Do fulltimers sell thier house or keep it for a home base?

[vetrncwby]

Hello all,

 I have a dream to be a fulltimer when its possible. I was wondering what other fulltimers do as far as thier house is concerned. Do you sell it or keep it? Thanks for your comments.

[Gypsy Rovers]

Good question and I suspect you'll get a variety of answers.  We sold our "dream home" designed and built by ourselves when it became too much to keep up.  We had a large house, four car garage, an acreage that took 5 hours just to cut the grass and extensive gardens that while beautiful to look at were just too much work.  Every time we wanted to travel I was paying someone to look after the place and we love to travel!

In the end we made the decision to sell, store what we wanted to keep in sea containers, buy a motor home and hit the road.  To date we've been on the road for 13 months and not regretted a day.  The proceeds are invested and some day in the distant future we'll probably buy a condo and settle down again, but not till we've satisfied our wanderlust.

Everyone's need for a base vary but for us, at this stage of life having a house just wasn't that important.

Good luck in you travels.

Dale & Karen.

[Clay L]

We put everything we wanted to keep in storage and sold the house.

The closest thing we have to a home base is a full hook up site my wife's sister put in for us at her commercial peach orchard in Palisade CO. We spend Oct, and Nov there each fall visiting family.

[utmtman]

We too sold our house and put in storage what we wanted to keep.  Every year we recheck what we have in storage and put some of it up in yard sales.   Some day it will all be gone and done away with.

[Betty Brewer]

When I retired in 2003 we sold our home and put lots of  stuff (later to be detrmined as mostly junk) into storage.  After 5 years of wandering the USA,  Mexico and Canada, I wanted a home base.  So we took proceeds of house and built a smaller home in AZ as a base.  But we continue to travel in motorhome  extensivlely.

Every family will have different priorities and those will evolve as we age, experience what we wanted and have changing health concerns.

Betty

[Rick and Cheryl]

Owning a house and full-timing are almost mutually exclusive.  I suppose a few have elected to rent their house, for one reason or another, and even fewer just leave it vacant waiting for a time when they no longer wish to travel.  However, both of those elections  are filled with risks, and potential disaster.

We sold ours.  It was too big, located in a huge metroplex, too much exterior maintenance and way too much to worry about being gone 365.  Even renting really wasnt a good option, compared to the worry free cd we chose.  Only if appreciation was high every year would it possibly make much sense to rent it, and even then, rental risks were something we didnt want to deal with.

[Pierat]

Sold it.

[RV Roamer]

I know a few fulltimers who kept their house, intending to return to it one day (Ron & Sam Ruward did just that a couple years ago), but most people would not be coming back to the same house anyway. Too big, too expensive, wrong location, whatever.

We are long-timers - we elected to keep our house as a winter home base. It's our retirement bungalow, so was already downsized and down-priced before we went into RVing as a long-time activity. There are some advantages to having a permanent home base, but there is also some upkeep and expense associated with it.

[DonTom]

Hello all,

 I have a dream to be a fulltimer when its possible. I was wondering what other fulltimers do as far as their house is concerned. Do you sell it or keep it? Thanks for your comments.

I don't see how one can be considered a full-timer if they have a home to return to. If they rent it out or never return to it, I would consider that to be fulltiming.

I am sure I never will be a full-timer, as I like to have at least a couple of homes to return to. But someday, we might take a trip for about six months or so.

But not in Alberta, where a decent hamburger costs almost $20.00!

What happened to the USA dollar compared to Canada?

A correct exchange rate, IMO,  should be about 2.50 Canadian dollars to each US dollar. But it's only $1.05 to one US dollar (in banks) at this time. Almost everything in Canada costs about 2.5 times the USA price these days! Gasoline is a bargain in Canada at just over one dollar per liter (about four US dollars per gallon).

Gas is a little cheaper in Alberta where food is a lot more expensive than in BC!

We decided to come home a week early because we didn't want to go broke while in Canada!

BTW, in a few months, the HST tax will increase to 12% in Canada!

