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Aww I'm sorry about Bully's situation. Like the others, we have also had to say goodbye to pets on the road.

I work with the veterinary industry, and you really want to look for an AAHA-accredited vet clinic. These clinics are the only ones guaranteed to follow the highest standards of care available (unlike human hospitals, vet practices are not required to undergo any inspections from an accreditation organization. Only AAHA clinics voluntarily go through it to ensure that pets get the highest and safest levels of care). You really want to make sure everything goes right not just for vet care but especially for euthanasia. 

Also, unfortunately because Solensia is a biological medication, not a pharmaceutical, veterinarians can't give it out to clients to administer on their own due to the risk of injury if accidentally jabbed with the needle.

When it comes to cremation, choosing an AAHA clinic will also ensure that the crematorium is reputable and has good service for you. Usually there is at least a two day turnaround for cremains so plan on being in an area for at least that long.

Bully is a very lucky kitty to have you looking out for him. I hope you have good, happy travels together on this next journey.

🤣you guys are too funny! I get it.

40 minutes ago, Kirk W said:

While I'm not trying to speak for Rod, it sees to me that the point was to see what other's opinions on the issue are, and that was successful. To me one of the more interesting aspects of the poll is that it seems to have changed significantly since a similar one was run about 15 or 20 years ago. 

While that may be true in the recent past, over the long term, Investopedia has a very different opinion.

In terms of averages, stocks have tended to have higher total returns over time. The S&P 500 stock index has had an average annualized return around 10% over very long periods (higher if you include dividends), while average annual real estate returns are often more in the 4-8% range.

The problem is more than interest rates though, it's about the widespread housing shortages around the country. If you sell your house and get a nice little return on it, that probably won't be enough to get you into another comparable place. My mom's neighbor's house just sold for nearly $900k (in Southern CA). This young couple wanted to be closer to work, so they sold their place, and the only comparable they could find was something they got for just over $1 million. It's a crazy real estate world out there. 

22 minutes ago, Lou Schneider said:

The Pandemic may have influenced the latest poll.  Many fulltimers found themselves with nowhere to stay when the government shut down recreational facilities nationwide including most campgrounds. My lot in the Pahrump co-op saved me from a similar fate when "two weeks to slow the surge" stretched into several months of a total shutdown.  Having a place where I could go and ride out the closures was priceless.

That is EXACTLY why we purchased a property in 2021, after not having one for many years. It was terrifying not having a place we could go and feel at home. We squeezed in right before interest rates went up.

38 minutes ago, rickeieio said:

Ahh. the youth of today doesn't have a clue what high interest rates are.  When we bought our first home, (after living in a trailer for 8 years with two small kids), in 1982, our interest was 16 1/4%. 

LOL thanks for calling me a youth! I'm 54. You're right, that's high interest. The highest we've ever paid was 8.75%. Great points about being frugal.

2 hours ago, segare said:

Keep in mind that unless you have a big nest egg it could be tough to buy something later on if you change your mind. 

Absolutely. I'm mentioning that in my article for the magazine, because in today's tight housing market, and with high interest rates on mortgages, getting into a new home is really tough for all but the wealthiest people out there.

Interesting feedback from the Xscapers Facebook Group. I put up a poll and here are the results. I wish I wouldn't have given people an option to post write-in answers, since it skewed the results a bit. But you can still see that 56% own some type of real estate or co-op lot, and 44% are property-free. 

It's prompted me to do a few interviews and put together a story for the July issue of Escapees Magazine, so stay tuned!

On 4/14/2024 at 4:42 AM, Kirk W said:

There has been a huge increase in younger, still working members but very few of them contribute to these forums. I suspect that the results of this poll would be significantly different if we could gather a true cross-section of the Escapee membership and/or the total fulltime RV community. It is only a guess, but I suspect that the share who own property would also be quite different. 

Kirk, great observations. To get their perspective, I just created a poll in the Xscapers Facebook group. I'll report the results here in a few days.

I think this will make a good article for the magazine! If anyone wants to talk in more detail, message me. Thanks!

This is such an interesting discussion! Thanks for starting it. 

We have owned two properties since we started fulltiming in 2007 at ages 40 and 38. One property we purchased as a summer getaway but we were never there so we sold it.

The second is what we have now, a duplex rental that generates a small profit for our someday retirement years still about 7 years away. We are still fulltiming. Since we have a good property management firm overseeing renters, we don’t stress about it. Plus it’s in a place we love and we will probably retire there someday. This property doesn’t keep me up at night the way the other one did. It’s also going to help our retirement savings.

What it comes down to is, if the purchase won’t cause you stress while you travel, and you can afford it, then why not? If it ends up causing more stress than joy, just sell it. Real estate is almost always going to at least break even when you sell if you buy something you can truly afford. 

6 hours ago, lappir said:

I've found a small plot of land that cannot be built upon due to it's size. Cannot get permits for building or putting in septic. The seller says small buildings and RV's are allowed. Haven't gone to the county offices to inquire yet on my own, but will before making any offers. 

Has anyone had a similar option? 

 

Rod

Can I ask what state and county? I would also check if there's an HOA.

We did a lot of RV property searching around Colorado many years ago, and found a couple of situations like this. 

Hi @OKed! We are going on our 17th year of being nomads, nice to meet you!

When you ask about managing campgrounds, do you mean as in being a Work Camper? My husband and I don't right now, but there are lots of great resources to find manager gigs. We love Workamper News for that sort of thing, which we've done on and off over the years. If you're looking for work I suggest checking 'em out!

Couldn't agree more. Our full-timing life is far less complicated because we became Livingston residents and Escapees members. Can't recommend it enough.

