Living in RV???? Advice

[glen]

Need some advice because I’m sure some of you guys have done this.

Situation- Wife and I are in process of buying and then building. Figure that will take a year. Maybe more if she decides to be the actual builder. She is in the construction field kinda now. She ain’t a pushover and I have full confidence if she decides this route.

So for a year or 2 we will have two choices. We can either hop around from Air BnB for a month or 2 at a time or we recently started talking about a trailer. She found some that have full size shower- king bed- and more full size type accessories. A trailer that is built for 2 instead of built to pack 10 in a small space. We are looking at moving around to different parts of the US.

What do we list as a mailing address for registration and things that require a physical address?

Did you guys just have a vehicle follow since we would probably want two vehicles or did you just share a vehicle?

Was it enjoyable?

Are you still married after this experience?


Please let me know the good, bad, and ugly.

And we are not looking to do this after the short run. Trying to buy used for under $25k if possible and try and get $12k-$15k when done. Am I just dreaming on getting that much out of it when done?

[ken800]

If I was going this route, I'd look at the "destination" trailers sometimes called "park models". If you buy right on the buy side and take really good care of it, you should get most of your money back. They depreciate like crazy in the first few years so let someone else take that hit.

Edit - there's something to be said for a real toilet, lol. You'll have to have a hookup for a destination type. They often don't have holding tanks because they are meant to be put in place for extended durations.

[RifleBowPistol]

When I was a kid, we sold the house we were living in, then the house we were buying, the owners were not able to get into the house they were trying to buy. I don't remember how long we lived in that travel trailer, but I know it seemed like a year. I think we lived in that travel trailer for nine months to eleven months.

When we did that, it was my mother, step father, two sisters, new born baby brother and then me. I can say I have no desire to ever stay in a RV ever again in my life. I can't say what it would be like with only two people living in a RV together for a long time. But I know with six people and one being a new born baby, it's not any fun at all. We stayed behind my step father's shop, which had a road base parking lot. So there was not a lot we could do outside and all of our stuff was packed up. It was very cramped, we had no space.

With only two people and I think the modern travel trailers are roomier inside, it probably would not be that bad. Then you have vehicles to take off and go do something.

I would definitely hire a contractor to build the house, make sure they have a good reputation and clearly understand what you want for a house. Other option, might be to get a RV, go traveling around the country, visiting places like Big Bend, Yellow Stone, Grand Tetons, ECT.

[dhillis]

We lived in our RV fir 2 years while building. We lived on a friends property for a few months while we worked on getting electric, well, and culvert installed. We used a 275 gallon tote and a pump to empty the solids and had skid-o-can empty the tote weekly. We have a 32' bdhs. It was Me, wife, 6 year old boy and 11 year old girl. It was interesting to say the least. Everything had to have a space or it was bad. We had a shed with electric, washer, dryer and stand up freezer. It was cranoed, but se couldnt have built without some sacrifice. We still have the trailer depending on what you are looking to buy. It diesnt have a full size tub, its called a half tub

[Ætheling]

My best advice is make sure the Mrs. knows what she is getting into. Us dudes and some women take to the camping lifestyle well.

Recently due to financial reasons we moved into a fifth wheel on our property until the home is built. After a few months one day the wife said she is done. No negotiations. It was either get a rent house or lose the wife. Im gonna miss her.


Jk Im in a rent house now unfortunately. She camped her entire life. The thing tvat got to her was the dirt. Gets everywhere. I loved it.

[RWB]

If it's just you and the wife just stay in the rv and dont build. Only about 1/2 kidding as I think the Texas property tax makes a home less of an investment than it used to be.

[glen]

We are building. But we have about a year of plans before I sink my feet in the sand for good. Just trying to decide how we are going to travel around

[DedDuk]

Im currently in similar situation. Sold the house, bought the land and clearing it to build. I have a po box for a mailing address and I use the address for the land for physical address. (I had to get that from the county, it had no address). I work offshore (and divorced) so Im gone half the time and when home I spend lots of time at deer lease.

[oktx]

Build your storm shelter soon.

[Greenheadless]

Why not rent a small house for a year. With your trailer budget, a house rental seems doable.

[J_Riley]

Doing the same thing right now. Getting ready to build now. And have been in the 5 wheel for 10months now. I wanted to get a rent house my wife was the one wanting the trailer. And now she’s getting tired of it. And we haven’t even broke ground yet. I would suggest renting. It gets old real quick and we are in a new camper.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[hopedale]

Some friends of our from Church did this as they built their home in Liberty Hill.

It was a 5th wheel type RV. Pretty sure they still have the RV and continue to use it.

I'll shoot them an email and see how they hooked up everything (water, electric, etc)

[wsteffen]

For mail you could look into "Escapees RV Club" https://www.escapees.com/about-escapees/

[tpack]

I said we were going to live in our camper when we sold and decided to build 3 years ago. We ended up moving into a rental for 15 months and glad we did. If I had to do it over again I would still rent something. In the long run I do not think you really save any money. You still have depreciation and insurance on a camper plus interest if you borrow to buy it, storage cost for your belongings, RV spots are at least 400 a month or more and you have to sell your camper after you move into your home.

Now, we did remodeled our home 7 years ago before selling and lived in our camper for 3 months, but I had a shop we could store our stuff in and a RV cover and free place to stay. Totally different and we already had the camper. That was not a bad experience at all. However we had no kids and had many years of camping behind us.

[captteddy]

If & when you start looking for a RV - might check out pplmotorhomes.com

They have locations in Houston, Dallas & San Antonio - sell all types of used RV’s (not just motor homes). Good place to see different types & floor plans.

Good luck - but for longer term, I’d be more in the rent house camp. After a while the nicest RV gets small, in my opinion. Merry Christmas