Sticks and Bricks....and End Game.... - RV-Dreams Community Forum

The Restless Youngs · RV-Dreams Family Member

Sticks and Bricks....and End Game....

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

We don't have a plan except we have the money to buy another house or condo when we go off the road.

Once you have lived in an RV for a few years you don't want to go back to a big place, something small and low maintenance sounds better. I see many people trying to keep the old house going, yard and all, while they get older. Or they become a burden on family, needing help keeping the old place up. This is your chance to downsize.

The other part of the end game is, "are you sure you will be going back to where you started?" Will it really be the same? Will you like the winter weather? Will you like the summer weather? How close do you want to be to stores, entertainment, restaurants, not just family. After seeing more of the country is the old area really the only choice? Two small places, one in the south for winter and one in the north for summer, works for many. A one bedroom condo, or studio, or a park model is all many need. (A park model is a mobile that fits on an RV lot.)

Dance Chick · RV-Dreams Family Member

We are not FT even though I think I would like to be, so I'll try to answer your question as best as I can for what I think I would do.

We wouldn't need to sell the S&B to go FT, but by selling, we could upgrade our MH to a better one for FT. That's the only way I'd be comfortable upgrading, so I imagine we would sell. I also think we'd want to be free. We currently have 2 rentals and probably wouldn't want 1 more. One more rental is just 1 more thing with the potential to be a PITA.

I do think about the possibility that the real estate market appreciation that is going on right now might make it hard, to impossible, to re-enter the market in, say, 5 to 10 years. However, there's a real possibility that at that point, we'd be just as happy renting for what's left of our lives. Plus, it might be fun to live somewhere else and not owning a S & B gives flexibility to settle wherever we choose. Owning a S & B isn't always the best answer.

Good Luck with your plans. Planning is half the fun.

Gayle

Alie and Jims Carrilite · RV-Dreams Family Member

I read a post recently that said they hope to give the new owners of the RV the keys as they are rolled into the Assisted Living Facility. I personally would rather have a massive heart attack as I pulled into the driveway. Insurance would fix whatever the out of control RV woulf create!

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

We've been joking with Dale's parents that one of the reasons we're full-timing is to figure out where we want to live "when we grow up"! All joking aside, we met and married in Texas, I do NOT plan to ever spend another summer in heat and humidity that forces me to run the A/C 23 out of 24 hours a day for 3 straight months or more of the year. However, after spending a long time in my home state of Washington, Dale has no desire to spend another winter in the "gray of Seattle" and I have no desire to move to the eastern side of the state and deal with snow in the winter.

Our original thought was to downsize to a smaller house somewhere in a climate we could both agree to for year round living. Long story short, we're now evaluating that so that someday, as we come off the road, many, many years from now. So yeah, we sort of have a plan. Just don't know where that end state is and I'm guessing it will be a park model or 2 RV lots in 2 different parts of the country that we split our time between. We have savings, we have options and we have no intention of making a decision too soon as there is a lot of area to explore and we can't make a decision before we've had LOTS of time and place to help us evaluate our options:)

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

We sold everything with the intent of getting the RV and living in it for quite some time. We are in our 60's and have owned 3 or 4 homes over the years and have decided that we never want to own another. We've both been through the hassle of selling everything of our parents after they passed away and don't wish to encumber our sons with that responsibility and headache.

We like the idea of living in the RV. We've commented several times that if we ever get tired of "the neighbors," all we have to do is hook up and move. We could do the same thing if we ever had to stop living in the RV and rent some place.

Terry

GENECOP · RV-Dreams Family Member

Real estate is a sound return on your $....Of coarse it is not always easy, bad tennents etc....but if you look at it as the cost of doing business it's just that....think about the selling house scenario, taxes, capital gains.........what kind of actual cash in hand are you left with? With that cash in hand where will you put it? CD, Mutual Fund, Money Market? Think it will return that monthly rent number? Doubtful.....markets go up and down......People always need a place to live.....

Dog Folks · RV-Dreams Family Member

We did NOT keep our house, by choice. We did not want to have the questions:"What is happening at home?" constantly on our minds. We also did not want the responsibility or the expense of maintaining a second home. (The trailer being our first home). We have had five homes over the years and don't want anymore. We also felt that a second home would limit our sense of freedom.

Our exit plan,whenever that happens,is to park the trailer and live out our lives in it.

