How many of you still own property, and do you full time on it?

[katielee]

That is one of the issues we are looking at. We own the land our home is on and have no one to give it to when we are gone. We know when we go full time, we will not want to have to deal with the maintenance. And just walking away and leaving it to rot or become overgrown in not viable. We would still have taxes and city required maintenance on property. So one option would be to trade the land and house for a smaller tract of land in a rural area. On that we can build a cover for our class A. Put in water and septic, and put our home (RV) there. When we are ready to travel, just go. No worries. When we finally decide to stay in one place,we have a place to go.

With your 5th wheel, this may work for you. As for costs, we are in the heat of the south and the cost for electric in our class A comes no where near what we pay for our house.

chuck and katie

[rvethereyet]

I own property.

[marjoa]

Originally Posted by tundranurse1

He said he’s seen so many people that sold everything to full time, only to put thousands in their motor home, that depreciates every year.

Well, when we sold our custom home that we had for 12yrs. and everything in it to go FT, we committed to, "We will NEVER own another home".

Buying a house is easy. Keeping a house is expensive and selling a house is much harder and costly than buying one. With a permanent dwelling you have the same streets, same neighbors, same everything....day after day, year after year. Boring....! Been there done that. And of course the cost, up keep and taxes just keeps going up. If bad weather or a natural disaster comes knocking on your door and threatens the very livelihood of your home, there's not much you can do. IMO, as another option, renting it out to someone else just paints a more painful picture.

We love traveling and FTing. SOooooo much cheeper than owning a home, so much more fun and the scenery and people are always changing. We can leave and go somewhere else anytime we want. When Hurricane Harvey was threatening massive flooding to Houston, TX (remember that?) we started the engine and left. Real cost of ownership is one of the main reasons we bought a gas rig instead of a diesel. I do all the up keep, mod's & maintenance myself. Our coach is nice enough, and we don't need nor want all the luxuries of a high end neighborhood mansion on wheels, even though it's constantly appealing to the human desire to always have more and better. For us, it was time to enjoy the simple things in life.

In our opinion, being debt free, down sizing and doing without all the STUFF, is one of the most treasured things we now enjoy.

[lce3]

Still thinking about this and found myself wondering about the option mentioned of having hookups on a piece of property somewhere. How would you secure the electric and water to make sure someone didn't "squat" at your place?

[katielee]

marjoa

Love you philosophy on life. I hope we get a chance to meet some day. I enjoy your posts and find the majority of your responses to people encouraging and fun to read.

ice3

In our case, we have a friend in a stick and brick that would have access to the property and act as caretaker when we are gone. We are still looking at the process and the theft of water and power was one ting we had wondered about. Water I can cut off at the meter. Checked with electric company and they don't offer a "suspended account" for the periods we are away. Still thinking about that one.

chuck and katie

[lce3]

Originally Posted by katielee

ice3

In our case, we have a friend in a stick and brick that would have access to the property and act as caretaker when we are gone. We are still looking at the process and the theft of water and power was one ting we had wondered about. Water I can cut off at the meter. Checked with electric company and they don't offer a "suspended account" for the periods we are away. Still thinking about that one.

chuck and katie

Nice that you have someone local to caretake. We don't have that.

I wondered if there would be a way to "lock up" the access points. Not sure though.

[AudiDudi]

We have a permanently based 5th wheel in AZ for the winter and the Sprinter MH to travel back and forth from the S&B and play in the summer. We're out of the S&B at least 8 months a year. 6 or so in the 5th wheel and 2 or so in the MH.

[JIMBO34PA]

We sold sticks and bricks and have been full time 3 years ago. Wintered in Florida 1st year then last 2 in phoenix area. We are snowmads . Winter Az and summer in Wisconsin. On our way south right now and may purchase a small home with Rv port this winter for next year then travel north for summer . We are South Dakota domiciled .

[lce3]

Originally Posted by JIMBO34PA

We sold sticks and bricks and have been full time 3 years ago. Wintered in Florida 1st year then last 2 in phoenix area. We are snowmads . Winter Az and summer in Wisconsin. On our way south right now and may purchase a small home with Rv port this winter for next year then travel north for summer . We are South Dakota domiciled .

If you buy a house wouldn't you lose the SD domicile? Florida has been giving people a bit of a hard time on that and owning real estate was a problem in terms of keeping domicile registration.

[drdarrin]

Originally Posted by lce3

If you buy a house wouldn't you lose the SD domicile? Florida has been giving people a bit of a hard time on that and owning real estate was a problem in terms of keeping domicile registration.

Short answer is no, not unless you live in Florida long enough for them to notice and claim you. They will “notice” you if you change your DL, register your vehicles, earn an income in that state and/or reside there longer than the state says is required to be a resident. People buy vacation homes in other states all the time. It doesn’t change their residency unless they meet additional criteria set by each state.

[lce3]

Originally Posted by drdarrin

Short answer is no, not unless you live in Florida long enough for them to notice and claim you. They will “notice” you if you change your DL, register your vehicles, earn an income in that state and/or reside there longer than the state says is required to be a resident. People buy vacation homes in other states all the time. It doesn’t change their residency unless they meet additional criteria set by each state.

I guess I wouldn't be as aware of the issue if our supervisor of elections hadn't tried to purge those domiciled in "his" county. One of the questions was regarding owning real estate. I suppose that other than voting, it might not become an issue. Buying property when domiciled isn't really the same as a second home.

I also heard that somewhere in Alabama they were trying to claim anyone in a CG for longer than a month as a resident. I don't know all the details of that one.

[Cooperhawk]

Thursday was Thanksgiving. The DW spent two days setting up the feast for the children and Grandchildren.

She had the family room set up with a table of snacks all afternoon which she lovingly prepared the day prior. There was a wood fire in the hearth.

Then at Dinner she had a complete table set with China, Silver, and Crystal all as her Mother taught her.

Turkey and dressing with all the trimmings and all the little kids at the table with us.

Each was asked what they were thankful for and she almost broke into tears during grace.

Whatever I want does not matter, She is NOT going to give that up anytime soon. So we will keep the S&B for the foreseeable future.

PS, I kinda like it as well.

[twogypsies]

"Home" can be anywhere. A memorable Thanksgiving for us was in a state park in Arizona. The grandkids were there. We cooked a 'trash can turkey', had lots of snacks while waiting and had a complete dinner by the campfire. When for a hike afterward. Marveled at the dark starry night later.

[consolenut]

Thank goodness not married. If I was I'd tell the wife I'm going full time. If she didn't oh well. I'd go buy what I wanted. "See ya when I see ya"

Luckily not married. No thank you not for me.