Land lease
Also called: leased land, ground lease, leasehold
An arrangement where you own the home but rent the ground it sits on, paying monthly lot rent.
In a land-lease arrangement, the standard model in manufactured-home communities, you buy and own the home, and you rent the lot beneath it from the community owner. The monthly payment for that lot is lot rent.
Land lease lowers the purchase price substantially, because you are not buying land. In exchange you take on an ongoing cost that can rise, and you accept the community's rules on everything from exterior alterations to pets to who may occupy the home.
The question that matters most is not what lot rent is today but what it has done. Ask for the lot-rent history over the past five years, and ask what governs increases. A home that looks affordable at today's rent can stop being affordable.
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Browse land-lease homesSee also
- Lot rent, The monthly amount paid to a community for the lot a manufactured home occupies.
- Manufactured-home community, A development of lots designed for manufactured homes, where residents typically own their home and rent the lot.
- Resident-owned community, A community owned collectively by the people who live in it, usually through a cooperative or homeowners association.
- Personal property, Property that is not land or permanently attached to it. A manufactured home on a leased lot is normally personal property.