Neal, I've mentioned this before but I'll provide the info again if anyone is interested.
We have wintered in the Ft Myers/Cape Coral area for the past 5 years. Part of that time we actually owned a home there also. Have stayed in Gulf Waters and a couple other parks in that area. Last winter we began comparing temps to areas a little further north and decided there was really only a 2 or 3 degree difference if we migrated 80 to 100 miles north.
We found a really nice place (Rainbow RV Resort) up in Frostproof. We originally visited the area to look at lots for sale at Lilly Lakes Golf Resort. It is a owner/owned resort that surrounds a 9 hole course they own. Prices were extremely good. For example, to purchase a nice size RV lot and bring all the utilities up it would have been around $35,000. You can then build an RV port, just a concrete pad, or an RV port with attached modular home. HOAs were around $150 per month. We were looking at less than a $100,000 investment to have a really spacious lot with RV port.
While considering that we drove about 3 miles away and visited Rainbow. A great rent park with extremely nice facilities. They had a special going on premium lots. If you pass a background check they offer you a 2 year lease on your own lot. It is just concrete but comes with a 10'x10' storage shed. You only pay $287 per month plus electric. We never spent a winter in Florida and paid less than $5,000, so paying $3,444 a year to have our own lot that no one else can use was too good to pass up.
Actually they way things are going around the country this year we may just need to be back on our leased lot from the end of October through May of 2021.
We are very happy that we will be in a slightly more "rural" area of Florida this fall. We are looking forward to exploring Sebring, Winter Haven, and all the other nice smaller communities in that area. This inexpensive lease in a nice friendly resort gives us at least 2 years to do that.