-- Edited by Dog Folks on Friday 6th of September 2013 02:00:21 PM

Team Murc · RV-Dreams Family Member

We are in the exact same situation. We have been successful landlords for a long time so we know the drill.

We will hopefully be full timing late in 2014 if all the pieces come together biggrin . After a great deal of thought to all the pros and cons of holding onto our S+B home we have decided to lease our home for the first two years we are on the road.

This should provide us plenty of time to decide if this is the right lifestyle for us and to still be able to sell with the tax advantage of selling it as our primary residence.

Pros: Provide additional monthly cash flow (needed till S.S. kicks in) ~give us a place to return if things don't go as planned~ Housing market is starting to heal so values should be better in two years(????)

Cons: Managing from a distance~ Having to deal with the sale at a later date~ Storage of items you "might" want in the event that we come back to it.

The management issue is not a big one for us, as our daughter lives very close by and is experienced in rentals as well. I'm currently a Realtor, so to sell the home at a later date should only be inconvenient from the aspect of having to make the trip back.

As with anything these are personal decisions based on your particular needs and situations.

Good luck,

WestWardHo · RV-Dreams Family Member

We loved our S&B, our neighborhood, our friends and our little town but we're with Dale & Ruth (NWescapee) that we don't know where/if/when we'd want a house again and we're grown up -chronologically anyway. We almost rented it but decided to keep it simple so the proceeds are going into conservative investments that should bring us about 6% a year dividends according to our advisor.

We're thing the same as Dale and Ruth, keep it small and likely a home purchased or rented in one area and our fiver permanently parked in another but we don't know. Also with Jim's Carrilite that it would be great to have it fast and clean. Gene's point about capital gains was a good one too.

Love this forum and all the ideas we get here!

Sherry

Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

Jims carrilite wrote:
I read a post recently that said they hope to give the new owners of the RV the keys as they are rolled into the Assisted Living Facility. I personally would rather have a massive heart attack as I pulled into the driveway. Insurance would fix whatever the out of control RV woulf create!

I also prefer to not be Tended to..........When it comes time I hope I'm sitting on a rock somewhere looking out on the best view available and "POOF"

Please if if come upon me dont feel sad....life is good!!!!........................P.S please feed Nikki and send her home to family, you will be well rewarded for your efforts.......(Title is Signed in the Glove box)

Tater Bug · RV-Dreams Community Member

We are just in the planning stage for Full time RVing and I guess we don’t really have an “End Game”. We have talked a little about it but nothing was decided.
We have lived all our life here in Idaho, all my kids and grandkids live within 5 miles, My sister lives 1 ½ hrs away and my brother lives in Denver.
Three of my granddaughter will be out of school and I hope of to collage or some trade school to further their education.
The “End Game” that we talked about was that we where going to go as long as we can find a place park the MH and live till the good lord calls us to his MH.
We have about three years before my wife can retire so maybe we will come up with a more detailed plan.

Happy Trails To You!

Paul And Helen aka Tater Bug

Clay L · RV-Dreams Family Member

We sold the S&B because we didn't want to spend our retirement years in NH. We enjoyed living there for 18 years, but taxes ($10,000 the last year we had the house) and long cold gray winters didn't suit us. We put the money away so we could buy a house when we were ready to leave the life style.

After 11 years of full timing that happened and we bought a home in CO in the town we lived in before I was recruited to a job in NH.

We still plan to go south to AZ in the winter.
Palisade CO where we live now is what is called high desert. Very little snow, sunny winters, and not too much in the way of really cold winter temps as a rule. When we no longer go south the winters here will not be a problem for us.

lowryc50 · RV-Dreams Family Member

WestWardHo wrote:
We loved our S&B, our neighborhood, our friends and our little town but we're with Dale & Ruth (NWescapee) that we don't know where/if/when we'd want a house again and we're grown up -chronologically anyway. We almost rented it but decided to keep it simple so the proceeds are going into conservative investments that should bring us about 6% a year dividends according to our advisor.

We're thing the same as Dale and Ruth, keep it small and likely a home purchased or rented in one area and our fiver permanently parked in another but we don't know. Also with Jim's Carrilite that it would be great to have it fast and clean. Gene's point about capital gains was a good one too.

Love this forum and all the ideas we get here!

Sherry

Sherry, could you elaborate on the 6% dividend investment? I would be interested in know what that is. In this economy that is a pretty darn good return. Especially if it is conservative.

