Review: Scio Farms Estates

Scio Farms Estates is a nice place to live, personally I believe it is the best mobile home community near Ann Arbor, but there are some important things to consider before moving in:
The Bad News:
1. The space rent is currently about $515 per month and goes up $10 to $15 per year
2. Water and Sewer rates are combined and cost $13.17 per 1000 gallons thats about $53.00 per month for my average use of 4000 gallons with 3 people living under my roof.
3. You are required to keep up with yard maintanence weekly, and your own snow removal. As with any mobile home you also need to be a little handy or pay someone for repairs like toilet leaks etc.
4. No pool, excercize facilities, no walking trails, etc.
5. Some bottleneck areas of the park have very busy roads
The Good News:
4. Due to the high space rent the resale value of homes here is very low, I mean cheap! You can buy a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom for $5-10K and a 3 to 4 bedroom home from as low as $15K. This is obviously bad for people who bought a new home here and lost out in the resale, but good for people who aren't afraid to buy a used home on the cheap. With apartment rent in Ann Arbor rising north of $1000 this year it is easy to justify living at Scio Farms only 10-15 minutes from down town and the University. I figure if space rent is half of Apartment rent then a mobile home is a good value.
5. The neighborhood is quiet, and my neighbors on all sides are friendly. I haven't heard of many crimes or burglaries, you have a few homeowners who do not keep their yards up and some cars should be towed away, but for the most part I feel safe here and people eventually clean things up. There are many families and retired people mixed throughout the community.
6. Friendly and reasonable community manager and staff.
7. Ann Arbor Schools has bus service to the park.
8. Close to I94 and Meijer
9. Snow removal, sidewalk, and road maintenance is good. They keep the roads cleared in the winter and have been replacing sidewalks during the last two summers.
The Bottom Line:
Scio Farms Estates is a good value in Ann Arbor if you buy a home for sale by owner in the park. Do the math and figure out if you can afford at least $600 per month rent +water. Mobile homes are much nicer and private than apartments and you do have more freedom and space. Beware of buying a new home from the park, they have some very attractive deals, but that $60,000 home will not be worth ½ of what you paid for it when you sell. Look for “for sale by owner homes”, most are in excellent shape and can be bought for ¼ the price of a new home. The following are places you can find a large number of used homes in the park:
http://www.mhvillage.com/Communities/MobileHo...
http://annarbor.craigslist.org/search/hhh...
http://www.sciofarms.com/sales_preowned
I hope you find this review helpful as I tried to be fair and balanced!
Cheers!

what internet providers are there for scio farms?

Things musta changed in Scio Farms. Granted, I havent lived in the Dexter-AA area for 5 years, but when I did, Scio Farms was a mess. The weekly police blotter had half the calls going to Scio Farms. My buddy's mom lived out there and I heard frquent discussions of breaking and entering, and late night police visits. The times I went out there to visit, I really didn't see much, but I do remember that Scio Farms had a rep.

Overall the park is nice and quit. The base lot rent is $515 for single lots and more for a double plus water/sewer. The parks mgmt is letting this place go downhill by offering Free Homes on craigs list. These home look very very run down and should be towed out. How do they pass re-sale inspection let alone be allowed to look the way they do??? I guess the park wishes to save the $4,000 to tow them out therefore accept how bad they are making their park look. I guess its a trade-off they are willing to accept. I guess they should consider lowering the lot rent based on this bringing the property values down.
Overall, reasonable place to live, good snow removel on the streets.

bob wrote:

what internet providers are there for scio farms?

Pretty much any you want Bob! att, comcast and any dial up you wish.