Home Base when full timing

[Eric91Z]

This decision is a ways off for us, but I always like to look in to these things. For those of you that full time, do you keep property of some kind, somewhere that you use as storage for bigger items you keep and place to crash for a while? Or did you unload it all?

In our discussions around going full time, at some point when the kids are out of the house, we have talked about getting rid of it all and also getting rid of current home and downsizing to something smaller, but maybe with space to store/keep the RV onsite. Kind of kicking that around for Iowa since core family still in this area, but I don't think having Iowa as state of residence works as well for full timing logistically, right? Somewhere like Florida or South Dakota still better? Wife kind of likes the idea of a downtown apartment/loft setup around here for when we are back as minimal maintenance, etc, but no where to keep the RV except storage when back.

Otherwise I kind of like the idea of something like this:

http://www.wcrvr.com/index.html

We checked this place out last time we were in Branson. Just about perfect for what I had in mind. Somewhere with decent temps mostly year round as a home base and travel from there? Biggest reason we want to look at "full time" is to get out and see this beautiful country and also to visit the kids we know are going to leave Iowa when they can. They are already as fed up with winters as we are having lived here pretty much all our lives!

I guess doing something like that or keeping a residence in Iowa gives us a base, just a matter of how health insurance, etc would work when on the road, especially if that is for a majority of the year.

So, those of you that have kept a base to use now and then, what are you using? Anyone else using something like the link I put above? Anything good like that in Florida, South Dakota, Arizona, etc?

Or just use the RV no matter where you are at?

[LCBoyer]

I bought a 3 stall garage with an attached house on a small acreage a few years ago. We have never slept in the house. Before I used American Home Base as my address, my mail still goes there

[arhayes]

I think I just answered you on another FTRVing. See there.


Alan

[CWSWine]

We sold our high maintenance home and bought into a unofficial retirement community. Everyone is in there 60 to 80 and everyone looks out for each other. We do have HOA that pays for snow removal, grass cutting and watering, tree maintenance, shrubs maintenance, indoor pool, work out center and trash removal. We travel 4 to 6 months out the year and don't have to worry about outside maintenance but still have a place to call home. We are a long ways for being a full timer but we are getting close to being a half timer with close to 5 months last year on vacation.

Branson is fun place and we go down a couple times a year and either stay at the Cities RV Park downtown or Cooper Creek.

[Second Chance]

We sold our house and don't own any real property any more. We are domiciled in Texas with the Escapees RV Club mail service (recognized by Texas and the Feds and has been tested in court). We do all of our banking and bills on-line and the occasional piece of snail mail that's necessary gets forwarded to us by the mail service wherever we are. We've given thought to buying into one of the Escapees' co-op parks for a place to winter and home-base, but we're at least a few years from making that decision. There's LOTS of good information on full-timing, domicile, etc., over on the Escapees web site (you have to join the club to get to much of it - but it's well worth it) and there's a large base of long-time full timers on their forums to give you advice.

Rob

[Bamaman]

When thinking about where to base yourself, you're right to consider healthcare. If you're not on Medicare and on a PPO, you've just about got to stay in the state where the PPO is to avoid being out of network. But if you're retired and on Medicare with a national supplement, you can live just about anywhere.

Many people choose South Dakota, Texas or Florida for a lack of state income taxes. I personally prefer Middle or East Tennessee for a base of operations. First, there is no state income taxes and no yearly ad valorem or personal property taxes on vehicles. Real Estate prices are very reasonable, too.

But the best reason to be in Middle or East Tennessee is that you're within a day's drive of 1/2 the population of the U.S. You can get home to see the children and grandchildren since it's in the middle of the country. You can easily be in Florida, or in Michigan. Virginia and the Mid Atlantic is also easily reached. Camping in the region is just so interesting without having to go that far.

[Eric91Z]

I appreciate all the info so far! Good information. To begin with, we will both be working still as our jobs (currently) allow ability to work from where ever as long as we have WiFi. And that may dictate what we have to do until retirement in regards to setting a home state for work supplied healthcare.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[RamGunner]

My wife and I decided to go full-time after buying our trailer, before our daughter was born. The plan was that we would buy a deeded lot in an RV park in Utah to be our home address. It would give us a permanent address, and a place for our daughter to know we could always go home to. The park allows you to put a 10x10 shed on the lot, which would cover the items we currently have in a storage unit. Their HOA was less than $100 a month and is primarily for maintaining their clubhouse, pool, and grounds. We will eventually start to travel more on vacations, then if I can find a better work-from-home situation we will be traveling a majority of the time, but want to have the home base to go back to. We plan to home-school/road-school when she's older.

I have a full-time job, but I work in IT so as long as I have a connection to the Internet I can do what I do (although my current employer has a CIO stuck in the 70's when work-from-home wasn't really possible - he doesn't "feel comfortable" with it apparently, although they will let us from time-to-time while they "test it out").

The park we were looking at is wired for both cable-based and DSL (telco) Internet, and we also got a very good T-Mobile signal there with excellent throughput. Having at least two means to connect to the Internet is key in my opinion. I'm playing with a new system from WiFiRanger and I'm very impressed so far.

My wife had to have an unplanned C-section when our daughter was born, and a week across two hospitals, so we lost out on the chance to get the lot. We had budgeted and saved for a regular delivery (plus what insurance would cover) but things went kind of sideways at the end and we used our savings and went into debt for the medical bills, and the lots sold out. I'm told that there is one more opening up, but we are making the last payment on the medical bills this month so don't even have the down payment.

Most folks that go full-time look to the states previously mentioned in the thread. When you have a full-time job, it makes things a little more involved. For me, remaining a Utah resident offers more upsides than down at this point.

[Bamaman]

Let me frank about full timing. I'd be very hesitant to spend the winter in an RV in a place with harsh weather like you have in Utah. Many full timers are a little more mobile and head to places like Florida, South Texas or Southern Arizona for the winter. Dealing with frozen water lines, gray and black water tanks in really cold temperatures is not pleasant. And being a full timer is best when you have sufficient financial resources for unexpected problems.

We home schooled our daughter out of necessity. After moving out of Atlanta, we overestimated our daughter's adaptability to change schools and friends. Some kids naturally are fine in home schooling, and some kids do better in conventional schools. But it'll be a number of years until you can tell if your child will adapt to home schooling. Every child is different.

[Eric91Z]

We will definitely be doing our planning and moving on once kids are all out of the house. And our winters will no longer be spent and cold locations!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk