Regrets?

[pduggs]

We both retired, bought our first MH, and then sold the house to go fulltimimg nearly simultaneously. We both love it, but we’ve only been at it about two years. No regrets so far.

We do spend much of the summer in the homes of our children. So, we aren’t in the coach all the time.

No lawn to mow or snow to shovel...no snow ever again period. No property or state income taxes. No house to maintain, but the old MH requires lots of maintenance, but I enjoy doing it. Cleaning my home takes less than an hour. Meeting a lot of nice like minded people and getting more exercise than we did living in our house in cold snowy dreary Michigan. Eating good fresh food most days, from local farmers markets.

We like to boondock, but it works best out west. Not much Boondocking spots in the eastern half of the country.

[Trapper2022]

No regrets about the lifestyle. Loved it and still travel in new rig about four months a year. Only regrets were in size of rig. RVed my whole life and thought we would need a 45’ rig to live in to have it all. Every year we realized we were throwing more out that we did not need and that the rig was way longer than we needed. If we go full time again it will be in a 35’ rig. Just easier to get around in.

Enjoy the journey

[St4]

Interesting

[super_rep]

We've been full time for 7 years. We just wish we'd done it 10 years sooner.

[GeezerViz]

We didn't sell the house to buy an RV. We sold the house because it was no longer needed after we got the RV. Before going full time, I suggest you decide what your exit plan will be in the event that you can no longer full time.

[jrs]

No regrets here either. We just started last September and thus far we're extremely pleased with the lifestyle. It's a great way to see the Country. We're also happy we bought a big rig.

[twogypsies]

Originally Posted by GeezerViz

I suggest you decide what your exit plan will be in the event that you can no longer full time.

Smart people take the money from the sale of their home and stash it away for their exit plan.

Don't use the money to buy a RV. Yes, you need to plan ahead for the future.

[Stajones]

Originally Posted by Fast E

Does anyone regret selling their home to purchase an RV to go full time campgrounds, travelling?

No regrets. Been houseless since 2013. If you “need” to sell your house in order to purchase an RV you might want think that through. RV’s depreciate pretty rapidly and you might want to get back in a house if the lifestyle doesn’t suit you. I would want a nest egg or sufficient cash flow for an exit plan.
Not sure what you mean by “campgrounds, traveling”...if it means “problems”- we haven’t had any issues or regrets related to either.

[Dan McMartin]

No regrets. We've been on the road going on three years. We're truly full time, no land, no house, no storage unit. Everything we own is in the motorhome.

But knowing what we know now, driven home by the virus lock downs and closures, we would not have liquidated all of our possessions.

We're looking at buying a home in the next year or so and traveling part time. We have to start from scratch. You name it, we need to purchase it to furnish a new home and make it comfortable. For instance, we have our family pictures that used to hang on the wall, but need to buy new frames to display them.

We wouldn't have kept our old house or even most/much of our stuff but there's plenty of stuff we could have stored for less money than repurchasing it later. Tools, firearms, some furniture, etc., etc.

On the bright side, most everything we will own will be brand new, the latest tech, have a warranty, etc.

[Teamfoxy]

Originally Posted by GeezerViz

We didn't sell the house to buy an RV. We sold the house because it was no longer needed after we got the RV. Before going full time, I suggest you decide what your exit plan will be in the event that you can no longer full time.

This description fits us to a Tee. Been RVing more than ten years and bought the current motorhome a year before we sold the house. We also bought a lot in a Florida RV resort to always have a base to winter at or when we need to stay put for other reasons like the current pandemic.
I know too many people who sold everything to buy an RV or boat and then something happened and they were stuck with a depreciated asset and no way out. You have to have a solid exit plan.

[oatmeal]

Originally Posted by super_rep

We've been full time for 7 years. We just wish we'd done it 10 years sooner.

Maybe not. If you had, you'd be in my shoes (now in my 17th year of fulltiming) and disappointed at how difficult it's become compared to back in the day.

I think we hit it in the sweet spot--in 2003 you could buy an internet satellite dish for $5,000 and pay $99/month for service. So not everybody was on the internet, and it was still necessary to put some effort into learning about how to live the lifestyle. That meant not so many people did it, and those who did earned it instead of having it handed to them. You slowly learned it yourself, with minor assists from the internet, instead of having the entire thing laid out to you by people who make money on youtube laying it all out for people

The "difficulty" back then was the barrier to entry, which could be surmounted with a little bit of effort. Now that there is almost no barrier to entry, the difficulty is dealing with the multitudes who have jumped in, and competing for campsites even outside the busy season, and crowding at places that used to be kind of on the down-low.

By 2005 we had over 1000 watts of solar, so we've been well equipped for boondocking for a long time. But sitting out in the desert wasn't why we started fulltiming--we wanted to see what people/things are like all over the country, and to travel without an itinerary.

Do I regret selling our houses and traveling? Not a bit. But I'm not sure I'd feel the same if I started today, because the freedom to wander just isn't there any more, and that's what I really enjoyed. Then again, if I were starting today I wouldn't realize what I was missing. But knowing how it was makes accepting how it is harder.

[grindstone01]

Originally Posted by super_rep

We've been full time for 7 years. We just wish we'd done it 10 years sooner.

Like anything in life, the RV lifestyle can get old after the thrill is gone, especially as we age and the body just can't keep up the pace. We figured that 10 years would be a good run for us and then be ready to try something new. Maybe a year long cruise or even rent an apartment in Europe for another year?? The world is at our feet as long as we have our health!

[GonetoRaces]

Originally Posted by grindstone01

Like anything in life, the RV lifestyle can get old after the thrill is gone, especially as we age and the body just can't keep up the pace. We figured that 10 years would be a good run for us and then be ready to try something new. Maybe a year long cruise or even rent an apartment in Europe for another year?? The world is at our feet as long as we have our health!

Well said!

[Trapper2022]

Enjoy the journey