Aridon wrote:
Francesca Knowles wrote:
Aridon wrote:
We have a permanent site which we use as a home base. We are young, well off financially and have a young baby.
People wonder and ask all the time why we don't have a house and can't fathom why we don't buy one. Well I broke it down for my inlaws the other day who wanted us to buy their home so they could FT in their RV (i'm not kidding).
250k for the house
$4,700 in property taxes
$2,400 in insurance
$600 a year for HOA (no benefits)
plus landscaping, water sewer, cable etc..
New roof in a few years and every 15 years
New AC since its 12 years old and likely to die in the next 5 years
Same with the water heater etc.
Compared to living in our RV:
$216 / mth which covers everything
HOA, water, sewer, cable, trash pick up, pool etc
$1,100 a year for taxes.
:h
Not gettin' the math here- $316.00 a month including taxes gets you what, exactly???
If that's a piece of ground where you park your ever-depreciating "house", I'm thinking it's only relevant for comparison purposes if you never take that house anywhere else where you pay to park it. In that case you'd need to factor in campground cots plus all expenses connected to all that moving around, including depreciation of the house.
Not when I would keep the RV regardless. Even if we bought another Stick and Bricks or moved into a property we already own and rent I would still keep my RV. Making the cost sunk and irrelevant to the calculation.
I get where Aridon is coming from on this. We are also full timers and also have a couple of RV locations split between north and south climates. We also have HOA fees (one higher and one lower). Many folks like us in this situation use these properties as a home base to travel from but don't necessarily hang around the property all the time. These type of properties tend to rent out for fairly large amounts, 1000 to 1500 dollars is common and they are fairly easy to rent. That allows the owner to go on the road with no worries of where the money for the on the road campgrounds comes from. In some of these types of communities the HOA fees even cover unlimited golf not to mention health club, pools, tennis etc etc. Not saying this would work for the OP but it's something to think about. Some of these types of communities are zoned for park models as well so it can also play into the exit strategy when its time to come off the road. Count on the RV being worth zero the day after you buy it and it makes the planning easier. We have been full timing for 11 years in the same rig and there is no doubt the maintenance is less than on a house. Lots of options. If you do look at an RV property make sure you spend some time in the community before you buy the property. That will give you a chance to see if there are any down sides to living in a fairly regulated community. We like the idea of a regulated community as it keeps it all neat clean and tidy, others hate the rules and regs. Check it out.
Either way, good luck in your situation. I wish you the very best. Here are a few shots of an RV property, in this case ours. Lots of ideas out there.