Enjoy your new chapter!

I think frustrations depend on so many variables, like where you are at in life. Are you working? Retired? Kids? No kids? Single? Married? It's different for everyone.

We started full-timing as working-age RVers with no kids and a dog, on sabbatical back in 2007. We haven't stopped although this is the first winter we are not spending in an RV (because we are up in Alaska for the season). Being out of the RV for the next 10 months (yes, we are going back to life on the road after our AK adventure), I'm able to more easily reflect on what we loved / don't love about full-timing. 

Top 3 Full-time RVing Frustrations for Us as Working Age RVers:

1. Lousy, Expensive, Complicated Health Care Coverage. Getting coverage out of state is difficult and expensive. We are currently Coloradoans but formerly Texans for 9 years. We finally have health care across the west coast because we were able to get Kaiser Health Insurance as Colorado residents, and Kaiser is in most West Coast states. But it's not covering us here in Alaska so everything is out of network. 

2. Internet Coverage is Expensive. It's expensive to maintain reliable, redundant internet coverage no matter what providers you use. We average anywhere from a low of $200 to $350 a month depending on the plans we are using.

3. Finding Long-Term (30-day) RV Campsites is Tougher. RVing is more popular than ever, and finding a good site in a good, affordable park (say nightly rent less of than $80) in more populated places like the West Coast is tougher these days. 

Otherwise, the usual frustrations that life will throw at any couple who lives and works together in a small space are pretty typical of most sticks and bricks folks. And although I wouldn't call it frustrating, I do miss building long-term connections in a community where people know you, and vice versa. The only thing that's come close to that for us is staying seasonally at our favorite park in the SoCal desert every winter. This is the first time we won't be there in 7 years, so we'll see what this community is like as far as getting to know folks. So far, so good. But I'm looking forward to the day when we don't have to worry about the usual domestic/renter responsibilities like trash service, snow removal, etc.

Our all-time favorite is Fountain of Youth in the Southern California desert. Great prices, fun people, lots to do! The only thing is you are 40 miles from a town, but FOY has everything you need including a 2x weekly produce market, convenience store, postal services, and all the activities anyone could want, for a great price! We often write about FOY in our blog.

Hope to see you there.

Just updating this. We are leaving the west coast in a couple of weeks and headed to Fort Collins, Colorado if anyone wants to see it there.

Ease of access also depends on your medical insurance. We have Kaiser Permanente, which has facilities in several states. It takes a couple of phone calls to get prescription meds from our home base to our current location. But as long as it's a location where KP has a presence, we eventually get them. However, I'm not sure if pain meds are as easy to get. Probably not is my guess, since KP really cracked down on dispensing opioid medications a few years ago.

Sorry you guys are dealing with this. Ongoing medical issues are a huge challenge for a lot of full-timers.

As former Livingston TX domicillers, we never had a problem telling the county clerk we were away. Both my husband and I got summoned several times in the 9 years we were there. Now that we are Coloradoans, we also told the county clerk we were traveling and it wasn't a problem.

One thing to keep in mind if you do get a PO Box in AZ. You will still need a physical, non-commercial address somewhere in AZ for vehicle registration, getting new bank accounts if you do that at some point, and other legal matters. In most cases, and as far as I know, unless you can prove long-term residency at the RV park, an address there does not suffice with bureaucrats.

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It's never too early to think about who will watch your property next winter. We are seeking a caretaking gig in Talkeetna or Willow, and hope you will think of us!

Thanks for sharing Kirk. This is a story being played out all over the US, and it's having a huge trickle down effect.

Thousands of people are choosing to live in their RV because of lack of affordable housing. Some of them actually travel in the RV, most are living in RV parks without ever moving the RV. I saw this all summer long as we bounced around the west coast, where housing is incredibly unaffordable.

On the one hand, it's great that people are seeing they can enjoy life with less stuff cluttering it up. On the other hand, RV parks are not the answer to long-term housing. RVs are not made as well as even the most inexpensive sticks and bricks house. They depreciate fast, while houses appreciate even in a down market. Families that opt out of the housing market have one less way to build generational wealth over time. The trend of young people having a lower quality of life than their parents will continue until the problem of creating affordable housing is solved.

Another big problem with this movement is that in higher priced housing markets, like the west coast, these folks have filled up RV parks to the point that it's nearly impossible to travel as a full-time RVer without having a reservation at every destination. No more spontaneous road trips, now you need to book destinations months in advance. We learned this the hard way when trying to find a spot for one month at a time along the I5 corridor in Oregon, and later in the SF Bay Area, after our summer plans didn't work out. It was impossible to find a spot for more than a few nights at a time. We moved on.

I love that more people are discovering how fun and affordable RV living can be. But as a long term solution for housing? I don't believe it's the answer.

Yay! Congrats on finding the lifestyle that works well for you! 

Hi Kirk! Thanks for chiming in. While my focus is on folks who volunteer while traveling, I'd love to hear more about what you are doing.

Wow, thank you. What a much better map than what carriers offer!

I wanted to see how accurate the map is. I looked at location where we were told we would have coverage, based on the Verizon coverage map. But we got to the spot (for a workamping job), we discovered that it was smack in the middle of a black hole, surrounded by 5G towers! Since we had no coverage, we had to leave the job, which was so disappointing.

I'm keeping this bookmarked. Can't thank you enough!

Boy that was our conundrum earlier this year. We have satellite internet with Mobilsat, but couldn't use it because of tree cover in our workamper campsite. We have 3 different carriers, a booster and antenna raised 5 feet above our rig, and that didn't help either.  We had to leave the job because of no connectivity.

My best advice is to try different carriers to see if that helps. Have you done that yet?