I hope it is not crazy, sounds exactly like my own plan. I figured I can rent somewhere if I don't find an RV right off. But the hardest issue is the selling of the house. Right now they are not selling that fast and the prices are down. I am hoping that in two years things will have improved.
Good luck, from everything I have been told you will not regret it. You just have to be flexable and don't expect it to be exactly like living in a house. There are trade off but I think the payoffs are worth it.
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness..."
Mark Twain
Had the motorhome already and enjoyed spending time with the family. The ex-wife decided to move on to greener pastures, so I decided since I already had the motorhome I might as well try living in it. I've enjoyed it so much, I can't imagine why I'd want a house or apartment at this point in my life. I miss just two things: a garage and washer/dryer. Otherwise, I love my new downsized life.
Just accepted a job in San Francisco and am looking forward to getting out of this Texas heat and full-timing in California. Should have lots of nice rides on the Ninja in my future.
Living full-time in the San Francisco Bay Area
Camper: 2004 Damon Daybreak 3285 WorkHorse 8.1 Toad: 2010 Mini Cooper Clubman S - BlueOx Toy: 2012 Ninja 650 - Versa Haul VH-SPORT-RO
hershey wrote: Had a MH. Retired and found that the large house and yard prevented us from traveling for weeks or months at a time because of it. Decided to downsize to something that had little or no yard so we could travel for longer periods.
House sold way faster than we wanted and had to get rid of a lot of stuff and put a lot in storage.
Took off for the fall and winter and would look for a smaller place when we got back.
Somehow, we just never took the time to look.....7+ years later and still traveling.
Had the fiver and knew we would not stay in SoCal after retirement. Put the farm and businesses on the market, sold in 3 weeks, turnkey. Got moved into the fiver and finished the last month of work, then hit the road......9 years of fulltiming did not dampen the enthusiasm......but life interfered and here we are
Dianne (and Terry) (Fulltimed for 9 years)
Donnelly, ID
HAM WB6N (Terry)
2012 Ford F350, diesel, 4x4 SRW, crew cab, longbed
2009 Lance 971 Truck Camper, loaded
Life Member Good Sam
Geocache..."RVcachers" RV net Blog
H*** ya - pack up and leave the selling to someone else! From your mouth to God's ears. If only.....
Can't imagine those of you who did all this in 3 months +/-!! It'll take a year just to get rid of all our stuff -- and we downsized once already! Considering the estate sale - good idea -- but it makes me squirm thinking of the cut they would take out of the proceeds.
The housing mkt is still good here so we're certain our little townhome will find a new owner, and quick. I like the idea of getting the RV a few months at least before the house sale, so will need to look into short-term rv loan with a no-penalty for early pay-off.
Kids are 800+ miles away, so it might be a little hard to hand things down to them. But I also like that idea 'cause if we say "come get it or it will be sold", maybe they'll get their little bums out here for a visit!
Love the stories and input -- keep 'em coming!
Regards and thanks!
Heylea
Class A TBD in 2013
2009 Jeep Compas Rallye 4x4 5-sp manual
1. Stay flexible. We "planned" a year to sell the house and outfit an RV. We sold the house in 8 days with a closing 20 days later! So much for an organized plan. LOL
2. Be debt free. After living over 30 years paycheck to paycheck, this was the best advice we ever recieved. We are so glad we had enough equity in the sticks and bricks to make this possible.
Camping Rig:
2005 Dodge 3500 - Dually- Cummins
2006 Outback 27 RSDS
We also have with us two "fur babies". A Basset Hound and a Chihuahua mix. Both are rescue dogs.
We had never camped or Rv'd. In 2005 I realized I would be 62 soon. I was working 10-12 hours a day, 7 days a week and decided I didn't have to do this anymore. I went into the office told them in January I was retiring, we went and bought a Beaver Diesel Pusher and took our first ever RV Trip to South Dakota. We Liked It.We have 6 grandchildren that was starting to get homes of there own....moving out, getting married and so on. We told them to come down and take what they wanted we would have a sale on everything else. Guess What....nothing left to sell but the house, put it on the market and in less than two months we were closing and moving in the Beaver. Jan 1, 2006 we left Indiana and havn't looked back. Oh we go back in August every year to visit with family and get doctors taken care of, but other than that we're on the road "LOVIN IT!"
We ahve been all over Alaska to the center of Mexico....went to Tequila, Mx and visited Jose Quervo.
Don / Sharon Smith
7th year fulltiming
1 high school sweetheart bride of 50 yrs. Sharon
1 long haired mini dauchound...Jake
1997 Beaver Patriot DP
2004 Jeep Rubicon
http://s168.photobucket.com/albums/u189/smithster_photos/
Three months before retirement we ordered the motor home, and started the process of downsizing. We started with the big stuff that we didn't need any day and put ads in the paper and online. Within one month of delivery (we were Ohio residents), we drove to Sioux Falls, SD, spent the night, and the next morning obtained our driver's licenses, voter's registration, and set up our banking. When the motor home was delivered, we sent the paperwork to our SD mail service and saved over $4K in Ohio vs SD sales/excise tax. The last month was the busiest, yard sales, trips to Goodwill, packing the family keepsakes for our daughter, and having charities come and pick up the rest. One day after retirement we hit the road, in Dec '05. Our only regret is that we didn't start sooner!
USAF CMSgt (Retired)
Happily Fulltiming Somewhere
2006 Itasca Ellipse 40FD
2010 Ford Escape Our RV Blog
We did basically the same thing, although we rented out our condo for the first two years instead of selling it.
If you can swing it, I'd get the motorhome before the house closes (you can always borrow to buy the motorhome and then repay the loan with house sale proceeds if you need to). It's too much of a PITA to try to coordinate a house closing with all the other stuff you have going on getting ready to fulltime. That is especially true if you're buying a used motorhome. If you find one you like, you can't be sure it will wait for you and you can't order another one if it gets sold out from under you.
Once you have your rig you basically have your house with all the stuff you need. So getting rid of all the old stuff isn't that much of a big deal.
We got our rig in 07 just before putting the house up in 08.Turns out that was very bad timing as the market crashed and we had no lookers much less offers.So we waited till 2010 and bit the bullit and lowered the price to sell.Getting rid of things was the hardest so do it early as possible.We ended up with a storage unit which I hate but the wife insists.It is a small one so $30 a month will not kill us.Been fulltime over 2 years now and LOVE LOVE LOVE it.
Retired Navy http://www.gofundme.com/carebear
2007 Dodge Ram 2500 quad cab 6.7 cummins,6 speed auto,exhaust brake.
2007 Open Road 378SA4S-5,equa-flex and morryde X factor,wet bolt kit,michelin ltx M/S 2 tires
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