Canadians should come to the USA to spend their money! The USA must be a real bargain to them now! Especially in Oregon where there is still no sales tax! It seems so strange to buy something that costs $19.99 and get a penny back when you hand them  a single 20 dollar bill. Here is SF, get another five out to pay the the sales tax! But here the sales tax is 8.75%, not 12%!

-Don- SSF, CA

[ArdraF]

Some people like their stick houses or the location enough that they keep the place but rent it out for an indefinite period of time.  As Gary said, the Ruwards did that first while they were living around the world for his work and later while they fulltimed for about ten years.  Many people just don't want a house so they sell out and store their treasures until they finish fulltiming.  Then there are many of us who like to have a home to return to after a lengthy trip.  We fit into that category, every year taking a trip that lasts anywhere from two to five months, depending on where we want to go and what we want to do.  For us, coming home always feeels good.  I personally was born with a suitcase in my hand as my mother used to say because we were a military family.  I never had a "real" and permanent home until after we were married and having a home is very important to me.  I love to travel but there's nothing quite like returning home.  Other people don't have that same need, so this is a highly personal and subjective decision.  I might add that both people of a couple need to feel pretty much the same way or it won't work.  I always say that you can't live someone else's dream.  If you both have the same dream, that's great but if you don't then it can cause a major problem.

As you can see from the answers so far, we tend to categorize ourselves as full-timers (no stick house or one that's rented out), long-timers (with a home base to which we return regularly), or short-timers (who take vacations of a more or less specified length of time).

ArdraF

[Tom]

For us, coming home always feeels good. ... we tend to categorize ourselves as full-timers ... long-timers ... or short-timers (who take vacations of a more or less specified length of time).

Too restrictive Ardra. We consider ourselves mid timers. We leave from our front door (via road) or from our back door (via water) for a few days, weeks or months at a time, often leaving on a whim. Rarely are our trips planned, and they are often of unspecified duration, although that doesn't mean we don't do appropriate trip prep.

For us, coming home always feeels good.

Same here; As we're re-entering our community, I'll usually look at Chris, who is almost always at the wheel or at the helm, and ask "glad to be be home?", and she always nods her head.

We can't imagine not having a home base to return to. OTOH we consciously downsized for retirement so we could lock up, take off, and not worry about the place.

[vetrncwby]

Thanks for all the comments. It gives me a lot to think about when the time comes. I like the idea of downsizing to a homebase that requires little upkeep. But like one of ya'll said it has to be something that my wife and I agree on. Only time will tell. Thanks

[ArdraF]

Too restrictive Ardra.

This is true, Tom.  I was just trying to give the OP an idea that there are many types of RVing so the answer to his orginal question isn't as clearcut as his question implied.

ArdraF

[Marsha/CA]

vetrncwby,

One thing that has not been mentioned is to not make the decision to sell the house too quickly.  Give you and your wife some time to actually experience the "full-timing" part, then make the decision.  The worse thing to have happen is that you sell and then decide after 8 months of full timing that you actually don't like it.  You can't get back the things you gave away; or sold.  I was one who thought I wanted to full time; and then found out, to my surprise, I didn't.

We have a full timer section in our library, have a look around.

Marsha~

[DonTom]

"glad to be be home?"

But to a fulltimer, isn't home wherever they park their RV?

-Don- SSF, CA

[Tom]

That's true Don, but I was specifically talking about my wife and I, who I termed "mid timers". Our primary residence is here in your old stomping ground, on the CA Delta. Our coach is in nearby storage, and the fleet is moored behind the house. We can leave by road or by water on a whim, although I usually tell the driver/captain I need a couple of days to get the RV or boat ready.

We have a number of friends and near-neighbors, some of whom are forum members, who mid time, just like ourselves.

We have friends (and forum members) who "fulltime" by spending approx 50% of their time in their RV and the other 50% aboard their boat. They sold their large house near Sacramento a number of years ago, thinking they'd give "living aboard" a try for a couple of years. That was 7+ years ago, and now they have no intention of buying another house. However, they bought an RV, and later upgraded to a much larger, nicer coach.

