Central Florida’s housing market is caught between cautious buyers, stubborn seller expectations, and insurance costs that quietly eliminate deals before they close. Against this backdrop, a growing number of buyers are turning to an option that has long carried an undeserved stigma: manufactured homes placed on owned land.
Jennifer Daniell, broker and owner of J&T Property Solutions Group LLC, has spent most of her nine-year real estate career building expertise in this space. Operating across Central Florida – from Ocala through Polk, Pasco, and Orange counties – her brokerage is one of the few operations in the state that both places new manufactured homes and handles the full real estate transaction. By her account, they install roughly 100 units per year. Rounding out the team, Vicki White specializes in down payment assistance and credit repair, while Amber Curry focuses on investment properties and auction sales — a lineup that reflects the range of challenges buyers in this price segment typically face.
A Market Shift
The buyer profile in Central Florida has shifted considerably over the past year or two. Where urgency once drove snap decisions, deliberation now defines the process. Daniell describes buyers who tour a home and then go quiet — sometimes for nearly a month — before submitting an offer. Some agents have called to warn her that an offer is coming, only to reveal the buyers first walked through the property weeks earlier. It is a pace that would have been unthinkable during the pandemic rush, and it reflects a pool of buyers who are not just cautious, but increasingly stretched thin.
That caution shows up in how buyers are approaching neighborhoods, not just homes. Daniell notes that more buyers are driving through an area before they ever schedule a showing — scoping out the surroundings, the neighbors, the feel of the street — before committing to a walk-through. Budget constraints are shaping behavior too. More buyers are qualifying around the $225,000 range, and closing cost assistance has become standard practice, with many using seller concessions — up to 6% on some loan types — to buy down their interest rate and reduce monthly payments to something manageable.
The Insurance Factor
One of the less-discussed forces pushing buyers toward manufactured homes is insurance cost – a line item that can quietly make or break a deal in Florida.
On a resale home built in the 1970s, even one with a new roof and updated systems, annual insurance premiums can run $5,000 to $6,000. Insurance companies price based heavily on a home’s age, regardless of recent improvements. That premium adds roughly $400 to $500 per month to a buyer’s housing costs.
By contrast, a new manufactured home typically carries insurance costs of $900 to $1,500 annually. That difference – potentially $300 or more per month – can be the deciding factor for a first-time buyer or someone downsizing on a fixed income. Combined with no HOA fees and no lot rent when the home sits on owned land, the total cost of ownership looks meaningfully different than a comparable resale.
Correcting the Hurricane Myth
Perhaps the most persistent misconception about manufactured homes in Florida is their vulnerability to storms.
Modern manufactured homes are built to HUD standards and, in Central Florida, must meet Wind Zone 2 requirements – designed to withstand winds exceeding 150 miles per hour. They are secured to the ground with tie-downs anchored six to eight feet into the earth. Daniell argues that this anchoring system actually makes manufactured homes more securely fastened to the ground than many conventional houses. During the two most recent Category 5 hurricanes to pass through the area, the manufactured homes her operation had placed sustained no damage.
The real threat, she explains, comes from tornadoes – and that risk applies equally to all construction types. “A hurricane is not going to destroy a manufactured home,” she says. “If a tornado touches down, it’s going to destroy anything – brick, wood frame, or metal.”
Sellers Still Anchored to the Past
On the sell side, the challenge is largely one of expectation management. A segment of sellers remains convinced that 2020 and 2021 conditions still apply. Daniell is direct about how she handles it: “I will refuse to list a home if they do not take my advice and go with the price point I show them from the numbers.”
Her approach is data-driven and updated frequently, because the market is moving fast enough that a home’s appropriate price point can shift meaningfully within a single month. She tries to explain to sellers that their home could be one price this month but a different price the next. The broader education challenge is that many sellers – and buyers – are still psychologically in the pandemic era. As Daniell puts it, “This is technically what normal real estate is. I think everybody just got so spoiled at that time.”
A Niche Built on Process
Daniell’s entry into manufactured homes was not a deliberate pivot — it was a gradual accumulation of experience that other agents were reluctant to pursue. Early in her career, she took on manufactured home transactions when colleagues passed, eventually developing a system for closing deals in a segment many agents find too unfamiliar or complicated to navigate confidently. That hands-on experience became its own kind of specialization, one built on solving real problems rather than seeking a particular niche.
That expertise found a natural complement in her partnership with Tom Lehman, who arrived at the manufactured home business from a different direction entirely. Lehman had originally set out to flip a manufactured home, but when the project proved unworkable, he tore it down and replaced it with a new unit — a detour that revealed just how competitive the pricing on new manufactured homes could be compared to aging resale stock. That insight is directly relevant to what buyers in the $225,000 range are now navigating: in a market where old homes carry steep insurance penalties and new conventional construction increasingly comes with CDD fees and HOA obligations, the economics of a new manufactured home on owned land can look surprisingly favorable. It is the kind of advantage that is easy to miss until someone has worked through the numbers firsthand.
Land Ownership as a Draw
Beyond cost advantages, Daniell is seeing buyers prioritize something less tangible: space and autonomy. More people are seeking land – enough room for a garden, livestock, or simply room to spread out. Manufactured homes, placed on owned parcels outside of HOA-governed communities, offer a path to that lifestyle at a price point that conventional construction rarely can.
“You can get more bang for your buck,” Daniell says. “We’re seeing a lot more people want land – so they can grow their own farm, have the chickens, the cows – and that’s something you can definitely make happen with manufactured homes.”
In a market where affordability is tightening from multiple directions – interest rates, insurance, CDD fees, HOA costs – that combination of lower entry price, reduced carrying costs, and land ownership is drawing buyers who might otherwise be priced out entirely. For the segment of the market hovering around that $225,000 qualifying threshold, manufactured homes on owned land may represent one of the few new-home options that still pencils out in Central Florida.
About the Expert: Jennifer Daniell is broker and owner of J&T Property Solutions Group LLC, operating across Central Florida from Ocala through Polk, Pasco, and Orange counties, with nine years of experience in real estate. Her brokerage specializes in manufactured homes on owned land and installs approximately 100 units per year, handling both home placement and the full real estate transaction.
This article is based on information provided by the expert source cited above. It is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or real estate advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult qualified professionals before making any real estate or financial decisions.