Thanks

Curt

Hdrider · RV-Dreams Family Member

We decided to sell our home for a few reason. #1, we both had homes that we rented out when we first got together 15 years ago. We were 4 hours away and renting from a distance had it's issues for us. So renting our home out and being all over the country didn't sound like a good idea (solution, have a rental agency handle it). #2,, we had a place on 5 acres with large out buildings and it was pretty new. Rent would have had to be pretty high and in a down economy didn't seem easy.
When we hit the road we also had (still have) another 5 acre piece of land that we figured we would go back to but we have now decided to sell that as well and cut all ties. Reason,, it's a 5 acre view lot that will take a fair amount of upkeep when the time comes and we don't want to deal with it. Plus we developed it some before leaving and it will just get overgrown again while we are on the road. We originally planned to only be on the road 1 year but now that one year is here we decided to make it 3,4,5 ??? years.
We have money set aside to buy something small when the time comes, something small in one area and probably still snowbird it I would guess. Way to ssson to tell for us.

SnowGypsy · RV-Dreams Family Member

Right now, we are debating between a motorhome and a travel trailer. A travel trailer makes more sense because we could set them up on a lot once we could not travel. The other option is to get one of those lots that allow a small shed/cabin with a place to park the RV although most are quite expensive. It would be nice to have a place to land when we weren't moving around as much and then not at all. We wouldn't want a fancy resort with activities, just a peaceful place. It is essential to have a plan for coming out of the lifestyle. Money can also disappear into thin air. We once rented a house out and returned 4 years later. Never, ever, ever again.

WestWardHo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Curt and others who may be curious. First know that I am as ignorant about investing as our dog. It's something I just hadn't paid attention to but left to others. (I know, I know!) Also someone else had estimated a 6% return on another thread and several of us jumped on that not believing it was possible in today's economy.

All that said, it was from my notes with our investment advisor that we had a phone conference with this week. Waiting for his follow up email recommendations with specifics. Our request to him was we wanted someplace to park our money in a very conservative investment with possible dividends to reinvest that would have liquidity if necessary. One possibility he mentioned was finance.yahoo.com/news/cole-real-estate-investments-inc-141300016.html with a return of 4.5% to 6 to 7% depending, I think, on amount invested. If I noted correctly this would not be liquid for 2-3 years without penalty. It was a pre-IPO investment that had gone public. Not sure if he was recommending this particular investment or something like it.

This is a guy I've known for 20 years or so and the best friend of one of my very smart sons. I always remember the advice of a Wall Street bond trader friend who told me free advice is worth exactly what you paid for it!

Moderators: hope it was o.k. To post above information, if not feel free to edit or delete.

Sherry

PIEERE · RV-Dreams Family Member

The sticks and bricks for me ended in 1987 after I had an on the job back injury. In 1999 I acquired my first do it yourself makeover 1975 Midas 21' Class C, by the Spring of 2000 it was readied for highway use. In 2005 acquired a 1988 TravelMaster 26' Class C that needed less repairs. Now after Health matters; I settled into an RV Park in Lebanon TN. in August 2012, about 25 miles East of Nashville for extended health care with the VA in Murfreesboro; it must be good as people from many states come here.
I don't know how much traveling I will do; thought about housing based on income...don't like the idea of living in multi-units.
Really I pray to be able to get a few more years of RVing; That is my dream and goal!

The "End Game": I feel it would be great if it happens like LM states. I survived a severe heart attack and hope I don't have to go through that again. I guess the best we can hope for is "to Die in Our Sleep" according to a Kenny Rogers song. Happy Trails! PIEERE

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Clay L wrote:
We sold the S&B because we didn't want to spend our retirement years in NH. We enjoyed living there for 18 years, but taxes ($10,000 the last year we had the house) and long cold gray winters didn't suit us. We put the money away so we could buy a house when we were ready to leave the life style.

After 11 years of full timing that happened and we bought a home in CO in the town we lived in before I was recruited to a job in NH.

We still plan to go south to AZ in the winter.
Palisade CO where we live now is what is called high desert. Very little snow, sunny winters, and not too much in the way of really cold winter temps as a rule. When we no longer go south the winters here will not be a problem for us.

