Chapter 10 of 20
Finding a community
How to evaluate the place, not just the home, with a shortlist of what to look at on site.
2 min read
If you are buying on a leased lot, you are choosing two things: a home and a landlord you cannot easily leave. The second deserves as much attention as the first, and it usually gets far less.
Visit more than once, and at different times. A weekday morning and a weekend evening tell you different things about traffic, noise, and parking. Walk the whole community rather than only the route to the home you are viewing. Look at the condition of the roads, the drainage after rain, the street lighting, and whether the common areas are actually maintained rather than merely present.
The infrastructure matters more than the amenities. Water and sewer lines, road surfaces, and electrical service are the community's big capital costs, and deferred maintenance on them eventually arrives as a rent increase or a special assessment. A tired clubhouse is cosmetic; a failing sewer main is not.
Then ask about ownership and governance. Is the community investor-owned or resident-owned? Has it changed hands recently, and what happened to rent afterwards? Who handles maintenance requests, and how quickly? These questions are more predictive of your experience than anything about the home itself.
One note on how we present communities: MHAuthority derives community names from the listing data itself, and our feed does not currently carry verified information about amenities, age restrictions, or fees. Anything that matters to you should be confirmed directly with the community.
Key points
- You are choosing a landlord as much as a home, and leaving is expensive.
- Visit at least twice, at different times of day and week.
- Infrastructure condition predicts future rent increases better than amenities do.
- Ask whether ownership has changed recently, and what happened to rent.
Watch out
A recent change of ownership is worth understanding carefully. Ask current residents what happened to rent and to services afterwards.
Questions to ask
- Who owns the community, and has it changed hands in the last five years?
- What has lot rent done over the past five years?
- What exactly does lot rent cover?
- Who is responsible for water lines, roads, and trees, the community or the resident?
- How are maintenance requests handled, and how fast?