Site with younger community?

NealC · November 13, 2019

In early 50's looking to potentially sell my house in VA and move to a RV resort/community. Why not live in a more resort area and one where I can travel half the year. I'm not a "full timer" at this time but a "most of the timer" and am considering parking in a nice resort type area when not traveling the country. I welcome any recommendations.

ToddF · November 14, 2019

If you're not attached to your house, I would recommend selling it and getting rid of anything you don't plan to take with you to your new home base. Then travel around and explore until you find a place that feels right. Almost all of the parks I stay in have a broad range of ages. The "age restricted" parks start at 55 so you might have to wait a couple of years until you can visit those.

NealC · November 14, 2019

Is there a master list anywhere of where all of the campgrounds are with owner sites?

Carlos · November 14, 2019

I've never found any list to be complete. You need to use a few of the sites/apps to find a complete picture of the options in any area.

In some areas, RV parks are extremely age-restrictive.

Kirk W · November 14, 2019

4 hours ago, NealC said:

Is there a master list anywhere of where all of the campgrounds are with owner sites?

Who would compile such a list? If there is such, I have never seen any mention of it.

Edited November 14, 2019 by Kirk W

NealC · November 14, 2019

6 minutes ago, Kirk W said:

Who would compile such a list?

Real-estate agents or maybe Realtor.com, etc.

ToddF · November 14, 2019

Most sunbelt areas have condo parks as an option. Truthfully, you're better off renting/leasing in my humble opinion. RV sites don't come cheap and tie you down. Best bet is to begin the adventure and explore. You'll find lots for sale all over and if something grabs you, go for it. Otherwise, renting makes more sense for most folks.

I have a thread on this board with extensive info on the RGV. You must be 55+, however, to buy into most of the snowbird parks.

One thing I notice when visiting condo parks is that the site morphs into a "home". Sheds. Carports. Permanent additions. Junk. etc. Might as well just buy a house and park your RV next to it.

All those other rver's become business partners. Board meetings. Rules committees. Sewer problems. Old people who shouldn't be living alone in an RV anymore.

You can usually find a site for lease in the condo parks, which is a great way to try them on for size before tying the knot.

Kirk W · November 15, 2019

17 hours ago, ToddF said:

One thing I notice when visiting condo parks is that the site morphs into a "home". Sheds. Carports. Permanent additions. Junk. etc. Might as well just buy a house and park your RV next to it.

We thought the same way back when we first tested the water for full-time RV living. At first were just as amazed by it as you seem to be. Now that 20 years has passed since we began our adventure we have figured out the reason and in 15 to 20 years you will also. The longer people stay out on the road the more that they slow the rate of travel due to age and infirmity. When we retired we had no plan to be 70+ year old travelers but now we are trying to put off the arrival of our 80's! Stay out on the road long enough and you too will find yourself part of that group, just as we have. There is an old saying that seems to be proven when we retire. "Time flies by when you are having fun!"

NealC · November 15, 2019

And that is the other option, find a place where I can buy or build a house with a garage for the motorhome. But that doesn't solve the problem of someone watching it, collecting mail, etc. while gone.

Kirk W · November 15, 2019

3 minutes ago, NealC said:

But that doesn't solve the problem of someone watching it, collecting mail, etc. while gone.

What we have done is to retain our Escapee mail service and when we travel we just put in a temporary forwarding order sending our mail to the Escapee service, then request mail sent just as we did when we were fulltimers.

ToddF · November 16, 2019

My advice stands ...you're not wanting to keep existing S+B so there is nothing to lose. Sell it. Store items you'll want later when you find the perfect home base. It's more complicated when existing S+B is very desirable and Rver hesitates to sell because of possible regrets. (It's very costly and time consuming to sell S+ B and contents and then start a new one).

I do like the escapee model for the long term sites. You might want to look at these as transition home base between current S+B and future S+B. They all have waiting lists. But the buy in is very low and it is easy to turn the lot back to the park when you are ready to move on and get your money back. And the annual costs are very low. And everyone helps each other, real community spirit. Not sure if you can get on waiting list if your not 55 yet.

When you buy a deeded lot, you run into some of the same problems as S+B. Hard to sell. Need to cut grass on many. Year round utility bills, Insurance. Taxes, HOA fees. Neighbors (good and bad). Buy in could be $25-250,000, crazy range.

Edited November 16, 2019 by ToddF

chirakawa · November 16, 2019

4 hours ago, ToddF said:

My advice stands ...you're not wanting to keep existing S+B so there is nothing to lose. Sell it. Store items you'll want later when you find the perfect home base. It's more complicated when existing S+B is very desirable and Rver hesitates to sell because of possible regrets. (It's very costly and time consuming to sell S+ B and contents and then start a new one).

I was very fortunate in that when I sold my S&B I had a storage building available on a relative's property. If I had to rent a storage unit, it would have been lot's cheaper and easier to just sell off everything. At $125-$150 month storage rental, it wouldn't have taken more than a couple of years to exceed the cost of what I was storing.

One idea I did have, if I hadn't had the relative's option, is to buy a 24' enclosed trailer and park it at a friend's or relative's who has the space on their land. Store the stuff until you buy another S&B, then hitch up and deliver it to the new location. Then, sell the trailer. Depending on how well you did when buying and selling, you may not lose anything at all on the trailer.

Kirk W · November 16, 2019

12 minutes ago, chirakawa said:

At $125-$150 month storage rental, it wouldn't have taken more than a couple of years to exceed the cost of what I was storing.

Exactly what we thought, so we sold everything that didn't go with us, except for a few things that were left with our children. As it turned out, we would have paid storage fees for 12 years and most things stored would not have been worth much after that long in storage anyway.