Clay,

Good country there near Palisade. I used to have two sets of uncles and aunts that lived in Hotchkiss. I can't remember all the times we went up there on vacation, and Dad loved to fish up on Grand Mesa. Maybe I need to get back out there for a longer period of time. We did pass through Hotchkiss a few years ago on a "driving swing-through" Colorado trip, staying in motels. Family there is all gone, so we didn't stop. But, I love Black Canyon of the Gunnison, but it was better before they dammed it up and made lakes. Well, at least I think it was better.

Terry

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

SnowGypsy wrote:
Right now, we are debating between a motorhome and a travel trailer. A travel trailer makes more sense because we could set them up on a lot once we could not travel. The other option is to get one of those lots that allow a small shed/cabin with a place to park the RV although most are quite expensive. It would be nice to have a place to land when we weren't moving around as much and then not at all. We wouldn't want a fancy resort with activities, just a peaceful place. It is essential to have a plan for coming out of the lifestyle. Money can also disappear into thin air. We once rented a house out and returned 4 years later. Never, ever, ever again.

Cathy,

In your travels or your research, if you find an area where you would like to "land" after RV"ing, look into mobile home parks in that area. Not that you'd want to live in the Oklahoma City area, because our temps can vary so widely, but our area has at least 3 or 4 mobile home parks that can accommodate RV's. We are in one now. Ours is really nice in that the lot rent is under $200 and includes sewer and water.

It is just a possibility for you to look into in areas that you like. Who knows? You may find a place you like and find a suitable mobile home park in the area.

Terry

Dance Chick · RV-Dreams Family Member

Holy cow, Terry! Just the utilities for out S&B are a lot more than your lot rent including util. That's fabulous for you, and what a good idea.

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Well, we do still have electricity and gas to pay for. However, as an average, our gas and electric bills over the year work out to about what we had in a 2250 sq ft house with 6" walls. If I remember right, I think Jo said the average over the year for those two things was about $200. We started out with taking our LP tanks next door to the RV park and filling them there because they charged by the gallon and not by the "bottle." Since we knew we would be here a while, we contacted a local LP delivery company and the rent out 120 gallon tanks for about $99 for the year plus the price of the gas. We simply parked it next to our "lot" and run a hose from it to one of the "inlets" that would normally attach to one of the 40# gas cylinders.

Each place will vary. This place is owned by a lady that is into the horse business and this lot is just North of Remington Park, a local horse racing facility and casino. Some of the lots she rents out are usually rented by some that are also associated with horse racing. Those folks tend to spend a few months in one place, move to another for a few months, and then to another for the rest of the year. As such, I don't think she charges too much because she is in the same business. A couple of the others that we saw when we were looking were $250 and $350 per month, but I don't know if that included water.

Terry

SnowGypsy · RV-Dreams Family Member

Yes, Terry, good idea. I don't think a lot of people realize how much less a mobile home lot rents for. We were staying long term while looking for a house in another city and they asked if we would like to move to their mobile home side to save money. It cost about 1/2 as much and we didn't have big units starting their engines at 5:00 AM or coming in at midnight. Also a little safer with our son and dogs because of traffic. The snowbirds came to SE AL when we were there from places like MI and said the lot rent there was much cheaper than the heating bills for their homes.

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

When Jo and I finally get to travel, our current plans are to move to an area and park for any time up to 6 months or more We figure that if there is enough in the area to see, we'll try to figure out how much time it will take to afford to see all the attractions and see if we need to find a mobile home park that will allow a period of time less than 1 year. One of the first places I want to go is somewhere in Southern Utah. Utah has 5 national parks and numerous state parks. Then, being in that area, we can hit the attractions in Northern Arizona and Eastern California. When we figure we've seen enough, or want to do something else, then we'll move to the next place, always keeping in mind to try to go south in the winter.

Terry

Jake62 · RV-Dreams Family Member

Although we don't plan to full-time for two years, we ended up selling our residence in Tucson this past July after renting it out for the last two years from D.C. For us, there were financial benefits for selling now and we put the money in a fairly pathetic CD (1%) for the purchase of a MH & Toad in two years. Although we enjoyed Tucson, we have no family there and our kids aren't exactly "settled" in any part of the country yet, so we will have ample time to decide which State/City we may end up settling after full-timing. Both Tennessee & Texas are high on our list.

Like Howard & Linda, we plan to pay cash for our MH. We will not need the money from the MH to purchase a residence when that comes; however, if we did, I guess selling the MH at a considerably depreciated price would require us to take into account the amount of proceeds from our MH to fund any future residence.

