Cost of full timing compared to living at home..

tonyandkaren said:

Try clicking on the link again. It wasn't working for me either but it just started working. ??? If you're still having trouble try copying and pasting.  http://www.ultimatecampgrounds.com/

I've heard of Harvest Hosts. It sounds like a good idea but we haven't signed up yet. From what I've read it's great if you're traveling through and need a place to park for a night. Hopefully you'll buy some of the the farms produce ,wine ,etc.

Click to expand...

That ultimatecampgrounds.com is a great site, especially for those of us who enjoy NPS, Forest Service, and State Park campgrounds.

As for Harvest Hosts, we are members and while we haven't used it yet for overnighting, we have visited several wineries that participate, including the winery in Moab where we had our Last Supper. Park early, taste their wines, then go back to your coach...for free

Wendy

Wendy said:

As for Harvest Hosts, we are members and while we haven't used it yet for overnighting, we have visited several wineries that participate, including the winery in Moab where we had our Last Supper. Park early, taste their wines, then go back to your coach...for free

Click to expand...

That sounds pretty nice Wendy. Would you say that they are prodomanently in one area or are they scattered about the country. I couldn't find anywhere on the website that indicated locations.

Before you sell your home I would recommend you try full timing for a year first.  It is not for everyone.  You will take a beating that you will not recover if you sell a home in this market.  If you decide to buy a year or two from now because you find you are one of those that can not full time you may not be able to buy what you had.
As for renting your home that is a sure way to lower it's value a great deal in my opinion.  Renters can do a lot of damage in only 6 months.
They major cost we find part timing is fuel.  If you travel a lot like we have it will be close to 50% of your total cost.  We have kept our home and only travel during the winter.  Selling and full timing just was not for us.

lavarock1210 said:

You will take a beating that you will not recover if you sell a home in this market. 

Click to expand...

I thought this was true until I put my home on the market without doing anything to the home other than painting the interior "old" rooms and I had to bring my septic up to recent codes.  The house sold in 85 days for MORE than expected. Was it less than the top of the 2007 bubble - of course but those values were unrealistic anyway. The bottom line is that you just don't know if the house will sell unless you try. I only signed a 90 day broker contract.  Make them work for you quickly instead of thinking that they have 6 months to sell it for you.

-Eric

Dar said:

That sounds pretty nice Wendy. Would you say that they are prodomanently in one area or are they scattered about the country. I couldn't find anywhere on the website that indicated locations.

Click to expand...

Try this spot on their website. It has maps showing locations. They have sites in 49 states, Canada, and Baja.

Wendy

Thank you for all the excellent information!  All those websites have loaded me up with places to stay away from campgrounds.

-Eric

What you don't hear too often from fulltimers, is when they come off the full time "sport", and get back in to a stick home.  And it is very common for most, if not all the fulltimers to revert back to a stick house after full timing.  It's usually due to health issues of one them or their spouses. 

I would love to hear of the fulltimers exit plans. 

That is a really good point Mark. When I retire this fall, we will consider ourselves "long" timers. Our plan is to see all of the things on our bucket list as long as we are healthy and able. I'm guessing we won't want to be driving a 40 foot MH while approaching the age of 80, so that gives us about 10 to 14 years or so to "git er done".  Fortunately, we are blessed to be able to keep the stick house as a place for respite from traveling.

That's our exit strategy.

Stan

parttymer said:

Fortunately, we are blessed to be able to keep the stick house as a place for respite from traveling.
That's our exit strategy.
Stan

Click to expand...

Different view here. We may be blessed that we can afford both the MH and the house but don't consider being able to come back to the house a blessing, it's work, an extra expense and it doesn't move, it just stays in one place, boring!

We just got back a couple weeks ago from a 6 month jaunt and didn't want to, every trip it gets harder to come back so in 2 weeks it goes on the market. So obviously we are not full timers yet but when we are our exit strategy is to buy another house down the road if we choose to. If we get to the point of not being able to handle a MH than we probably couldn't handle a house either therefore straight to the nursing home for us LOL.

Every good plan has an entrance plan and an exit plan. I for one, don't believe that I will full time forever. That's why we bought a house in a location we always wanted to live. We moved my sister and BIL in and they keep an eye on the place for us. We stop by a few times a year to check them out and do a few projects. Then it's back on the road. It's a great system for us, and somewhere down the road when we get ready to settle down, we have the place we want to go.

I'll second Dar's position. It gets harder and harder to go home (or to the "storage facility") every time. Fortunately, it's a lower end home and at the end of the road (beautiful setting tho) and it doesn't cost us much to keep it.

As to whether we'll ever live there again, who knows? Since its in Texas where there never was a real bubble and most of the value is in the land and location; its still appreciating so we'll probably keep it indefinitely and make the decision when the time comes.

Ernie

Ernie n Tara said:

I'll second Dar's position. It gets harder and harder to go home (or to the "storage facility") every time.

Click to expand...

I'll third that. Seems like as soon as we get back to the stick house, we have to get busy doing yardwork and housework. Then we get tired of it and jump in the motorhome and hit the road. Perhaps some day we'll stay home and get rid of stuff and fix the house up and sell it. Or not. It does make a good place for storing all our "stuff"

Wendy

Dar said:

If we get to the point of not being able to handle a MH than we probably couldn't handle a house either therefore straight to the nursing home for us LOL.

