how many of you have or planning on having a house (condo, townhouse, etc) and an RV where you use the residence to go back to momentarily before you continue on to other destinations. in trying to plan out how to do this ft rv thing in the future, i have thought the best of both worlds is to downsize in the residence that you currently have to a part of the country where housing is relatively cheap and buy a little place to have as a place to 'spread your wings' before taking off again for months at a time. living in south florida, whenever i see the prices of housing in other areas of the US that are more country, they are extremely cheap, relatively speaking. so i was thinking to have a 5'er not as big as what some of you have because our stints would be 3-4 months in duration, only to come back to our place for about a month and take off again for 3-4 months. this would have to be a place centrally located of course because we want to be able to hit all parts of the country. anyone has thoughts on this? thanks...
tumwatergal said
11:53 PM Nov 13, 2009
Everyone has their own thoughts on this big subject. For us, personally, we do not own any type of home except our RV home. We did not want the added expense of owning a fixed dwelling if we wanted to live in an RV, too. We don't feel the need to stay in larger quarters from time to time. Our needs are few and simple as far as space and "stuff" goes. There are many that have RV's that still want, and need, a larger place to live in for months at a time. Nothing wrong with either plan, it just depends on what you require. If you'd only go back to the sticks-n-bricks house for a month at a time before hitting the road again, ask yourself if you'd really want the expense of such a part-time home. When we traveled for long periods, before full timing, I was sometimes concerned about what was happening with our home "back home". Even if you aren't staying in your s-n-b home you have the expense of some utility bills and property tax. There also may be expense for somebody to maintain lawn or garden while you are away. You'll figure out what is best for you if you do a little research on full-time living and properties for sale in areas you would want to buy in. Good luck.
Jim01 said
06:14 AM Nov 14, 2009
I agree with Margie. I don't want the worry or expense of a sitx and brix house while we full-time. In fact, we would not be able to afford to full-time if we had to pay the taxes, insurance, yard care, and all the other expenses of a house.
We sold or gave away everything that we couldn't bring with us, and have never regretted doing it.
Jim
bjoyce said
07:16 AM Nov 14, 2009
Our house felt like it had a giant bungee cord attached to it that pulled us back. It pulled the hardest the further we got away. And there were problems including our neighbors chasing a guy off who set up a small tent behind some trees. Some friends with a condo had to cut short a trip due to their condo hot water heater breaking, with water going into the neighbors condo below. No house, no bungee cord, freedom is so much nicer. Here we are in Florida and we lived in Washington State. I know that we would not have felt comfortable coming this far if we had a house.
Edit: I wanted to add that going back and forth to a house will add many miles to your journeys. We have some friends who can easily afford to maintain a house in Texas (which is more centrally located than south Florida to the rest of the US), including yard service and someone checking on it weekly, while they travel. They find that in a year they are on the road 8 to 9 months and put over 20,000 miles on their RV. For a couple years they would meet up with a full-timing couple at destinations during the year who would put on about 12,000 miles a year. That extra 8,000 miles was driving back and forth to their house.
-- Edited by bjoyce on Saturday 14th of November 2009 08:16:07 AM
igotjam said
08:15 AM Nov 14, 2009
rjenkins......I agree with the previous posters......but everyone is different. There is no one "right answer" Do what makes sense to YOU.
Happytrails said
08:59 AM Nov 14, 2009
We agree with all that has been said. We sold our house and put some things in a climate controlled storage unit. Now we are thinking about getting into that storage unit and further purging. We don't miss it and are very happy without the added "strings attached" feeling.
Luvglass said
09:32 AM Nov 14, 2009
It sounds like you are conflicted on the idea of full timing or don't know whether you'd be happy in the small space.
I think once you try full timing you'll realize that you don't want a stick house, but a compromise position would be to put your stuff is storage, buy the RV first and travel around in it looking for where you'd like to have the stick house, rather than buy the S/B first.
This is a BIG country and there are a lot of places it would be attractive to live in, go see them first before making up your mind.
phyllen said
09:59 AM Nov 14, 2009
My daughter is buying our house. We have lived in our Fiver since January while still working. I retired in Sept, Len retires in Jan. Then we will take off.
Just last night we were at the house. We both agree we sure don't miss it and being there seems so strange.
But, everyone is different. I never thought I would ever want to leave that house. I loved it. But things change.
Phyllis
Judy said
12:53 PM Nov 14, 2009
I guess we are different here. We sold our home 3 yrs ago and full timed for 3 yrs. Now we are buying a home again in the state that we love. I want the best of both worlds I guess. A town home and our RV. However, we don't need our big fiver for RVing. Will see what our future shall bring in next month. southwestjudy
RodnReal said
06:45 PM Nov 14, 2009
We moved here 17 years ago with the thought of living out our life here. The house, though small, is large enough for us. It's on the water and our boat is in a sling in our dock. Fishing is 15 minutes after the decision to go. We love it.
