Thinking of going full time RV

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warsw

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Posts
357
Location
Central Oregon
Wife and I are thinking of selling our home and going full time RV. We are trying to find out if the reality of it is as good as the fantasy. Have any of you sold your home and gone full time RV and regretted the change? Thanks for any thoughts and/or advice.
 
Have any of you sold your home and gone full time RV and regretted the change?

Great question, and I look forward to reading the replies.
 
I think people who regretted it wouldn't be active here.

My parents couldn't give up the "home base" but would take trips of 10 months.
 
Not having a home base can be a difficult concept to get over. I still struggle a little after 2 and a half years, but I reason that I could land at my parents house if my RV needed major repairs or something insane happened like it caught fire or gets destroyed in a tornado. Crazy I know but I think about that stuff.

Only way to know is to try it. Have a contingency plan in case you or your wife really don't like it. Remember there is a period of adjustment. Sometimes that period can be a year or more, depending on who you are as a person.

I think the regrets people have here are usually that they didn't do it sooner, and not that they did it.
 
We don't regret it at all, but I think just deciding to do it right off would be a mistake in many cases. We started just traveling and one day noticed that we were full time. It was time to get rid of the s&b.

One the other hand,  many people are firmly attached to having a home and have to go back once in a while. I have a good freind who has discovered that he is a homebody after all. Its costing him dearly! Go into it carefully!

Ernie
 
warsw said:
Wife and I are thinking of selling our home and going full time RV. We are trying to find out if the reality of it is as good as the fantasy. Have any of you sold your home and gone full time RV and regretted the change? Thanks for any thoughts and/or advice.

I have been fulltiming alone for 7+ years 24/7 with no other home. I have a friend who has joined me on some trips. I travel with a dog too. That gets me out walking and exercising.

I don't regret it one bit.

I have met folks who DO regret it and are struggling to get out from under their RV. Those folks I met all had bought new and financed.

I think your best bet is go used and pay cash. Then if you love it, you can always trade up. Trading down is VERY hard to do, especially if you are upside down in the mortgage.

I have met folks who over-bought and then changed out to a simpler smaller rig. Rare, but it happens. It all depends on your particular lifestyle and comfort zone. Most all RV's come with the same list of comfort options. Just that some are grand and some not so grand.

It is possible to park 6 months somewhere and travel the other 6 months. You don't have to travel 24/7. That scenario is often more doable than going year round non stop. For instance you can park in the winter in a warm area, then travel the other 6 months when pretty much the entire country has mostly agreeable weather.

At first it's tempting to travel every day or every other day and this can get tiresome pretty quickly. I find it better to plan ahead with reservations and stay 2-4 weeks every where I want to stop and visit.

I happen to love the beach, so I was able to plan 2-4 weeks in spring and fall at a beach campground. I loved this!

I am on a super efficient budget, so my focus is freebies such as beautiful nature oriented parks. A few years back I took up bicycle riding, so now I look for good places to ride my bicycle. I've met quite a few folks who travel with a tandem bike so their bike riding is easy going.

In 7 years, I've visited about 14 states. Will I do the rest? I just don't know. I go back to places I love for repeat visits. I also explore new areas.

Layout and floorplan. You need to choose an RV that looks like home, a place you feel comfy. If you think you might get tired of the floorplan in 6 months, you probably will. The bargains used are amazing. Since you are already retired, you can branch out to look farther from home if you don't find that cozy feeling in a rig close to home.

Start looking, the more you look, the more you discover what you love and hate about various rigs and their layouts.

Both of you should learn to drive the rig, even if it means taking lessons and many places offer them. Also youtube offers tons of video advice for driving.

When I sprained my ankle and shattered my wrist, I had to speed talk from the back seat, my friend into learning to drive the rig. Highways were easy but talking him through town and narrow medical parking lots had its moments. He was a nervous wreck at first, but he got the hang of it. I stayed in my rig throughout my recuperation with his help and willingness to listen to constant back seat lessons and encouragement.

A friend of mine vowed to stay in his RV until the end. He already had 100th birthday celebrations planned with a famous friend of his who was of similar age. He made it to 98 in his RV with his wife, birds, cats and dog. He had previously gave up RVing for a condo, but hated the condo life and bought another RV to go back on the road.

