problem with tiny homes as a primary residence is that many local ordinances and codes prohibit certain sizes and residential placement. If allowed, they’re typically permitted as an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) for the rear or side of a property.

A tiny house on rural land most often is less challenging, but requirements exist in all but the rarest scenario.

“This makes some of the tiny home builders want to register as an RV, but then they want to say it’s lived in rather than seasonal, and that becomes the ticking point,” Yoder said.

“Similarly, over the years, we’ve had manufactured home dealers want to sell park models,” he added. “You’re trying to sell a home next to a recreational vehicle, and it doesn’t work out that well.”

Tiny House

A lifestyle concept embodied by a small home that can fit an MH community:

400 to 999 square feet of livable indoor floor space
Some can be smaller dependent on siting and local regulations
Anything smaller than 200 square feet is a shed
Larger tiny home dimensions cannot be towed for recreation on public spaces
Larger units can be hauled, if permitting and consumer/public protection is in place
If on permanent foundation, can be primary residence
Difficult to finance with mortgage loan, but possible
No vehicle registration, tags or insurance
Can be insured as personal property (chattel)
Ideal for private land, back property guest home
With the skills, you can build it yourself
Cost differs on preference, from $8,000 self-built to the luxurious limit (Think Italian marble everywhere)

Tiny House Park Model Home — Legacy Tiny Home

Shawn Fuller is sales manager at Tiny House Outlet, a division of Legacy Housing.

“Our tiny house stuff has just run away. It’s insane. I’ve never been on a wave like I’ve got surging now,” Fuller said.

Given that, Fuller has several models of tiny homes, and has developed an app that allows a customer to choose features and specifications, get financing, and have the home delivered all on the handheld device.

“There’s a lot of misinformation about tiny homes,” Fuller said. “A true tiny home has to be less than 399 square feet. If it’s bigger, you trigger all the federal guidelines on home construction. The biggest difference between a tiny home and true park model… I don’t know any park model manufacturer that’s not building to ANSI code.

“The only manufacturer I know of that’s building a tiny home with no code is Legacy, and that’s our product out of Commerce, Texas,” Fuller said.

What’s more

Therefore, the dividing line in an odd way – because it works in both directions – is 400 square feet. In this sense, the definitions change as much with the square feet as how the home is used and where it’s placed.

Therefore, the “on wheels” consideration for tiny homes is a big divider – a tiny home on wheels (THOW) is typically going to be 399 square feet or less, sometimes much less.

“A stick-built building on the proper heavy trailer larger than 8-foot wide by 16-foot long and 13 1/2-foot high will require a one-ton truck for towing,” Isa Bauer, owner of Tiny House Northeast, said. “You’re talking about a group of people who want to live in this home year-round for the sake of a smaller carbon footprint, and that doesn’t fit well if you’re using a giant truck to haul the home.”

If a tiny home is fewer than 200 square feet and stays put, which many are, a predominant number of municipalities and other local governments will consider the structure a shed, and therefore unregulated.

This is the backyard grandma house, the meditation hut, the art center, the kid playhouse. You can plug in a TV, radio or computer, run a small AC or heater, and have a desk and bed, but likely will be without plumbing and running water.

The Final Word

Back to the direction of sun and grandma’s meatloaf.

Didn’t think we’d forget, did you?

Yes, Yoder said his designers, builders and inspectors subscribe to what he calls the “only true way to measure a park model”.

“When sun is at high noon, anything that casts a shadow off the home, including overhang and what else, is measured, and those are your dimensions,” Yoder said.

And Fuller, in comparing his tiny homes to the industry – It’s a matter of giving the customer what they want… Price point and a level of quality.

“The start of the whole tiny home thing was like grandma’s meatloaf,” Fuller said. “You don’t know what’s in it, but we know it’s good. We love to eat it. My tiny homes are like the Cracker Barrel meatloaf. It’s good, and we like to eat it, but it’s not really like grandma’s.

“Not everyone can get grandma’s meatloaf,” Fuller said.

“Grandma’s meatloaf” tiny home is available from Fuller at $25,000. The Kropf Island Series Park Model is available for $54,000, depending on the retail outlet, and the “Weelhouse” from Tiny House Northeast is $35,000.

Find a Home to Rent

MHVillage is a great place to search for the perfect home to rent! Here are a few tools we offer YOU, the home renter:

Sort for Home to Rent:

If you come to MHVillage and start your quest by typing in a location via the Quick Search, be sure to notice all of our sorting tools across the top of the results.

Though we give you the results in an order that we believe is most useful, you might want to see homes in order of size, year or feature.

Filter for Home to Rent:

Not only can you sort mobile homes for rent in Sarasota, for instance, you also can filter your results to show only the homes that meet your specific criteria.

Filter for Rent-to-Own:

Another option is to rent to own a mobile home. Once you understand how this process works, MHVillage has an easy way for renters to find these types of homes. Head to the rent advanced search page, and click the checkbox as shown in the image below. This will allow you to see all available rent-to-own listings in different locations that you search for.

Notifications for Home to Rent:

We have a feature on our site called the “Ideal Home Search Alert” that allows you to enter details that are important to you. You will receive email notifications about existing homes on the site and any new listings that match your criteria.

Start on our home page by being on the “Homes” tab, and choose the “Find Homes for Rent” option.

That will take you to all the homes to rent that are listed. However, if you are looking for something specific you might want to use our Advanced Search which will let you drill down to exactly what kind of home you are looking for. You can also set up your Ideal Home Search.

Once you have entered in the home to rent details you are seeking, then you would choose the “Sign Up for Alerts” option at the bottom. The alert emails will include the home for rent information and a link to the listing so you can contact the owner directly!

We offer tools with you in mind, so you can quickly and conveniently see homes that meet what you seek for your next rental.

If you would like more information, check out this comprehensive guide on Renting a Mobile Home.