hi, my husband and I want to 'park' out 5th wheel in/near Ft Meyers, Fl for the winter 2012-13 maybe longer if we find the right park. We would only be using it for a few weeks each year, maybe have our grown children, family, friends be able to use it. Does anyone have suggestions? What are the best types of parks? Why are the sites posted for sale as expensive as a condo?

Look under Fort Meyers, FL and you will see we have a long list of parks in the reviews files. Winter is high dollar time in FL and beach front cost more over inland parks. If you only plan to stay a couple weeks your best bet would be a motel as the RV parks charge by the month or day if you are on site or not. Most all parks will be booked out by now in south FL. Most parks are booked years out in winter months. The snow birds are coming into FL each day now and tens of thousands will be here soon.

Even in a depressed real estate market, there are still a lot of boomers looking for a winter home and willing to pay, what to many, are high prices. You are seeking something in an area where a lot of others have the same idea. Condo prices, due to oversupply and a lot of issues with poor construction, many unsold units turned into rentals, and problems with HOA finances are much more distressed than other real estate. As very small time investors, DW and I would not touch a Florida condo with a ten foot pole.

Many (most?) of the rv lots for sale now may have been bought during the boom times and sellers either are way underwater or still have unreasonable expectations of worth when selling. DW and I have bought a few fire sale rv lots in FL in the last few years and resold them, but IMO, most of the good deals are gone. If you are looking for a bargain investment you may have to go elsewhere. If you want a desirable rv lot in a good location, you may have to pay what I call full retail. Good luck.

As a native of Fort Myers, be sure to leave out the first e (MYERS) and you will get better results. The market of RV condo lots has crashed with the economy. My brother bought one for $30,000 had ones close by sell for $60,000, and now couldn't sell it for the original price. There are plenty for rent and I would certainly suggest renting for a year before buying.

Let us know what you found, I dream of the day we can take or TT to Florida