The last 8 months they were parked in a beautiful place without traveling because he was tired. But he loved the RV so that's where they stayed til his end.

Life is for the living!

Enjoy and I hope you make your dreams come true.  ;D
 
DearMissMermaid said:
I have been fulltiming alone for 7+ years 24/7 with no other home. I have a friend who has joined me on some trips. I travel with a dog too. That gets me out walking and exercising.

I don't regret it one bit.

I have met folks who DO regret it and are struggling to get out from under their RV. Those folks I met all had bought new and financed.

I think your best bet is go used and pay cash. Then if you love it, you can always trade up. Trading down is VERY hard to do, especially if you are upside down in the mortgage.

I have met folks who over-bought and then changed out to a simpler smaller rig. Rare, but it happens. It all depends on your particular lifestyle and comfort zone. Most all RV's come with the same list of comfort options. Just that some are grand and some not so grand.

It is possible to park 6 months somewhere and travel the other 6 months. You don't have to travel 24/7. That scenario is often more doable than going year round non stop. For instance you can park in the winter in a warm area, then travel the other 6 months when pretty much the entire country has mostly agreeable weather.

At first it's tempting to travel every day or every other day and this can get tiresome pretty quickly. I find it better to plan ahead with reservations and stay 2-4 weeks every where I want to stop and visit.

I happen to love the beach, so I was able to plan 2-4 weeks in spring and fall at a beach campground. I loved this!

I am on a super efficient budget, so my focus is freebies such as beautiful nature oriented parks. A few years back I took up bicycle riding, so now I look for good places to ride my bicycle. I've met quite a few folks who travel with a tandem bike so their bike riding is easy going.

In 7 years, I've visited about 14 states. Will I do the rest? I just don't know. I go back to places I love for repeat visits. I also explore new areas.

Layout and floorplan. You need to choose an RV that looks like home, a place you feel comfy. If you think you might get tired of the floorplan in 6 months, you probably will. The bargains used are amazing. Since you are already retired, you can branch out to look farther from home if you don't find that cozy feeling in a rig close to home.

Start looking, the more you look, the more you discover what you love and hate about various rigs and their layouts.

Both of you should learn to drive the rig, even if it means taking lessons and many places offer them. Also youtube offers tons of video advice for driving.

When I sprained my ankle and shattered my wrist, I had to speed talk from the back seat, my friend into learning to drive the rig. Highways were easy but talking him through town and narrow medical parking lots had its moments. He was a nervous wreck at first, but he got the hang of it. I stayed in my rig throughout my recuperation with his help and willingness to listen to constant back seat lessons and encouragement.

A friend of mine vowed to stay in his RV until the end. He already had 100th birthday celebrations planned with a famous friend of his who was of similar age. He made it to 98 in his RV with his wife, birds, cats and dog. He had previously gave up RVing for a condo, but hated the condo life and bought another RV to go back on the road.

The last 8 months they were parked in a beautiful place without traveling because he was tired. But he loved the RV so that's where they stayed til his end.

Life is for the living!

Enjoy and I hope you make your dreams come true.  ;D
Great info....Thanks! A lot of stuff to think about.
 
Ditto to what Miss Mermaid said, except I have been full-timing for almost five years.  Never missed my old condo one minute!  I've driven 94,000 miles and visited all 48 contiguous states except New Jersey and Rhode Island.  Loved almost everywhere I went!  And I bought the right motorhome the first time, plus I don't tow anything.

Sometimes my back aches and it is hard to lift my electric bike on its rack, and I often hate bending over on those tired back days to dump my tanks, but "Oh, the places I've seen."  Best part is the friends I have made and interesting people I have met! 

I also have learned to take it slow and enjoy the place where I am at.  Just hope I can continue another 5-10 years or more.
 
The DW and I full timed right after retirement. Sold everything and had a great time. Then we wound up buying a S&B when the market crashed. It made good financial sense at the time, and we loved the location. Now after 8 years of ownership, we are selling again to go back full time.  We were still traveling 8-9 months a year and only spending 3-4 months in the S&B.  We realized that we were missing the road, and just spending a bunch of money catching up on maintenance and projects when we were home. 

So once again we are down sizing and hitting the road. The excitement is overwhelming!  We are still going through the escrow paperwork, but it is close. We can feel it!
 
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