The Downside to Owning a Park Model at Sun 'N Fun RV Resort

Regrettably, I own a "Park Model" unit at SunNFun RV Resort in Sarasota, Florida. Why the regrets? Let me count the ways:

• I live where the winters are really cold.
• I started going to Florida to get away from the coldest months of winter: January, February, and March. Perfect for me, since I have obligations at home during the rest of the year.
  
• I found SunNFun in Sarasota and thought it was great. Lots of things to do, nice park, great amenities, friendly people.
  
• Renting a newer park model at SunNFun was more expensive than I could afford, so I tried renting a less expensive model. It was awful. No aesthetics, no warmth to the place. Nothing to make it feel "homey". In fact, I felt like a homeless person who'd found an abandoned undersized mobile home near a place with a pool, shuffle board, and other stuff.
• I learned I could buy a park model at SunNFun! That meant I could fix it up the way I wanted and it would be there for me during the months I most wanted to be away from the cold.
  
• So I bought a nice looking used unit on a great site in the park and fixed it up so it looked like a miniature edition of a Pottery Barn vacation home.

And then I slammed into the reality of what I'd gotten into:

• The park doesn't offer services to secure your unit at the end of each season (May 30). You have to find someone who'll do that for you. As I write, the park gives out only one name of a person who does this and she's off-and-on reliable. You can ask around for other names, but in my experience, there weren't any.
• The annual fee for having a unit in the park is around $7,000.
• The park will rent and clean your unit if you're in their Rental Program. 
• If you're in their Rental Program, you can't stay in your own unit during the entire month of February and either 2 weeks in January or 2 weeks in March (in other words, you can't stay in your unit for 6 weeks during the months you'd most want to be there if you're trying to escape the cold). 
• The park takes 55% of the rent they get for your unit, and they control the amount they charge for rent. 
• If you join their Rental Program,  you have to remove anything the park feels is personal or excessive. (Pottery Barn decor means there are personal touches and amenities.) 
• If you're in the Rental Program, the park will find renters and clean your unit. 
• The park will also close your unit at the end of each season if you're in their Rental Program.
• The park's management doesn't provide a service to help you rent your unit during the months you aren't there, so if you want to recoup some of the annual fees by renting the unit during the months you aren't there, good luck. You have to advertise it, then you have to find (and pay) a reliable person to set the place up and clean it before and after each renter.
• So despite what you might have in mind, you can't really use your own unit to get away during the cold winter months without going through a whole lot of trouble and expense.
• Did the park sales team tell you about any of this when you were considering buying a unit and they knew you were buying it to get away in January, February, and March? No. In fact, they'll tell you how easy life will be when you own a unit there.
• Want to sell the unit? The park will do that for you (they take a 10% commission), but they won't stage your unit so it looks its best. In fact, they'll leave it as it looks after it's been closed for the winter: with all outdoor and lanai items piled inside the unit. So if you don't get any interest, don't be surprised.

I started this blog because I suspect I'm not the only one who's run into this, and because I want people to consider all sides of ownership of a unit in SunNFun before you buy. You've either got to know someone who knows someone, or you're likely in for much more than you bargained for.