I have been keeping a couple spread sheets regarding various places we have traveled the last couple years. I record areas we may want to consider as an RV home base or for when we are ready to transition to a more permanent location. I include the pros and cons while still fresh in our minds. Amenities are very important since we want to maintain an active lifestyle as long as possible. For the last year we have had an RV lease site at Pio Pico Thousand Trails in Jamul, CA (San Diego county). Having a lease site allowed us to return directly to our site anytime throughout the year. We could only stay overnight a total of 210 nights (about 7 months). It has been nice to skip the check-in/crossover hassles, and not have to leave every three weeks for a week per regular membership usage. Our lease site was small, but quiet and fairly private. Even though the site only had 30 amp power, we were reassured it would be fine. We were pretty happy with this as a “home base” since this location is only 7 miles away from our two grandkids. But the park itself really didn’t offer much. Unfortunately, the lack of consistent power to our 30amp pedestal became an issue in February. Brownouts caused Vinny to shut down the pedestal power. It wasn’t likely to improve, so when we left March 1st, we knew we needed to seriously reevaluate whether it is worth $5300 to renew for another year, or should we return to the 3 week in one week out rotation with TT membership, or find a different home base.
Unfortunately, with the Covid-19 pandemic we got shut out of Pio effective mid to late March. We thought since that was “our home” that the closing of the park would not pertain to us, but we were wrong. Luckily, we were able to extend at Fortuna De Oro (a Cal-Am resort) in Yuma for the month of April with a 20% discount. Then May, it was a 50% discount (summer rates)! It was actually a blessing to be “stuck” at Fortuna. Fortuna is so much nicer with amazing amenities. Yuma is worth trying as our next home base.
The extended Covid-19 situation got us thinking more about options as a home base that would allow us to “return home” in situations like this, but would still allow us to live the nomadic lifestyle for multiple months each year.
Spending quality time with our grandkids is a priority, so location is key in considering a new home base. Periodic orthodontic appointments in Escondido also need to be considered for at least another year. Yuma would allow for such visits, and with our Thousand Trails membership we can go back to Pio Pico stay one night to three full weeks. A Yuma resort “home base” means enjoying great amenities when taking pause from our travels. A seasonal (or even an annual) RV lot in one of the Yuma resorts we checked out the first of March actually costs less than our lease site at Pio. However, if Covid-19 flares back up as predicted, we may find restrictions regarding returning to a seasonal RV site if we are away traveling. Therefore, having something with a little more room to spread out may be worth considering sooner than later. We believe a physical park model or home would provide more of a guarantee for returning to it when needed or desired. We still want to travel and maintain a simple life.
We checked out both new and resale park models at Fortuna first since we have really enjoyed the amenities and the people here. Unfortunately, none of the models available gave much more space than what we have with Vinny. Yes, you can add an Arizona room, but it isn’t the open floor plan we’d like, and the sites are small. New models appeared to range from $70-76K for the basic unit without a shed, Arizona room or carport. These park models though are great for people who come down every year for 3-4 months, then head back to their main sticks-n-brick home. We want something that we could spread out more for a month or more at a time, as well as have the potential for becoming more if needed or desired. A manufactured home which is twice as wide as a park model will not fit anywhere in this park. Therefore, Fortuna is out for anything other than an RV reservation for us.
Pics from Fortuna:
The Palms RV Resort was an option that we went back to check out for a sooner than later property, but it would cost much more than we want to invest right now. $69K for a premium lot that you own, and then $$$ to build (if you want) whatever size casita/home you want unless you find one for resale. If the lot is big enough or you buy adjoining lots, you can have a nice place AND room to park a motorhome on the combined lot or use them separately. The drawback? Even though you will own both the home and the lot, you have a monthly $350 HOA fee. But if you have two lots, you better figure on $700 a month for HOA. Below you can see the wide variety of lots with and without homes or small casitas. The Palms is a pretty resort with two great pools, but no dedicated pickleball courts.
Next we went to Carefree Village Resort to see first hand new manufactured homes models. It was important to see inside some models to see how they compare to park models. OMG–we loved them! They have two bedrooms, two baths, and the open concept we’ve been hoping to find with a nice roomy kitchen, the living room and a breakfast/dining area! Love the spacious feeling with the 9 ft ceilings and the 80-inch windows. Models ranged from $100K-118K. You pick the lot, but you only “rent” it. More on that later. 🙂 Below is one we really liked. It is 24 feet x 48 feet. This may definitely work for us, but we’re just in the research stage at this point!