All that said we decided that in order to retire early and travel around this great country the house would have to be sold. Once the decision was made the house became an anchor. We are doing some remodeling and getting it ready to sell. There are no regrets, we made the decision months ago and the anchor just keeps getting heavier. Everyone is different and you have to decide what is right for you. In a perfect world with unlimited finances we would probably keep the house for the wintering but that is not the case and we can't wait to leave this place and hit the road. Once it's sold we are full timing and enjoying the remainder of our lifes with no worries about upkeep, taxes, etc.
--Rod
bjoyce said
07:35 PM Nov 14, 2009
Judy wrote:
I guess we are different here. We sold our home 3 yrs ago and full timed for 3 yrs. Now we are buying a home again in the state that we love. I want the best of both worlds I guess. A town home and our RV. However, we don't need our big fiver for RVing. Will see what our future shall bring in next month. southwestjudy
But you started in California and ended in New Mexico after seeing much of the country. Was New Mexico where you were going to move if you didn't become a full-timer? Right now it sounds like the plan Luvglass (Fred) gave worked for you.
BTW: The normal amount of time out full-timing is three years. People like us who have past 6 years are the exception. Don't feel like you have to apologize for settling down.
Judy said
01:25 PM Nov 15, 2009
No, we moved to New Mexico from Pennsylvania in 1995 and sold the house in 2006 in N.M., traveled full-time for 3 yrs, visited family and friends while we RVed. but we always came back to N.M. for our summers usually, because we love the state, culture, and climate, food, mountains, and the big open spaces. southwestjudy
Delaine and Lindy said
05:02 PM Nov 15, 2009
We sold both stick houses and went full timing and quit in 2007. We had a RV site on the River and used it as a Home base. However we did build another, but much smaller stick house. We now wish we hadn't built another house. And we may sell the stick house. But if we do we have 300 acres behind the stick house and will build a 40' by 80' building with 24' roll up doors on each end to pull the 5th wheel inside and we will also have a Texas room inside the inclosed building. It will be our home base. We will never sell the land, that will be whats left for the kids, because RV isn't cheap. GBY....
53 Merc said
08:53 PM Nov 15, 2009
Delaine and Lindy wrote:
We sold both stick houses and went full timing and quit in 2007. We had a RV site on the River and used it as a Home base. However we did build another, but much smaller stick house. We now wish we hadn't built another house. And we may sell the stick house. But if we do we have 300 acres behind the stick house and will build a 40' by 80' building with 24' roll up doors on each end to pull the 5th wheel inside and we will also have a Texas room inside the inclosed building. It will be our home base. GBY....
Well, we did what you are talking about. Except, there is no 300 acres. We bought a lot in an inexpensive area, built a metal building to park the ring inside. We built a 1000 sq ft apartment inside. The whole thing cost much less than a small house that would not meet our present needs. (our roll up door is only 14 ft tall by 12 ft wide.) When we decide to leave, we open the door, hook up, pull out, close the roll up door and leave. That's all that is required.
in trying to plan out how to do this ft rv thing in the future, i have thought the best of both worlds is to downsize in the residence that you currently have to a part of the country where housing is relatively cheap and buy a little place to have as a place to 'spread your wings' before taking off again for months at a time.
living in south florida, whenever i see the prices of housing in other areas of the US that are more country, they are extremely cheap, relatively speaking. so i was thinking to have a 5'er not as big as what some of you have because our stints would be 3-4 months in duration, only to come back to our place for about a month and take off again for 3-4 months.
this would have to be a place centrally located of course because we want to be able to hit all parts of the country.
anyone has thoughts on this?
thanks...
We sold or gave away everything that we couldn't bring with us, and have never regretted doing it.
Jim
No house, no bungee cord, freedom is so much nicer. Here we are in Florida and we lived in Washington State. I know that we would not have felt comfortable coming this far if we had a house.
Edit: I wanted to add that going back and forth to a house will add many miles to your journeys. We have some friends who can easily afford to maintain a house in Texas (which is more centrally located than south Florida to the rest of the US), including yard service and someone checking on it weekly, while they travel. They find that in a year they are on the road 8 to 9 months and put over 20,000 miles on their RV. For a couple years they would meet up with a full-timing couple at destinations during the year who would put on about 12,000 miles a year. That extra 8,000 miles was driving back and forth to their house.
-- Edited by bjoyce on Saturday 14th of November 2009 08:16:07 AM
southwestjudy
BTW: The normal amount of time out full-timing is three years. People like us who have past 6 years are the exception. Don't feel like you have to apologize for settling down.
southwestjudy
When we decide to leave, we open the door, hook up, pull out, close the roll up door and leave. That's all that is required.