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.

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

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.

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

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

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