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Full Timers (w/ House)


Full Timers (with Home)?  

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  1. 1. Are you a full time RVer that also owns a home?



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How many of those that full time RV also own a home now or did for a period of time after changing to full time RV living? Our plan is to maintain a paid for home while doing near full time travel the first couple years of retirement (maybe 8-10 months/year). I'm putting together the expenses for that which I suspect will be similar to us being there. The main difference just lower utilities -- primarily electric and propane. For budget purposes I'm reducing those by 60%. Taxes, base rate utilities, etc. pretty much are there whether we are or not... does that square with your experiences?

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When I first started I was on the road from April/May to Aug/Sep and returned home for the winter. After 2 years I decided to just rent out the house and stay on the road full time. Been on the road almost two years now. I have a property manager handle the rental for me.

2015 Itasca Ellipse 42QD

2017 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon Hard Rock Edition

2021 Harley Street Glide Special 

Fulltimer

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We sold our stick house before we retired and actually moved into the motorhome a couple of months before we retired so can't really say what it costs but the cost of maintaining the house isn't likely to change a great deal just because you are not there.

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

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IMO you can't be a full timer if you own a home. To full time you must live in the RV 24/7/365. Having said that we have been

doing exactly what you propose to do for the last 10 years. There are many variables. Is the home paid for(no mortgage)What part of the country do you live in as that will effect utility bills in our case if we are not using water, sewer, waste collection we do not pay for them. Our electric and natural gas bills are very low. There are still property tax but we see them as reasonable and normal maint.

 

It come down to what your financial resources can handle. We determined we could keep the S&B and travel 8 to 9 months a year.

Helen and I are long timers ..08 F-350 Ford,LB,CC,6.4L,4X4, Dually,4:10 diff dragging around a 2013 Montana 3402 Big Sky

SKP 100137. North Ridgeville, Ohio in the summer, sort of and where ever it is warm in the winter.

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How many of those that full time RV also own a home now or did for a period of time after changing to full time RV living? Our plan is to maintain a paid for home while doing near full time travel the first couple years of retirement (maybe 8-10 months/year). I'm putting together the expenses for that which I suspect will be similar to us being there. The main difference just lower utilities -- primarily electric and propane. For budget purposes I'm reducing those by 60%. Taxes, base rate utilities, etc. pretty much are there whether we are or not... does that square with your experiences?

 

 

Will be interesting to see the responses to your question(s)as the dw will be retiring here in a couple of months at which time we will start traveling

from April-Oct then go far south Nov thru March before returning home. We should know in 1-2 yrs max if this is what we want and if so, we'll sell the S&B.

2010 Newmar Dutch Aire 4304-Spartan Chassis-Cummins ISL 425hp-2013 Chevrolet Equinox AWD Towed-SKP# 120487-FMCA #402879-

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We have a home and travel for extended periods. The house expenses are as you describe. It seems when we return home a lot of chores need to be done so that we can leave again. We have friends that finally sold their home because they said they would go home and clean, mow the lawn and whatever else then leave again. If you travel a lot it can become a burden. In our case we now spend about 6 months on the road a few weeks at a time. I would like a smaller easier home to maintain but we haven't found the right one yet. This lifestyle suits us.

Randy

2001 Volvo VNL 42 Cummins ISX Autoshift

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There so so much to consider. There will come a time when you can no longer full time or travel a lot.We have a paid for S&B is a city we like the equity in the S&B is the biggest asset we have.It is rather large for the two of us but when we no longer have the Rv we can downsize and still be way ahead of the game.

 

We did try the full time lifestyle for one year and decided it was not for us.

 

There is so much to consider.

Helen and I are long timers ..08 F-350 Ford,LB,CC,6.4L,4X4, Dually,4:10 diff dragging around a 2013 Montana 3402 Big Sky

SKP 100137. North Ridgeville, Ohio in the summer, sort of and where ever it is warm in the winter.

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We don't own a conventional S&B, but we do own a year round vacation cottage in the Adirondacks that we visit from time to time. Our kids live nearby, and it's a handy place to stay while we handle medical appointments and such. With a FHU RV site at the cottage, we usually continue to live in the coach unless the weather gets exceptionally cold or we're doing some upgrades or maintenance that are more easily accomplished with us out.

Dutch
2001 GBM Landau 34' Class A
F-53 Chassis, Triton V10, TST TPMS
2011 Toyota RAV4 4WD/Remco pump
ReadyBrute Elite tow bar/brake system

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We sold our house before going on the road. Now that we are off the road again we live in an apartment because we didn't want the hassles of homeownership. It sure is nice to have someone else deal with anything that breaks or otherwise needs maintenance.

