Greetings everyone!

My DW (Cindy) and I (Chip) have listed our S&B last Nov. and are in the process of researching a FT rigs. Right now we are leaning towards a TT/pick-up set-up. We will be living in our TT in a fixed location for a few years before we quit our jobs and retire, so we can build up some reserve funds. We will be using some or all of the equity (if any in today's market) in our S&B to fund the TT purchase. We are both very excited about our coming adventure.

We look forward to meeting everyone here and borrowing your great wisdom. We hope make worthwhile contributions from our limited experience as well.

Take care all.

Welcome Cindy and Chip.

Glad to have you join our little family. There's a ton of information on this site, and if you can't find what you want, just ask. There's a lot of friendly people here that are more than willing to help.

Also, always remember, there are no dumb or silly questions on this forum. We all had to start sometime, and know what you're going through.

Good luck with your full-timing dreams.

Jim

Hi we are also in the stages that you are in and are getting very impatient for the house to sell.  It's been on the market since the beginning of August 2008 and it feels like forever.  With today's economy be careful if you plan to buy before your place sells and try and have more patients then us.    The people on this forum have been great to talk with.  Good luck.

Chip and Cindy,

You have found the right place for info as everyone here is knowledgable in all forms of fulltiming and willing to help anyone looking to make the change to fulltime.
We are also working on selling our home and going fulltime, work on the road, see the USA and enjoy everyday like there is no tomorrow. House had been on the market since early September 08. We are starting to see quite a bit more activity on our home recently so maybe the wait is not too far off. We really want to wait for the home to sell before we purchase. There is a lot of RV deals out there right now.

Robert and Debra

Thanks for the welcome and support!

I hope you guys are right and the real estate market is picking up. My house is on a highway and zoned c-2, so I have the commercial market to pitch my property to. It's listed for $215k (Only $10k more than my property tax assessment.) I'm willing to negotiate, but so far I have no offers yet. It's priced competitively for a residential property and quite a bit under the commercial market - there are just very few buyers right now.

I'm offering the house fully furnished. My thinking is not only will this attract buyers who want to move in quickly, but it will offer a little more value, setting the property apart from others on the market.

After all, why should I sell my furnishings on Craigslist for 10 cents on the dollar when a new prospective homeowner will need to purchase these very same items at or near retail? What am I going to get $100 for a $1,000 stainless refrigerator freezer or $300 for a $3,000 commercial dual-fuel, double oven stainless stove?

I know if I was in the market for a new home and faced with the prospect of buying all new furniture for $10-20k, I would much rather save this money and the laborious task of moving it all in. Sure, I'd like to pick out some of my own furnishings, but I'm sure 80-90% of the existing furnishings would be adequate for my needs.

I'll keep you guys posted if anything develops.



-- Edited by Sushidog at 19:28, 2009-02-22

Cindy & Chip,

It is great to have you here. Keep us up to date on your progress.  I like your idea of selling the house totally furnished, but it may not appeal to someone who has their own stuff.  But you will deal with that if and when it comes up.

I also suggest that you check out the Escapees organization.  They have a very informative forum and quite a few years of information that you can search.

George is correct about checking out all resources. This is a very informative site here, however, don't pass up getting information from all sources out there. If there is anything that you might not understand we have plenty of people here that have been there done that and they will shoot straight with you here. Good luck with your Dreams....please let us be a part of them... Joe and Sherri

In the midst of all the negativity and uncertainty brewing across our nation right now, it's a breath of fresh air to hear from all the positive, encouraging people here. Thanks for the kind words. Y'all brighten our day. Rob and Deb, I just heard that January was the slowest month for home sales-ever, with home prices down another 5%! It's got to be near bottom now, and once it turns, everyone who's bottom fishing will be in the real estate market with both feet again. Where else are they going to go? The stock market? LOL I'm using this "waiting game" to my advantage by doing my due diligence. We're checking out all the boards, including the manufacturer's forums of the brands we're researching. I'm following several full-timer's b-logs too - trying to learn as much as possible before we take the leap. We're checking Craigslist and the used lots in the area to get an idea of the local market for gently used TTs and pick-ups in our price range. We'll be hanging around, asking lots of dumb questions and generally making a nuisance out of ourselves, so we're begging your kind indulgences in advance. ;)

Sushidog wrote:

---

In the midst of all the negativity and uncertainty brewing across our nation right now, it's a breath of fresh air to hear from all the positive, encouraging people here. Thanks for the kind words. Y'all brighten our day.

---

Please check this out:

http://gypsyjournal.net/blog/

Nick Russell writes a daily blog.  His blog for February 25 is right down your alley.  I never let a day go by without reading Nick and Howard.  Both tell it like it is.

 

There are no dumb questions asked on this forum...I have been known to give some dumb answers but we have no dumb questions here. Speedy

Welcome Cindy and Chip!

We found during the waiting game that things happened when we least expected it.

Wishing you fast selling vibes!!

Chip & Cindy,
Welcome to the RV Dreams family.  I think things are starting to turn around in some areas of the housing market.  Hopefully yours will sell soon.  

We're in Tucson for the winter and heard on the TV last night that some guy in Phoenix is trying to sell his home - he wasn't getting any interest so he is throwing in his cadillac as part of the deal (and the house is only selling for $150K).

Also heard of a couple outside of D.C. who were raffling off their million dollar house.  People are getting creative!

-Colleen

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone. This seems to be a real friendly board - unlike some other's that will remain nameless. What do you guys think of posting the listing everywhere, with a notice that I will be dropping the price $1,000/week until it sells? I could only afford to do this for a max of 4 months though, as I'm only listing it for $215k. A raffle, now there's an Idea! As a gimmick, I could donate anything I receive over the asking price to the charity of the winner's choice. Maybe I could do a few press releases and get some free tv publicity? I'll say I'm selling it because I can't afford the 1,000% increase in my property taxes this year. Maybe I'll get a little sympathy - or maybe it'll backfire and any potential buyers will be scared off, figuring they can't afford the taxes either. LOL Has anyone heard of anyone selling their house on E-bay or Craigslist? Anyway, I won't stress over it. It'll sell when it sells. All you can do is all you can do, right? We went to a New Orleans RV show Saturday. We saw one rig that my DW fell in love with. It's the Wildwood 32BHDS. The brochure says the hitch weight is 870 lbs and the CCC is 3,082 lbs, yet Forest River's website lists the Hitch weight as 615 lbs (a little light for a 7,910lb TT) and the CCC as 2,865lbs. I wonder which is right?

My 401K is going that fast almost daily.

Sorry to hear about your financial woes too. I'm looking at my DW's 401k now - it's down about 60%. :( It's costing me $2,500-$2,800/month more to live in my S&B than it would be if I were living in a TT in a campground, subtracting the difference in FHU campground fees from my mortgage, property tax, homeowners insurance, utilities, etc. This means that for the price of me living in my house for only 1 yr I could buy a nice 2-3yr old TT and a decent tow vehicle. At this rate it would almost be better for me not to pay my mortgage and insurance for 4 months or so till the banks throw me out. I could then take the money I saved during this time and buy a TT. If I was of slightly lower character (or of higher desperation) I might succumb to this temptation. Declaring bankruptcy wouldn't hurt my credit much more than it already is. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens for now. Damn my conscious. ;)