Recently I had the opportunity to look into what it takes to buy a mobile home in Florida. Some of the best location in Florida are mobile home communities. So, in terms of real estate, what should I look for? Well the first thing I would say is try to buy in a community where you own the land. This will be evidence by the existence of a parcel id for the land. It may also be a coop which is OK but may be able to have homestead exemption for tax purposes and they are generally more difficult to finance. Remember that you are buying a mobile home which is NOT real property UNLESS the owner has filed for ( DR-402 ) and been granted a real property decal. The palm beach county property appraiser has information on this at their web site…
https://www.pbctax.com/services/motor-vehicles/mobile-homes
Basically, what the owner is doing here is declaring that the once mobile home is no longer mobile and is now permanently affixed to and part of the real property below it. Thus the land and the building is ALL real property now and it may be constitutionally homesteaded. Note here that if it’s on land owned by a coop then it may still be afforded homestead protection from creditors under a wider definition in the florida statutes.
The other thing to be aware of is insuring a mobile home is expensive. Insuring a mobile home with Citizens in western palm beach county is about 1500 per year for 26,000 of coverage. By comparison, insuring a home along the beach is about 2,000 per year BUT for about 300,000 in coverage