The more we looked, the more we talked about how Carefree could be a nice, viable option. Even though there is not room for Vinny on the lot, there is an area to store Vinny conveniently within the resort.
We also went back to review Rancho Rialto Manufactured Home Community. That didn’t take long though. Here we were able to look at both new and resale homes. None had the open concept we desired. We didn’t even like the new model homes they had! That surprised me. I fully expected to see some of the same ones we saw at Carefree!
Carefree is currently adding their last 80 sites. The new site rents are priced the same, but the lots vary a bit in size. Prime sites (based on size and location) obviously go first. If we wait a year or so, the new prime lots will be unavailable. (They already are taken from the previous phase 1.) Once we talked all this through with pros and cons, we decided that choosing a lot and moving forward now with a manufactured home made sense for us. This park is only about 5 years old! We believe it will provide what we want and we should be able to sell it down the road if our journey takes us somewhere else. We are NOT planning to stay here all year long at this point, but could if we need to or if we find it remains a good fit several years from now.
PROS:
1) We would no longer have to travel with everything we own. Leaving some things at the house would allow us more useable space, and not having to have the Jeep filled to the max. (Hopefully)
2) Having a second bedroom and second bath we will have room for family or friends to visit when we are there! If friends have an RV, they can rent their own site yet be able to come to our place to “spread out” more. 🙂
3) Movin’ On with this new plan would also give us both peace of mind knowing that should something happen to one of us we’d have a ground entry home (unlike park models) to return to for as long as needed. And if one of us should pass away sooner than expected, it would allow for the other to take their time to adjust and to rationally determine the future with or without Vinny.
4) Carefree is a nice, new park. We have already met really nice people. The local Foothills area seems to be growing significantly, so places like this are likely to be in demand for a long time.
Now–What about owning the home, but not the land!? Why would anyone consider such a thing!?! So many people think it is terrible not to own the land, but Barry equated it to buying a condo (or house) where you have HOA fees. Buying both the home and the land just means investing a lot more money, paying more in property taxes, while still having a significant monthly HOA. We may not have a deeded lot, but the monthly outlay is basically the same as an HOA fee. What difference does it make if a monthly payment is for lot rent that includes use of the entire park amenities or is called an HOA fee? I think it is important to think of it that way. For us this is more financially appealing., at this point in our journey. Amenities mean a lot to us. The social aspect is huge for me.
WE DID IT!
We selected a lot, and put down a deposit to hold it for our home!! It is in the center of the last row of the park. We will have a partial view of the mountains and the sunrise every morning. Our last week in Yuma we spent 5 full days out at Carefree making so many decisions! What size? What floor plan? What interior materials/colors? And I don’t make these kinds of decisions easily or fast. It was exhausting. While we absolutely loved Virgie and John’s 28 x 50 floor plan, we agreed after taking some time visiting, and talking it over that we would be quite comfortable in the similar, but smaller 24 x 48 version. We could still do a couple important upgrades and hopefully stay within a reasonable budget. The 24 x 48 would also allow us more outdoor living space. The lot will allow for an 18 ft x 48 ft carport of which we will later screen in the back 18 ft x 20 ft section of it for outdoor living. Our back patio area should be about 14 ft deep x 52 ft wide! We should have room also on the lot for a couple trees. I’m thinking lemon and grapefruit, but we’ll see. If the numbers look good we will be MOVIN’ ON with this!
Selected countertops, flooring, backsplash, etc for our home! EXCITING!
Stay tuned for the progress…
Looking forward to having you guys join the CVR family.
It is getting exciting. Close to signing the purchase agreement. Do you know what they use to determine lot rent increases? Limit of increase? How often?
Hi Guys, we met briefly at Pio Peco and played a game of corn hole with you. I’m enjoying following your travels. I’m wondering, does your HOA fees cap at a certain point? We had talked bout possibly buying vs camping during the snowbird season.
Looking more into that. Asking tomorrow what they use to determine rate of increase and how often. Will let you know more as we learn.
I don’t know of any cap anywhere. But I would assume any fees would be comparable to those at other place in the same vicinity. Also remember that if you don’t own the land you don’t pay property tax on it, and not paying for land and home altogether means less money needed upfront.