First RV for full timing: Used or New?

rockhillmanor wrote:
Buying a new RV and parking it permanently to rot into the dirt as it sits for years is a waste of money.

Buying a used RV and parking it permanently to rot into the dirt as it sits for years is also a waste of your money.

Neither gains equity or will you be able to sell it for what you paid for it. = your hard earned saved money down the drain.

A small part of your saved $25,000 down on a real house will net you a very nice investment. AND the expenses will be the same as living in a trailer. EXCEPT you will be building equity. CG's charge you electric and monthly rent and there is the cost of propane, etc. It is NOT cheap to live in an RV like so many people think. You can find a nicer living accommodations in an apartment for the same price.

A S&B may not be such a good investment in all cases, especially if they raise your property taxes 1,000% like they did mine. Having a "real house" means I had a real target painted on my back in the shape of a cash cow. Could you survive if they stuck a zero on the end of your property tax bill - or doubled your homeowner's insurance premiums like they did mine after Hurricane Katrina (both totaled over 7,000/yr)? After putting 20% down and paying on it for many years (at a much higher rate than a comparable apartment would have rented for) I was still upside-down when I was forced to surrender it to a bankruptcy court. Even if my home was completely paid for, my homeowner's insurance and property taxes alone was more than RV park fees would be, even more than the rent for a small apartment - and this was for a 30 yr. old ranch style home in the country - not a mansion in a major city. Remember just because you pay say $60k for a house doesn't mean that the tax assessor will appraise it for $60k for your tax base. They appraised mine for over double what I paid as "fair market value." Yeah, right. This doubled my insurance premiums too.

I am renting a mobile home now, spending less than 1/2 of what it cost me to live in my S&B. I found that my utilities are less than 1/2 of what I paid in my S&B too. I have no home maintenance or repairs (saving thousands a year vs. my old home), no yard maintenance/grass cutting (saving $100/mo.), etc.

I'm planning on full-timing in a TT in a few years when I retire. I've crunched the numbers and I'll be spending much less than I am now, and this includes an additional $300-$400/mo. towing fuel budget. If I boondock some (as I'm planning on doing I will save even more), but it's hard to beat buying a good used TT or fiver in the $15-20k range. Sure it will depreciate, but buying used, most of the depreciation will have already taken place. And if it only lasts say 10 years and we throw it away and buy another one, (I think I could do much better than that, as there should be some residual value, right?) the depreciation will only be $1,500-$2,000/yr - less than 1/4 of just the insurance and taxes I paid on my old S&B. RV maint. and repairs are much less than on a S&B too.

In addition, we plan on moving monthly or even seasonally to mild weather areas (saving in heating and cooling costs) and staying in low cost, $300-400/mo.(or less) RV parks (there are hundreds out there) with full amenities like free wifi, free cable, free trash pick-up, free water, free sewer, etc. - all things I am paying $$$ for now.

And if we decide we don't like our neighbors, the weather, or just get in the mood to travel, we can do so at the end of the month without penalty and no more expense than burning a little diesel fuel - no year long lease to honor, deposits forfeited or greedy landlords that steadily bump your rent a little each year (or assessors and insurance companies that bump your fees each year - or whenever they legally can) hoping you will just pay the $50-$75/month increase rather than subject your family to an expensive and inconvenient move. When living FT in an RV I'll actually look forward to moving, as it will be as simple as hitching up and towing away - not days of boxing and unboxing, the expense or renting a moving van, the ordeal of lifting heavy furniture, appliances, cleaning fees, notifying everyone of the change of address, etc..

Chip