 

Linda Sand

Blog: http://sandcastle.sandsys.org/

Former Rigs: Liesure Travel van, Winnebago View 24H, Winnebago Journey 34Y, Sportsmobile Sprinter conversion van

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We have friends that finally sold their home because they said they would go home and clean, mow the lawn and whatever else then leave again. If you travel a lot it can become a burden.

This is what we saw with my parents. They were long timers for years, gone three to four months in winter and equal or longer time in summer. The time when they were away and far were spent worrying about what was happening at home. When they were traveling close, they came home every couple of weeks to mow the lawn, do laundry, pick up mail and so on. My father told me on many occasions that the house was a huge burden to him, but my mother would not agree to sell it.

 

DH and I have decided that's not the right path for us. We are setting the house up for sale now and will, God willing, be full time on the road in 2017.

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Initially we had a house sitter in the house for 3-4 years and when she decided to move on we rented it out for another 5 years. Decided we might want to sell it so kicked the renters out and went back to house sitter for another three years. After 13 years of full time we moved back into the house and now only consider ourselves part-timers traveling 4-8 months a year. When we decided to rent we sold virtually everything but kind of wish we had not done that - had to buy everything again when we moved back in.

 

Nice having my shop back!

 

Lenp

USN Retired
2002 Winnebago Ultimate Freedom

2012 F150 4x4

2018 Lincoln MKX

2019 HD Ultra Limited

 

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When you figure the expense to keeping your S/B house, don't forget to add the cost of the money tied up especially if it is paid off. In other words if you invest the money from the sale of the house, how much income would you be getting? This loss income should also be added to the house maintenance (lawn/snow), utilities, tax, and insurance, as a total house expense.

For example, say $200k in a savings paying %1.15 would earn $2300 income added to the true house expense could add up to $8-9 k yearly. Over 10 years the savings could produce a $290k nest egg to purchase another house. I realize there are some huge assumptions here such as inflation.

My only point is selling your house does not have to be a one way trip to never affording another house in the future.

Greg

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Well, we tried that for a while, could not stop worrying about what was happening with our empty house. We did have 2neighbors who would stop by and a yard service. However, upon our return we found much repair and maintenance needed. We decided to sell. Just our experience, you will get many different ones.

 

Carl

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Sold our house went fulltime for 5 yrs. Health reasons brought us to buying another house and have no regrets. Do like my shop. Thing is that this thread asked if you are considered fulltime if you own a house. Well my answer to this it doesn't really matter if your fulltime or not, and that there is no qualifications for being fulltime. So in reality, it just don't matter!

 

Go have fun and don't worry what others think. It's all about the experience really. And even though I own a home I still travel 8-9 months a year! I call myself an RV'er that loves to travel. Oh and no qualifications are needed for that status either :-)

 

Dave

 

I also have never found a book of rules on fulltiming. Only thing I have ever found is opinions!

Dave & Linda

2011 Bighorn 3670

2000 Ford 7.3 PS diesel white and tan in color Now Fulltiming since May15, 2010

 

Semper Fi Marines!!

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Of course you can be a full timer when you own a home!

Many fulltimers own rental properties. It's just another income stream.

We've owned a rental property for 12 years and been fulltiming for 2. Haven't even seen the house in several years, a property manager looks after it.

If you want to turn your house into a rental property I would HIGHLY recommend using a property manager. Best advice I ever got!

BnB

2009 Monaco Cayman DP 38'

bnbrv.blogspot.com/

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If you own a S & B home YOU ARE NOT FULL TIME !

To me, being fulltime means you live in the RV, all of the time. Owning a house that someone else is living in doesn't make it your home, in my view. But since there is no official definition of the term, I suppose that whatever anyone says it means is accurate.... ;)

 

We sold our house before going on the road.

We did that also, and thought that we would never buy again but when we found our spot in the community we now live in, we bought again since there are no rentals here. At some point we may well move on to some senior housing of some sort but for now this works very well for us as we have a place to keep the RV inside when not out traveling. We have the best of both worlds! It was fortunate that we did plan ahead and so had the ability to buy since that turned out to be best for us.

