The ONLY downside for us has been not seeing the grand kids that lived near us, as often as we'd like.

Can't comment on the S/B, since we sold it before we went out.

After seven years of full-timing and owning no real estate the worst part is service days, especially ones where we are kicked out and have to be in a motel. A motel really makes you appreciate your RV.

that is what some are saying will be my MAIN issue.  We have 6 grandkids living within walking distance (3 in same neighborhood-including 2 of the smallest).  But I know that as they all grow older we see less & less of them and I am really READY to get out of the day-today ups & downs of their lives.  I raised my two & am ready to NOT feel responsible for the raising of their children (if that makes any sense). 

Being this close, you somehow get involved in many things that you would rather not be involved in or even know about.  And I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY don't want to end up like some of our friends, raising greatgrands. 

As long as we are here with a nice big house and have room for them and nothing else to spend our time doing (ha!) I am afraid that we might somehow end up doing the one thing I don't want to do.  Kinda hard for someone to move in with you (just until they get their feet back under them) if you live in a 5th wheel camper somewhere miles & miles away.  Don't get me wrong, I will ALWAYS be there for them if they are truely in need but I don't want to give them an easy out(no more bailouts!)

we are probably not alone, any grandparent would probably say that not seeing their grands is the hardest, especially IF they lived close to them before & saw a lot of them.

thanks for the input

We still own our home. After two years of snowbirding we knew we could not leave it empty. Currently rent it to my daughter and if she can save the down we will sell it to her. The Grandkids are all in school now(6 of them) and they are what I will miss the most. Installed Skype this week so we can talk and see each other often. Also plan to spend some time in their back yards next summer. Have seen all those things happen that you speak about in your post........one son moved back in for a time......helped daughter with custody of her son and expect to "help" in that situation for the future...anyway, yes we have raised ours and now it is time for all of US!

We're not on the road fulltime quite yet, but plan to be within the next 6 months.

We're planning to lease the house. Leasing it will cover the expenses and we'll get a good property manager to take care of the day to day stuff. When it's paid for it will give us a nice monthly income, so that's why we will keep it.

I don't have kids and Johnny's kids and grandkids live in Louisiana. Going fulltime will make it easier for us to visit them for longer stays.

We will still return to Austin regularly for medical visits. Johnny has RA and finally has a great set of doctors with the VA here, so we don't want to give that up. That will also give us time to visit friends here.

I'm pretty sure the thing I will miss most travelling is my hair guy. He's been doing my hair for over 15 years. Good thing we need to come back to Austin regularly. I told him our plans on my last visit. He's working on transitioning my hair to a style that will go longer between haircuts and something that if I need a trim someplace on the road, they won't mess up too bad!

Not that I want to throw any water on anyone's plans, and this comment is NOT directed to anyone in particular, but I do want to mention something about an experience that we had with an "empty" house.

We had a house in a small town, but my job required me to live 10 miles out of town at a country grain elevator to take care of the elevator, fuel station, fertilizer, warehouse, etc.  So, we rented out our house in town to a co-worker, a young lady with one young daughter.  I had told her that if she ever had ANY problems to let me know.

She calls one day and says the door ringer handle had come off (yes, it was that old).  So, when I go to see what is wrong and fix it, I find that the door knob assembly is completely apart.  She explained that when the door knob came apart from pulling the door shut, she started pulling on the handle of the door ringer instead.  She never told me of any problem until it got to where she couldn't pull the door shut.

After she moved on, we rented the house to a local who was also the school custodian.  He stole the new storm door we had installed and sold it to someone.

So, with all that in mind, if you are going to rent or lease out your stix and brix, be sure and have someone (family or property manager) that will aggressively check out the property on a very frequent and regular basis.  Otherwise, you may end up with a home that is torn up and uninhabitable.

Just a head's up so you can all be careful or renting or leasing.  Sometimes, one can't even trust family.

Terry

NorCal Dan wrote:

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We had the same discussion after we started talking about going full-time. We decided that the costs of keeping the house, the headaches of renting, catastrophic costs for repairs, all made the decision for us.

Part of the allure of full-time RV'ing is the freedom gained from cutting loose all those material possessions. We sold our house and never looked back...

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What Dan said.

when we 1st started discussing retirement & what it would mean, we talked about hitting the road after the pool season, staying gone until middle of nov, coming back for holidays, hitting the road again and coming back when it was time to open pool for season. sounded like a GOOD plan until I started reading this forum. Then I got the full-time fever!

I guess a little compromise is in order (isn't that what makes a good marriage). So we will try it the way we originally started thinking about it & see how it goes. I guess that would be called "part-time" "full-timing"??? Anybody out there doing it that way? we will still technically "live" in our S&B but will be gone ALOT! I don't really know how that is going to work out with maintenance issues. Luckily, our son-in-law lives right around the corner so I guess he will be our "property manager". We won't rent/lease out (don't really like that idea anyway).

Husband has also said that if we wanted to go somewhere during the summer, we could always shut the pool down until we get back.

Any thoughts or prior experience making a go of it this way? I think that the 1st time we get a call about a tree thru the roof (or something like it) husband may change his mind?

Linda,
Rather than think of things I will miss when I go live in 2012. I've begun compiling a list of things I will not miss. This will give me something to consider if I discover I miss something related to a S/B place. I will have a place to park the RV near family. We lived in apartments for a number of years, then houses, next it will be RVs. So as we travel this land, we will just adjust.

Trabuco wrote:

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Our plan is to have property management and a home warranty that will provide for any needed repairs with a small deductible. The property manager will handle the entire transaction with a follow up call or email to let us know what was done. The property manager will also access the home once a month will take pictures inside and out every other month and send them to us.

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That mirrors our plan.  We currently carry a home warranty to cover any big repairs to systems and appliances.  We know it won't cover things like carpet/paint, but a good property manager will have contacts to do that work quickly and at a good rate.