Click to expand...

That's our exit strategy.  We have been full timers for 15 years.  If our health holds up, we expect to be full timing at least until we are in our early eighties.  It will be longer if we can handle the driving and continue to enjoy the lifestyle.  We have RV lots in two Escapee co-ops.  When we slow down we will probably divide our time between the two parks until we need assisted living or some other arrangement.

Jeannine

After living in the Pace Arrow for a couple of years, we went into a house for a year. After a month I hated it. We became used to the easier lifestyle of our RV. We are now living in the RV while we work on re-converting the bus. We have agreed that if it becomes too much to handle, we will park the bus in an area we liked and finish out our time there.  The bus is being designed for ease of use (now and  in the future), and will be easy to live in whether parked or mobile. I just cleaned the whole "house" in just under 2 hours. This includes mopping, dusting, dishes, bathroom, laundry......I have never lived in a stick and brick that I could clean (really clean), in under 2 hours. We do not want to spend time on cleaning, fixing, mowing etc. anymore. Working on the RV is relaxing. Besides RV people are the nicest and most helpful people we have ever met !!!!! We love this lifestyle.

There have been some excellent responses to this post, but I thought I would add in my two cents. 

Daniel and I gave up most of our worldly possessions (AKA_ stuff) in July of 2011, bought a used '93 RV and camped it at a friends house where we worked on the RV and made it our home. We stripped it down and built it back up to want we wanted.  We've been living in it fulltime ever since.  We have found that our overall costs are lower than when we lived in a home.  Admittedly we were always renting and at one point were in a home that was 2000+ sqft.  Lots of utility costs!

We've found that our rental costs are lower and utility costs are lower.  Our monthly rent (full hookup) is under $400.00 per month.  We do move our rig - we're going on a trip this Sunday for two weeks but do come back to AZ.  We are finding campgrounds that are within $30.00 or under to rent nightly.  Most are right at $20.00 per night for full hookups.  Club discounts are absolutely necessary!  Most membership costs are recouped within one or two camping adventures.  Our food costs are still about the same but might be a touch less since we are cooking more and eating out less. 

The gas costs hurt.  We don't have to deal with it that often since we aren't moving our rig all the time.  But a recent trip to central CA cost us $500.00 in gas costs ONE WAY!  OUCH!  We weren't expecting that.

I guess the long and short of the story is living fulltime in an RV can be cheaper than a stick home.  The assumption being that you aren't moving all the time.

Good Luck!  And have fun!
Paula

What club membership discounts are you using the most? How expensive are they?

-Eric

  The best info on Fulltiming budgets is RVdreams.com.  They have been fulltimers for 7 years and post a monthly and yearly budget religiously.  I mean this in the best possible way to Howard, but he is completely anal when it comes to posting expenses down to the penny.  It was a major source of information and a key factor in making my decision to become a fulltimer.  Thanks Howard.

  There are, as stated above, several factors involved in deciding to fulltime.  Sitting verses moving (fuel) and striking a financial balance,  weekly rates verses monthly, workcamping?, state of residency for tax purposes, all balanced with what you want to get out of the lifestyle.  There are ways to do this on $1K a month and ways to do it on $4K a month.  You have to decide what is important to you and what works for you and hope they match.

Bob Landry

Bobtop46 said:

RVdreams.com.  Thanks Howard.

Click to expand...

I have to ditto this. Howard & Linda are wonderful people and are willing to share all of their personal finances/experiances, wide open books. We attended one of their rallies and learned allot and met some wonderful people that were either preparing to go fulltime or just rescently became fulltimers. Learned allot through all of them and the website.

Bobtop46 said:

weekly rates verses monthly

Click to expand...

we learned this real quick over our 6 month experiment this past winter. There were a couple places that we only stayed at for a couple weeks and found that we paid the same in 2 weekly amounts as the monthly rate. Expensive lession but now we know better and will make a greater attempt at sitting places for a month prior to moving on.

P.S. Our house officially goes on the market Monday, it has been a long 4 weeks getting rid of all the stuff but hope to call this chapter of our lives closed and move onto the great adventures that are in store for us! ;D

And don't expect family and friends that are not familiar with the RV life style to understand. None of ours do and question it frequently, basically privately thinking that we have lost our minds . LOL

Good luck with your sale Dar. I hope it goes smoothly and quickly. Some of our relatives think we are crazy too. Then the rest of them wish that they could do the same thing. 

The full timing range can go from one end of the scale of folks who frequent WalMarts and BLM land, to others who go from one 5 star resort to another.  We are somewhere in between.  I have also seen many postings where folks fulltime on less than $2K a month. That would be pretty tight for me. 

SargeW said:

Good luck with your sale Dar. I hope it goes smoothly and quickly. Some of our relatives think we are crazy too.

Click to expand...

Thanks Marty, so do we  ;D . I'd say I would hope to tell you the good news (that the house sold) at the GNR but someone decided to go to Alaska instead  : . Seriously though, wish you a fantastic, safe and fun trip! Oh the joys of fulltiming ;D !