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raymondfl's avatar
raymondfl
Explorer
Jul 07, 2014

Full Timing as of tomorrow at 10:00 am!!!

Well the day has arrived that we will actually be fulltimers. We close on our stick house tomorrow at 10:00 am. As we have lived in Florida we have been fortunate enough over the years to travel all summer in the motorhome so we are not strangers to spending four to five months of the year in the motorhome. But with the sale of the house things will become a little different, no "home" to come home to. We will continue to spend winter in Florida, we will just resident in the motorhome. But being full time does bring up some questions that were not important before, but not seem more meaningful. Any help with the following from the years of experience out there would be helpful. Just a quick side note, we are traveling out west at the moment, motorhome is sitting in Hood River,OR. Got call all cash buyer, full price, had to leave our trip, fly home and clean out house, rent storage units, hire packers, movers, dump runs all in less than a week over a holiday weekend, been a little busy but got it all done and headed to Hood River from Tampa tomorrow at 4 to reunite with our HOME.
Questions:

1: Should I change my insurance policy to let them know we are now full time? I have always had full coverage, does anything change? Is it more or less expensive if you are full time?

2: P O Box is taken care of as family will pick up mail and forward to where ever we happen to need it, most stuff is e mail anyway so not really worried about mail. BUT, what about physical address for passport, investment accounts, bank accounts, all of these items say they required a physical address, how is that handled?

3:State of Residency, at moment we are Florida residents and probably will be this year. But since we are out west would it make sense to become a South Dakota or Montana resident if we decide to upgrade and purchase a new motorhome, Florida sales tax is 6%. Even the purchase of a new car could be $1,500 savings. I know a lot of people have Montana LLC, but they have a 1/2% fee of the value of the motorhome each year, cost of insurance more because of being inside a "business" instead of personal? Any experience with state of residence would be most grateful, and yes I will do search engine and see what I find, but always fun to see the responses.

4: Any other useful info that I forgot, which probably covers a lot, but don't forget we are used to traveling in the motorhome for long periods of time so living conditions, parks, traveling, maintenance, etc. pretty used too, it is just the unknown of the full time differences.

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FULL TIMING!!!!!!!!

Thanks everyone

17 Replies

  • American Home Base in Pensacola can provide a physical address as well as excellent mail forwarding. This will take the pain it might become away from your relatives. The mail forwarding will hold your stuff and sort it too if you ask. They will mail it wherever you want and how you want. Very inexpensive. You may need a physical address for a CC too. Have your home mail forwarded to AHM.
  • Hi,

    You might want to join the Escapees club. They have several RV parks across the country, and can lease you a lot, sell you a lot, or just rent one for up to about 2 weeks at a very reasonable price. They even have "Rainbows End" for those who have given up the keys and no longer can travel.

    Escapees.com

    THey have mail forwarding service, and a great magazine that has advertisers who know about full time coverage for a RV.

    You might also find that boondocking is fun, gives you a huge camping area, and some of the most scenic places to camp ever! FreeCampgrounds.com

    I have found some great places to stay, such as the National Forest near North Rim of the Grand Canyon. There are a lot of BLM camping areas out west. Near many dams all across the country are Corp of Engineering campgrounds, that are normally near the lake, many times near the dam, so that if there is new construction or contractors on site, they have a place to camp.

    Fred.
  • Find an insurance company that does full time. We had to change when we went full time.
  • congratulations on your new freedom! kinda fun but scary at the same time. we try not to give any ins company any reason to deny a claim and informed our insurance company immediately that we were full-timing. yes, i know, these things are not meant to full-time in--and your unit is now your only home and you probably had good coverage on your stick built home. our insurance was raised considerably, but we aren't just vacationing anymore.
  • Yes, you need to inform your insurance company that you are full time in the RV. We lived in the RV while the house was being built and we had to tell the insurance company when we were in it full time and then when we moved into the house. It cost a little more while we were full time.

    I would look at FMCA for their mail forwarding services and an address you can use. The full timing forum has discussions about that.

    The full time forum has a number of discussions about picking a state for your residence with a lot of good information.
  • Dog gone it, could swore I said any help out there, should don't want to leave any one out, more the merry.
  • I don't full time, so I can't give you good advice.

    But, congrats and enjoy your new lifestyle.