Retirement coming up thinking about buying a park home

Life has changed quite dramitcaly the last 7 years and coming up to retirement age. Moved to a new area 3 and a bit years ago becuase I had to change my job however  and in the last 2 years I have been made reduntant twicein a area with no real freinds.

And really not doing the things we planned to do as the family has now left, so we are looking at our options to do the things we want to do.Move back to an area we have family friends and have A LARGER fund by selling up and moving to a park home.

Would love to hear what the good and bad are , what should we look for , what costs we will occur , what future expenditure , what pit falls, what should we do.

Hi,

The biggest problem (with older homes) is that they get very hot +35C in the summer and take a fair amount of heating in the winter, however with the smallish area to heat it probably will be no worse than the house your currently in.

Maintainance is fairly easy, the hardest bit is if you need to do anything underneath.

Otherwise its exactly the same as living in a house really.

You can somtime have problams with park owners, but this is a different issue

Council tax should be the lowest band for the area, but this is offset by the £100-150 ground rant that you will havre to pay.

If you decide to move out there will be an upto 10% charge payable to the site owner.

I live on a council owned park (i own the park home) and have had no problems, i have gradually done it up (new windows, kitchem and decorating etc)

Its now cheap living and its the best thing i ever did.

Hi oldgolfer,

We have been in our park home nearly a year now having downsized from a 4 bedroomed house.  This has enabled us to purchase our motor home a lot sooner than we would have done, so has improved our quality of life.  We did a part exchange deal with the park owner, so were unaffected by the decline in the housing market and got out a lot sooner.  The other option was to put down a non returnable deposit on the new park home, but we had no idea how long it would take to sell our home on the open market, and did not want to risk losing a deposit, which would have only held the home for 6 months, at which time we would have had to put down a further deposit - these monies would have been deducted from the price of the home once we had sold our house and were able to complete the purchase of the park home.

As we were also able to pay off the mortgage on our old house, at least we are now living mortgage free.  This is a bonus.  Our home is heated by Calor gas, which is a downside - especially if supplies run low and we get a lot of snow, as the delivery men are unable to come out in that eventuality - have to make sure we have a full spare container just in case! We do not, however, have a gas bill any more, since we pay for our gas when it is delivered.  We used very little gas over the last 6 months by the way, despite my husband's daily showers!

As our park home is new, we are covered by the 10 Year Gold Shield scheme, which means if anything goes wrong in the first year it is dealt with at no cost to ourselves.  Less things are covered for the duration of the 10 years, but every little helps!  

We find we have plenty of space here, with two double bedrooms, and no longer have a lawn to mow, having chosen paving stones, gravel and flower beds, we also have a large decking area, so plenty of space to sit outside and enjoy everyone else's lawns in addition to our own plants.

We do not regret moving out of our conventional house and choosing park home living... my only regret is that had my husband retired sooner we would have had a wider choice of location!

Hi oldgolfer,We have been in our park home nearly a year now having downsized from a 4 bedroomed house.  This has enabled us to purchase our motor home a lot sooner than we would have done, so has improved our quality of life.  We did a part exchange deal with the park owner, so were unaffected by the decline in the housing market and got out a lot sooner.  The other option was to put down a non returnable deposit on the new park home, but we had no idea how long it would take to sell our home on the open market, and did not want to risk losing a deposit, which would have only held the home for 6 months, at which time we would have had to put down a further deposit - these monies would have been deducted from the price of the home once we had sold our house and were able to complete the purchase of the park home.As we were also able to pay off the mortgage on our old house, at least we are now living mortgage free.  This is a bonus.  Our home is heated by Calor gas, which is a downside - especially if supplies run low and we get a lot of snow, as the delivery men are unable to come out in that eventuality - have to make sure we have a full spare container just in case! We do not, however, have a gas bill any more, since we pay for our gas when it is delivered.  We used very little gas over the last 6 months by the way, despite my husband's daily showers!As our park home is new, we are covered by the 10 Year Gold Shield scheme, which means if anything goes wrong in the first year it is dealt with at no cost to ourselves.  Less things are covered for the duration of the 10 years, but every little helps!  We find we have plenty of space here, with two double bedrooms, and no longer have a lawn to mow, having chosen paving stones, gravel and flower beds, we also have a large decking area, so plenty of space to sit outside and enjoy everyone else's lawns in addition to our own plants.We do not regret moving out of our conventional house and choosing park home living... my only regret is that had my husband retired sooner we would have had a wider choice of location!

-mrs_pc

Gosh it was like reading our story as we to bought a Motorhome and so have the best of both worlds almost like we were full timing.
We are by the sea in our Park home and have lived the life for over 10years and have loved every minute we do not regret anything.