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

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I am not sure what is or isn't full time but we consider ourselves long timers. We travel months each year but one time we were in our RV for 18 months. We also tend to avoid RV parks in favor of boondocking or staying on properties we own. During our 18 consecutive months we spent about 90 days in parks. However to get back to owning a home as I said in an earlier post it can be a burden. During one trip South a pipe froze and burst. We had left the water on for relatives who were planning to use our home. A total of 280,000 gallons of water went under our home. It took months of repairs. Another time the heat failed and our freeze alarm went off. Things can happen. I don't know if I could give up my shop and my DW likes the home we built. We have been doing this part/ long time thing for more than 20 years.

Randy

2001 Volvo VNL 42 Cummins ISX Autoshift

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I am not sure what is or isn't full time but we consider ourselves long timers. We travel months each year but one time we were in our RV for 18 months. We also tend to avoid RV parks in favor of boondocking or staying on properties we own. During our 18 consecutive months we spent about 90 days in parks. However to get back to owning a home as I said in an earlier post it can be a burden. During one trip South a pipe froze and burst. We had left the water on for relatives who were planning to use our home. A total of 280,000 gallons of water went under our home. It took months of repairs. Another time the heat failed and our freeze alarm went off. Things can happen. I don't know if I could give up my shop and my DW likes the home we built. We have been doing this part/ long time thing for more than 20 years.

 

Burst pipes has to be among the most concerning; particularly for those of us who live in the northern climates. You're event above got me to wondering about auto detection/shut-off system; and what's available to prevent that -- or at least lower odds since frozen pipes are often coincident with power outage and these devices all appear to require electricity.

 

There are such systems and I'm going to look into adding one to the home we are building in SW Montana.

 

http://www.flologic.com/Automatic-Water-Shutoff-System.html

 

http://www.watercop.com/

 

http://www.floodmaster.com/

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Our insurance now requires that the water is shut off anytime we are gone for more than 24 hours. We normally did that but we were expecting relatives to be at our house. We have a freeze alarm with battery backup that calls us but when the pipe froze the heat didn't fail. It was an usually strong cold wind that caused the pipe in a crawl space above R19 insulation to freeze. The repair bill was staggering. Thankfully we had insurance.

Randy

2001 Volvo VNL 42 Cummins ISX Autoshift

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Our home is vacant, empty, lonely. Up for sale if anyone is interested. So for the poll I had to answer yes even though we don't live in it

 

The home is actually costing us more insurance wise (nearlyt triple) because it is vacant so if it doesn't sell soon, we'll probably have to hire a management firm and rent the durn thing.

 

One thing is certain though - we will not be living in that house nor that area again.

Berkshire XL 40QL

Camphosting and touring


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If you own a S & B home YOU ARE NOT FULL TIME !

 

As loose as the definition for "fulltime RV'er" is the only prerequisite is to be an RV owner. What ever time you spend in the RV is fulltime. LOL.

 

I always thought a "fulltime RV'er" sold off everything to live and travel strictly in their RV and not have the S&B crutch to fall back on. We have an escape plan to go back to a S&B someday. We had planned at first to travel for 2 years then settle down to a S&B again. Well 4+ years later we are still on the road and may slow down in 2 or 3 years. We'll have to wait and see.

 

Jeff :)

Tina and Jeff

Class of 2011

"RV there yet?"

2005 Gulfstream Endura

and a 1987 Jeep Wrangler

 

http://rvtravelswith...a.blogspot.com/

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My first advice is not to worry about how others may define or label your version of fulltiming. The only mistake you can make is doing something because that's the way others did it, rather than doing what makes you happy and meets your priorities & preferences.

 

Although I sold all my homes before starting fulltiming, I've always owned 3 or 4 homes and quickly learned that the headaches of renting them wasn't worth it to me. So I frequently had part time homes sitting empty half the year. Whether your budget should use a factor of 60% or 50% or 70% varies by type of house, size of house, type of utilities, location, etc. Also, I found that when I was living in any of the houses I tended to spend much more on new furnishings and upgrades. The costs of those improvements were usually much more than the fixed costs of ownership, so each situation is somewhat different.

After my 4 yrs of fulltiming I began to develop 3 of the raw land parcels I owned into RV home bases and then eventually built homes on 2 of those parcels. I still RV year round, but I use my home bases for extended stays during seasonal transitions from one area to another. So I no longer consider myself a fulltimer, but never really cared if I was or wasn't.

Some see property ownership as a burden while traveling. Its only a burden if you let it be one. I never saw owning 2, 3, or 4 homes as a burden, pre-fulltiming or post-fulltiming. But then I never had a problem shutting the utilities off, locking the doors and not coming back for 6, 9, 12 months. I just bought a 40 ft ocean going live aboard sailboat, and if things go as planned I may not see any of my homes or RV's for the next 2 yrs.

Jim

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