[Daisy]

As Marsha said, try out full-timing first before making a rash decision about selling your house.  Unless you have thoughts about selling it anyway, then yes go ahead and sell it.  But it's always best to first try on a pair of shoes before walking out of the store in them, so do try a long trip 3-9 months or even a year trip far away from your house.  See how much you miss it while you're gone.

We tried it for seven months first, had our son who needed housing at that same time live in it.  Then when we came back he needed it for another couple of months before a job change took him across country, so we lived in the RV.  We liked the full-timing a lot, so the next year we decided to try it again, only this time we left the house empty with other kids checking up on it.  In the meantime we had someone offering to buy it.  We couldn't just then decide, so we didn't.  Took another 9 month trip and decided we no longer wanted a nine-room house and fourteen acres to tend.  So we took up the offer by the family who still wanted it.  They've been living happily ever after in it, and we had lived happily in our RV for about ten years.  And those were the best ten years of our lives.  If we were much younger, we would still be in it.  However, once the health issues manifested, we were more willing to look for a stick-house.  So we did end up buying a house again, but in a much warmer climate, in an area we absolutely love.  And until this year, have again made many months' long trips all over the west, to catch up on a lot we had missed in prior years.    

However, now I'm finding I'm having conflicting thoughts about both places.  When I'm in the house I absolutely enjoy it, but long for the open road more and more.  When were on the road, exploring new avenues, I am enjoying it very much, but as time goes on I find I'm miss the house.  So the only solution is to live in one until the urge gets too strong to see the other, and then switch places.....  

I love having choices.....

Daisy

[Tom]

Great response Daisy.

However, now I'm finding I'm having conflicting thoughts about both places. .... So the only solution is to live in one until the urge gets too strong to see the other, and then switch places.....

That's what happens to us; We get the urge to leave in the coach, and miss the boat. We leave in the boat, and miss the house. We stay home and miss both.

[Jackliz]

But to a fulltimer, isn't home wherever they park their RV?

-Don- SSF, CA

YES, yes, yes!! Home is where we park it!!!

Regards,
Jack and Liz

[Marsha/CA]

Another thing that plays into the decision to full time is finances.  It's expensive to have both a house and a motor home.  Both need up keep and maintenance.  And, it's expensive to tour around/ sight see in a motor home. 

When we were calculating all the numbers, it was about the same costs to maintain a house as it was to travel and maintain a motor home.  If you sell the house and can't afford to travel in the motor home, sitting around in a the motor home in a campground not traveling might not be much fun either.

It's a complicated decision.

Marsha~

[nanc]

We sold our home and most everything in it and have never looked back.  We love full timing!  I have to admit, it was a little scary at first selling all my "stuff" and a little sad.  But, its just stuff.  We could not afford the upkeep and insurance, etc on both. 

[Biker56]

In 99 I sold my home and gave another one to my Son.
I sold or gave everything inside of it away that didn't go into the MH.

Everything worked out perfect. On my last day at work I got off at 3:30PM
At 4PM I was in town closing on the sale of the house.
Next morning headed out in the MH on my full time journey.
Never looked back, or regretted getting rid of it.

My next stop after full time will be either a small senior citizen apartment, a nursing home or a plot at Maple Lawn.

[pa04]

At the moment I consider us to be part timers.  We have a home in Colorado Springs, and we have a lot in Texas on the Gulf Coast.  We travel pretty extensively in the summer using the Colorado home as our summer base.  Just the opposite in the winter, using the lot in Texas as the home base.    We'd have sold the Colorado house this last year, but because of the economy decided for us it's best to wait, and HOPE...  the market comes back a little, at which time we sell it.  Like the other folks, it's just to much work.

[Cousin Eddie]

In 2007 we (my wife and 4 kids) sold our home, bought a 40' class A and traveled the country for a year.  We've home-schooled our kids from the start and maintained their schedule while traveling.  It was the time of our lives.  For us, we know it was temporary and when out journey ended we sold the coach and bought a house.