Well, the wife announced she is thinking about full timing. I've thought about it but just stayed quiet. Need some advice from your vast experiences on this subject. Below are some points I would like help with.1. We are in our early-mid 60s and in excellent health. So, I would expect we would have a good 10-15 years to full time. Did you sell everything or did you store some "seed" items to restart housekeeping after the road?2. We are burdened by generations of family stuff plus 40 years of our own collecting and buying and selling. We have everything from a grand piano to a 6 1/2' antique rolltop desk. We have no kids or family that needs or wants our stuff. How long did it take you to sell out your stuff?3. How did you get rid of the stuff? I figure some will go on eBay, some at an antique action, some at specialty auctions such as Native American stuff, a couple of yard sales and then a final on site auction to get rid of the lawn mowers, snow blowers and yard tools.3. Did you rent a safety deposit box to keep jewelry and important papers or take everything on the road? What about your will?4. Did you sell the house or lease it in case you didn't like the road?5. Please share any additional information from you experiences!

Not my experience, but that of a friend. They used an estate sale company. The company comes in and prices everything, handles the sale, cleans up, and hauls off whatever didn't sell (which wasn't much in her case). My friend had to move out about a week before the sale to give the company time to do their job. I think she said she paid them a 10% commission. It was super easy and is the way I'd go if I were selling out. The thought of garage sales/yard sales would make me not do it. They are too much work.

I'll just add what "I" did WRONG. I did not listen to the seasoned forum members advice .....>>When you go Full Time leave NO storage units behind<<I not only left one storage unit behind I had 2. Couple of years on the road @ $250 a month, well you get the picture of what it $cost$ me. :(Not to mention what 'added' expenses it cost me to go back in the MH and empty them etc etc.SELL EVERYTHING!! Let the family members have what they want and sell the rest. First an estate sale and then what is left I found craigslist to be useful. Free, place the ads on your computer at your leisure. You list it under your own hometown and the buyers that call you are local.SELL the house. I had several rental properties and trust me you DO NOT want to rent or lease your home. It does not matter what income level tenants you rent/lease to, they WILL destroy the value of your home.Good Luck on your endeavor. Hope to see you on the road as a full-timer! :C

Dance Chick wrote:Not my experience, but that of a friend. They used an estate sale company. The company comes in and prices everything, handles the sale, cleans up, and hauls off whatever didn't sell (which wasn't much in her case). My friend had to move out about a week before the sale to give the company time to do their job. I think she said she paid them a 10% commission. It was super easy and is the way I'd go if I were selling out. The thought of garage sales/yard sales would make me not do it. They are too much work.Probably should have mentioned that we conducted many estate sales over the years and would probably do one on our stuff for certain items. The problem is our town is more of a thrift/resale shop kind of place not a tag sale community.

We started with kids, family, and friends..they did not take much. then onto craigs list, garage sale, and finally donations, And the dump, the dump, the dump. We kept a storage unit for 2 years..mistake. But some stuff is hard to give up right away. We did not want to live in the area we had lived in so keeping the house was not an option we were interested in. After you have down sized to an RV your house will probably be too large for you, and the idea is to have little to no responsibilities in your old town, Good luck. lots to think about, but we love it!

The very reason we don't FT now. Too many things that I can't part with. We just take short vacations and always nice to come back and relax at the S & B. When we full timed several years ago we had house sitters. House sitters Vs renters may be a better option. House sitters you know will take much better care of your home. I agree with previous post renters are hard on houses and unless you have a property manager you will get calls all the time about repairs etc.

Help me wrap my arms around the full time process

25 Replies

WyoTraveler
Explorer
Sep 02, 2014
The very reason we don't FT now. Too many things that I can't part with. We just take short vacations and always nice to come back and relax at the S & B. When we full timed several years ago we had house sitters. House sitters Vs renters may be a better option. House sitters you know will take much better care of your home. I agree with previous post renters are hard on houses and unless you have a property manager you will get calls all the time about repairs etc.
tohare
Explorer
Sep 02, 2014
We started with kids, family, and friends..they did not take much. then onto craigs list, garage sale, and finally donations, And the dump, the dump, the dump. We kept a storage unit for 2 years..mistake. But some stuff is hard to give up right away. We did not want to live in the area we had lived in so keeping the house was not an option we were interested in. After you have down sized to an RV your house will probably be too large for you, and the idea is to have little to no responsibilities in your old town,
Good luck. lots to think about, but we love it!
Thunder_Mountai
Explorer II
Sep 02, 2014
Dance Chick wrote:
Not my experience, but that of a friend. They used an estate sale company. The company comes in and prices everything, handles the sale, cleans up, and hauls off whatever didn't sell (which wasn't much in her case). My friend had to move out about a week before the sale to give the company time to do their job. I think she said she paid them a 10% commission. It was super easy and is the way I'd go if I were selling out. The thought of garage sales/yard sales would make me not do it. They are too much work.

Probably should have mentioned that we conducted many estate sales over the years and would probably do one on our stuff for certain items. The problem is our town is more of a thrift/resale shop kind of place not a tag sale community.
rockhillmanor
Explorer II
Sep 02, 2014
I'll just add what "I" did WRONG.

I did not listen to the seasoned forum members advice .....
>>When you go Full Time leave NO storage units behind<<

I not only left one storage unit behind I had 2. Couple of years on the road @ $250 a month, well you get the picture of what it $cost$ me. :(

Not to mention what 'added' expenses it cost me to go back in the MH and empty them etc etc.

SELL EVERYTHING!! Let the family members have what they want and sell the rest. First an estate sale and then what is left I found craigslist to be useful. Free, place the ads on your computer at your leisure. You list it under your own hometown and the buyers that call you are local.

SELL the house. I had several rental properties and trust me you DO NOT want to rent or lease your home. It does not matter what income level tenants you rent/lease to, they WILL destroy the value of your home.

Good Luck on your endeavor. Hope to see you on the road as a full-timer! :C
Dance_Chick
Explorer
Sep 02, 2014
Not my experience, but that of a friend. They used an estate sale company. The company comes in and prices everything, handles the sale, cleans up, and hauls off whatever didn't sell (which wasn't much in her case). My friend had to move out about a week before the sale to give the company time to do their job. I think she said she paid them a 10% commission. It was super easy and is the way I'd go if I were selling out. The thought of garage sales/yard sales would make me not do it. They are too much work.

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Help me wrap my arms around the full time process

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