People who sold a house on a city lot often walk in with the wrong picture. Up north, the house and the dirt usually travel together. You buy both. You sell both.
Here, that picture does not always hold. The home is one thing. The lot is another. Skip that distinction and you will get the monthly number wrong, and the resale picture too.
We are Palm Gardens. Family-owned 55+ community at 2929 E. Main St., Mesa, AZ 85213. Same family since 1985. We sell park models. We sell manufactured homes. We also rent RV sites, so you can spend a season on this street before you buy anything. This post is about what that purchase actually is.
Sales is (480) 687-1261. That is the number for the questions below. The office is (480) 832-0290 if you want a site for the coach first.
Two different stays on the same street
If you bring an RV, you are renting a site. You keep the coach. When the season is over, you leave, or you book again. Current 2025–26 numbers live on our RV rates page. Travelers on that page must be 55 or older. You are not buying a building.
If you buy a park model or a manufactured home here, you are buying a house that sits on a lot in this park. Champion and Cavco are the names on the new work. Arizona Park Homes sets them up on site. Existing homes come up too. Listings live on our manufactured homes page. That page is the menu.
Those two paths use the same pools, the same pickleball courts, the same clubhouse. They are not the same purchase.
If you are still sorting which building you even want, start with Park model vs manufactured home vs RV in Mesa. That post is the floor-plan conversation. This one is the ownership conversation.
Ask sales. Call (480) 687-1261. Ask what you would own if you bought that home. Ask what you would lease. Ask what lot rent is today, what it covers, and what it does not. Ask how title and transfer work on that home. Write the answers down. Take them home to whoever helps you with money.
If a number is not said out loud in that conversation, do not pull one off a Facebook group. We can only speak for Palm Gardens.
Questions worth asking on the tour
Bring a notebook. These matter more than the kitchen backsplash.
What am I buying? The home. Confirm what stays with it: appliances, shed, carport, deck, furnishings if any. Confirm what does not.
What am I leasing? The lot, if that is how this home is set up. Confirm it for this lot, not for “homes like this” in general.
What is lot rent today? Not last year. Not a range you saw online. Today. Then ask what that payment includes — water, sewer, trash, common-area upkeep, whatever is actually in it — and what you pay separately. Electric is often its own bill. Do not assume. Ask.
What happens when I sell? Who has to approve a buyer. What the park needs from you. How long a transfer usually takes. Whether there are fees. We will give you the current process for this park.
What are the rules I would live under? Occupancy. Guests. Pets. Vehicles. How long you can be away. Whether you can rent the home out. If a rule would change how you actually use the place, get it in the room, not later.
If we do not know an answer, we will say so. That is better than a confident guess.
Why people get this wrong
The confusion is not dumb. It is how most of us learned housing.
You buy a ranch in Illinois, you own the ranch and the lot. You buy a condo, you own air and a share of the building. You rent an apartment, you own nothing. A manufactured home in a 55+ park does not map cleanly onto any of those three. People then either assume they are buying a city lot, or they assume they are renting an apartment with extra steps. Neither is the right frame.
The right frame is: you are buying a specific home, on a specific lot, under this park’s current terms. Get those terms from us.
Joe left a review on our homepage. He and his household stayed about 11 years as snowbirds. In September 2020 they moved here for good. He plays pickleball most days and golf in the Monday and Wednesday leagues. He did not start with a closing. He started with winters.
Test a season if the purchase still feels large
You do not have to buy first. Book a stay. Walk the streets after supper. Sit by a pool in February. Look at homes while you are here. Inventory moves. A park model on the homes page in November may be gone in January. Use the page as a snapshot. Use the tour as the real look.
If you already know you want both halves — coach this season, house next year — that path is written out in RV this season, buy next year. Same street. Same family. You do not have to winter in one place and shop in another.
Call the office at (480) 832-0290 for a site. Call sales at (480) 687-1261 if a home is in front of you and you want the ownership answers.
Call sales with the lot questions
If you want a park model or a manufactured home, call (480) 687-1261. Ask what you own. Ask what you lease. Ask what lot rent is today and what it covers. Ask about title and transfer on the home you are actually looking at.
If you want a site this season, call (480) 832-0290.
Email: info@palmGardensOnline.com
You get the same park either way. Two pools. Pickleball. A fitness center. A clubhouse. A library. Office hours are Monday through Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Sunday by appointment.
Palm Gardens
2929 E. Main St., Mesa, AZ 85213
Homes for sale
RV rates
Park model vs manufactured home vs RV
RV this season, buy next year
Bring the questions. We will answer the current ones. That is a better start than a number we would have to take back next season.