The Groves are a 55 and over Trailer park community.
It's a guard gated community, of 533 trailers, check the Groves realty website for an overview.
There's the usual spat of expected activities, card games, lawn bowling, bingo, etc. There's a small park on the grounds, and an RV park. It's situated close to a storage facility and many parks, medical and retail outlets. The trailers are very reasonable priced, especially since you consider it's in Irvine, but it is what it is, a trailer park. The grounds show signs of delayed maintenence.
Beyond what one would expect to do before moving into any community, please take note the special circumstances of a senior community. There are guidelines on line, but what I failed to look at more closely was the human element .
The human community. How is the park managed? Is it or has the park been managed by a resident, or someone with little experience, but cheap, or professionally run? There's no HOA, which on the onset looks great, unless you have no safeguards and rules which protect you from "condo commandos". You have zero rights here, you own a piece of the corporation and your trailer, thats it, You have no private property, think about that and what that means in terms of privacy and respect.
The politics here are horrible and the drama is off the "middle school" chart. Many of the people here are wonderful, however there is strong mistrust and bullying of the younger aged, by the older aged. Think of the bad parts of the 50's. Goggle bullying in senior communities to have a better understanding of what you may expect.
This is also a very, very religious community, and that has it's pros and cons. You figure it out. Think 1940-50's
Please don't get me wrong, there are wonderful, remarkable, incredible people here that are a joy to be around and I thank god for them everyday. However, If I had the opportunity to really take the above into consideration, I may have made another choice.
If you have animals, you may find the rules restrictive and the residents,equally so, even if you have a therapy dog. One rule that made me sad was that a dog can not set one paw on any Groves property other than your trailer and a small dog park. I would see elderly ladies struggling to carry their dogs and their canes or walkers to get from their car in the Groves to the small Groves dog park, or out of the Groves for a walk. So, no walking of your dogs, letting them loose in your yard or on your porch. No, we did not have any pets.
It's near impossible to get into this community just to look around even to check out the amenities. Also even if you do manage to get "in", you have to be with a "resident". They even have a roving guard on the grounds in golf carts to check out anyone who might be in the Groves who is not a resident. So, although you can get to see the place if you have a realtor show you around, you get the PR tour, not the "real" tour.
It's tough enough to transition to senior housing at any age, since this is more than likely your last home, please take every opportunity to really research where you are going to spend the rest of your life, because you are also choosing who you are going to spend the rest of your life with, and that can make all the difference.
For the sake of our emotional health, we moved out, and we have no regrets.
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