Coming back off the road

MTPockets1 wrote:
I for one will not have property as part the escape plan.. We may change our mind before the time comes and we'll strapped with a house, condo, or whatever that we would be stuck with.. At this point (Going on 4 yrs full time) we know where we don't want to land, but there are so many wonderful locations, it's more fun to keep looking. We camp host 2 - 3 months per year and we've wintered in AZ and FL. Our personal policy is never do the same place twice, hosting or wintering, that way we get to experience new places.. Most have been great and possible landing zones, but we'll keep looking and decide when we know it's time.. As far as some emergency, if that occurs I really won't care where.

I agree with this thinking. What changed our minds was more financial. We thought when we came off the road we probably would buy a home in SW Florida, but not for another several years or until we felt we had to.

The problem with that plan was the rising housing market. My buddy bought his 4 bedroom home (built in 2008) just a few years ago for under $90,000. It is now valued at $165,000. Another couple we know bought their home in Cape Coral 5 years ago for $80,000, it is valued around $170,000 now. When our home was originally built in 2005 it sold for $274,000, we paid about half of that.

So we realized that if we waited another few years we probably would not be able to afford the house we wanted in SW Florida. Add to this the fact that we would be spending several more years paying "snowbird" campground prices for our winter stays down here, which is money we are never getting back.

At first the thought of giving up actual full timing was hard to take. But in reality as full timers we were spending at least 4 months camped in the same spot in SW Florida anyway, then traveling the other 8 months. Now the only difference is we will probably spend 5 months at our home in SW Florida and travel in our fiver full time the other 7 months.