-- Edited by Jake62 on Sunday 8th of September 2013 07:31:06 PM

WestWardHo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Just FYI,

I sent the Cole investment advice to another well connected friend who said he wouldn't touch any REIT. So we're back to confused.

Just didnt want to mislead anyone.

Sherry

jrzygrl64 · RV-Dreams Family Member

Bill and I will be selling our home to help finance our initial FT expenses. If this house was somewhere we think we might want to come back to someday, we might feel differently, but both our kids are out of the house and not in this area, although they are both still in PA. We are considering the idea of getting a condo in FL, near my parents as a "in case this doesn't work out" sort of plan. We would rent it out and my Dad would love to have something to help keep himself busy with, keeping an eye on it for us. It would be a way to keep us in the real estate market. That option is needing further research.

The sale of the house, in addition to financing upgrading the RV, would add to our "nest egg" cushion. My hubby is pretty good at investing, given all the time he will have to devote to it, I am sure he will do well putting that money to work for us. Someone commented above about earning 6 or 7%, it isn't impossible, but not easy either, and not without a certain amount of risk.

As far as an "end game", other than possibly a condo in FL (we aren't interested in yard more anymore, not more than a few flower pots anyways), we don't have one yet.

soos · RV-Dreams Family Member

NWescapee wrote:

Our original thought was to downsize to a smaller house somewhere in a climate we could both agree to for year round living. Long story short, we're now evaluating that so that someday, as we come off the road, many, many years from now. So yeah, we sort of have a plan. Just don't know where that end state is and I'm guessing it will be a park model or 2 RV lots in 2 different parts of the country that we split our time between. We have savings, we have options and we have no intention of making a decision too soon as there is a lot of area to explore and we can't make a decision before we've had LOTS of time and place to help us evaluate our options:)

my exact thoughts.

French Bikers · RV-Dreams Family Member

We have been planning to be fulltimer a long time ago and recently decided to hit the road sooner then the original plan. Including the house that we are living in right now it is our 5th house. Even if we won't need the proceed of the sale of our last house there is no way we will keep it. The main reason is simple we want to have our minds free of anoying stuff like tenants, empty house while on the road, property taxes, etc... We should hit the road in sept 2015 or sooner, we have been dreaming about the fulltimer lifestyle and don't see enough good reason why we should keep the house. We completed a full analysis about the best thing to do with the house and it didn't take us a long time to say "No Way We Should keep The House". We will take the proceed and secure the $$$$$, because everything as an end in life for whatever reason, should the day of getting out of the road arise we will find a place to stay and live. We had houses because we wanted to raise our children and to use the proceed for future investment. I think that when you are really into fulltiming in your RV you don't need to have a second house or cottage.

I'm not an expert but do what you have to do right now and cross the bridge when you will get to the river, meaning that if you need a house in 2 - 5 or 10 years you will just have to ajust.

Good luck

Clay L · RV-Dreams Family Member

Terry and Jo wrote:
Clay L wrote:
We sold the S&B because we didn't want to spend our retirement years in NH. We enjoyed living there for 18 years, but taxes ($10,000 the last year we had the house) and long cold gray winters didn't suit us. We put the money away so we could buy a house when we were ready to leave the life style.

After 11 years of full timing that happened and we bought a home in CO in the town we lived in before I was recruited to a job in NH.

We still plan to go south to AZ in the winter.
Palisade CO where we live now is what is called high desert. Very little snow, sunny winters, and not too much in the way of really cold winter temps as a rule. When we no longer go south the winters here will not be a problem for us.

Clay,
Good country there near Palisade. I used to have two sets of uncles and aunts that lived in Hotchkiss. I can't remember all the times we went up there on vacation, and Dad loved to fish up on Grand Mesa. Maybe I need to get back out there for a longer period of time. We did pass through Hotchkiss a few years ago on a "driving swing-through" Colorado trip, staying in motels. Family there is all gone, so we didn't stop. But, I love Black Canyon of the Gunnison, but it was better before they dammed it up and made lakes. Well, at least I think it was better.
Terry

I just saw your post today (25 Oct 2013)

Yeah it is a pretty neat place to live.There are some things going on nowadays for visitors - wine and peach festivals in the summer.

If you get out this way feel free to stop by. We have 2 RV hookups in the side yard (one for us and one for friends). We plan to be here summers and AZ in the winter. Usually here in April to the end of Oct and AZ in November through the end of Mar.