Very early planning to full time for a yr or less - Help!

To do all that for a year? Why not just make several month long trips to see if you really like it, then decide to go fulltime. A year really won't let you get a feel for what fulltiming really is and really, there is only small fraction that you will be able to see.

I've often heard, as you get older you regret the things you DIDN'T do more than the things you did. ;)

As a couple of the others have said, you usually most regret the things you didn't do.
On renting your townhouse, if you are near the coast or a military base, check on leasing to the services, they are picky about paint and cleanliness and you do then have a manner of recourse. If near the coast, the coast guard usually leases townhouse or duplex units when possible.

kerrlakeroo wrote:
As a couple of the others have said, you usually most regret the things you didn't do.
On renting your townhouse, if you are near the coast or a military base, check on leasing to the services, they are picky about paint and cleanliness and you do then have a manner of recourse. If near the coast, the coast guard usually leases townhouse or duplex units when possible.

We are in Charleston, so yes, near military and the coast, plus tourists. Thank you for your advice.

Owinsmom wrote:

kerrlakeroo wrote:
As a couple of the others have said, you usually most regret the things you didn't do.
On renting your townhouse, if you are near the coast or a military base, check on leasing to the services, they are picky about paint and cleanliness and you do then have a manner of recourse. If near the coast, the coast guard usually leases townhouse or duplex units when possible.

We are in Charleston, so yes, near military and the coast, plus tourists. Thank you for your advice.

In Charleston the Coast Guard has a Marine Safety Office that can guide you to who handles their leasing.
Happy motorin

Do it! We are not full time but we have made so many wonderful memories in our RV and plan to continue to do so for many years to come. Spend a lot of time walking through RVs and then post on the forum of the RV type you want to buy. For example, if you want to buy a class A, get on the class A forum and read as many posts as you can. There are a lot of them that talk about gas vs diesel, what to buy, brands to buy, maintenance costs, etc.

If you decide to do this, I have a few recommendations for your consideration.

If you are not attached emotionally to your condo, consider selling it and placing the proceeds in a diversified investment account. The odds are you will greatly decrease your expenses and worries and will make some money in the meantime.

Be prepared to travel for more than one year. It takes a few months to truly adapt to RV living. Then you might decide you really like it and like seeing and living in places of great beauty.

Think small and light for RV living. Some people just like to sit in an RV at the side of a lake and relax day after day, month after month. If that is you, ignore my recommendation on size. But it you really enjoy traveling and seeing the national parks and other areas, think small. My wife and I did our full timer travels in a truck camper. We could stay virtually anywhere and did not need hook ups since we had a couple of good batteries and solar panels. We rarely stayed in RV parks or the like. Instead we averaged $7/night staying in national parks, national forests and BLM campgrounds or dispersed camping.

Think through what you want to do, what size and kind of RV would be suitable and then buy it early. You need some time to customize the RV and get used to it before taking off full time.

Make and implement plans for mail forwarding, electronic finances, insurance and similar considerations. Do all of this well in advance.

So many great things to think about here. I really appreciate all of your input. I will keep up with this as I continue to do research. We are not new to camping, though since moving here 3 years ago, we have not been and I miss it so much. We could buy a unit and just go out and come back, maybe for a month, but storage is a real problem and extremely costly. I figure we go, see as much as we can and then put it to rest. When we first moved down here we went back to Michigan for the summers. We lived in a 38 ft travel trailer that was permanent on a site. Had a huge deck (bigger than the trailer) so plenty of outside space. At the end of the 3mos I was quite stir crazy and it was so "close" with the animals, which is my concern. I dont really want to get anything over about 30'. But I do think if we keep moving, which is the idea, we'll be ok. Not daily, but wkly or every few days depending. I don't want to wear ourselves out either. Huge decisions...

We also will be heading into the FT mode here in 1 1/2 yrs. Thinking we will hit an RV park for 2-3 weeks at a time and check out the local scenery on motorcycles. Move a couple hundred miles and do it all again. I agree with JimK about selling your condo for less worry and stress, after all you may find somewhere you would like to live a lot better than where you are now. My recommendation is GO for it, enjoy life and have fun!!

Owinsmom wrote:
.... At the end of the 3mos I was quite stir crazy and it was so "close" with the animals, which is my concern. I dont really want to get anything over about 30'. But I do think if we keep moving, which is the idea, we'll be ok. Not daily, but wkly or every few days depending. I don't want to wear ourselves out either. Huge decisions...

You may want to try some shorter trips before really taking off. If you've already done this once and found it "stir crazy", you may want to take a couple long "test trips".