Selling out

Carol Reed

In Memoriam
Messages
5,533
Location
Coolidge, AZ
Wow! I have just decided to sell my Arizona house. I plan to get it ready to sell in September, but I have been letting the word out. Already have someone seriously interested! Rob got his listed. I haven't even gotten that far.

And no, I have no idea where I might land. Looking at Texas. The plan for the short term is living in a motorhome - yet to acquire. Looking for a mid '90's diesel pusher with a slide under $30K. I have to live in something while I get this job done in Nevada and I want out of this rental - ASAP.
 
Boy, girl! When I saw the title, I thought you might be buying a CNC machine. ;) I could stand living in a motorhome, except I don't know what I'd do with my books. I'd need a trailer for them, but living in a home you can drive somewhere else always appealed to me. Go for it! :thumb: Drop by Niagara and I'll make a cup of tea for you.
 
well carol glad i got to see the AZ home before you sold it.. was a cozy place to stay.. and the country nearby was beautiful.. good luck on your next endeavor..you just missed a motor home up here that would be in your buget.. but it got sold 2 weeks ago for much less than your looking to spend..
 
Well if you want to keep woodworking in the RV, you could always buy a 2nd hand School bus and convert it yourself...
(I know, I know... that is a serious time commitment!!! :p)

Hope you find the right buyer at the right time for your former place!
...art
 
Well, Jim. I have spent more time away from that property than in it since I bought it in 2004. It costs me several hundred dollars a month in taxes, insurance, and minimal utilities, plus usual ongoing maintenance. It makes no sense to keep it as I am unlikely to live anywhere more than a year or so in the ministry I am in, and certainly not in that house. Aside from which it snows in Strawberry in the winter time. No snow in my future plans. Couple that with I hate paying rent and funding someone else's annuity. I also hate packing and unpacking. Ergo, motorhome for a while. Simple. :)
 
Carol,
I don't know if you've heard if the group, but there is a full-timers RV club called the escapees. They have a forum with tips, campground info, plus several member campgrounds, A mail forwarding service etc... They can be found at escapees.com.
 
Carol, that sounds very exciting. I like the idea of a diesel too, I've got a diesel car, and it sure gets good mpgs. As for the traveling life, I'm not sure I could handle it, but if you can, more power to you. I know a couple with a VW-based Winnebago Rialto, and they spend the fall and winter months in it every year doing their missionary work in the SW and Mexico. They seem to love it.
 
I say go for it and good luck to you with the house sale. Life is too short to live in one place in my view of things and with a country as large as the USA with so much to see, I think those motorhomes are unbelievable.

Thanks Ned for that forum link because i want to educate myself a little in this department. Its certainly one of the things on my bucket list.

Carol if i may ask how did you come to zone in on "mid 90's" for the age/ period of the unit.

Are you not concerned about it already been kinda 15 years old. You would surely not want to be swapping rent costs and taxes etc for maintenance bill.

I guess one could do what i had my son do with my aid to his old Honda car. Buy a good condition unit and then spend a percentage and get a real overhaul done on it before setting out.

Would probably still be less than the taxes on a new unit although the price of new units is in my view only for millionaires. It was not till i started looking for a holiday trailer (caravan in my language:) ) that i saw that you could get what looked like good condition units for the kind of budget you mentioning.
My bet is that these types of vehicles get purchased and parked for mor time than they driven and i would bet there are many out there that are bought with good intentions that never materialise so if you prepared to travel around the USA to pick it up I bet you could get a real good one. BUt i would imagine you still need a experienced mechanic to check it out.

Any idea what kind of load these things can tow without becoming a problem. I am thinking here of box trailer kitted as a basic workshop. :)

I figure you could still make a few bob (money) with the "tools" when you parked in a place where others might need a custom something or other for their motorhome. Or a repair to their cabinets or something.

Great adventure and kudos to you for setting out on it.
 
Thanks Ned for that forum link because i want to educate myself a little in this department. Its certainly one of the things on my bucket list.

Carol if i may ask how did you come to zone in on "mid 90's" for the age/ period of the unit.
Rob, you're welcome. I used to live full time in my 27' 5th wheel, so I know that 'lifestyle' as it were. At the time, I was definitely in the minority of Full-timers, in that I was under 45, single and traveling solo. I was on the road for my job at that time, and the RV parks were cheaper to live from vs the hotel and fast food scene. Now, almost 20 years later, I'm back in a similar job, and more than once I've thought... hmmm. I bet If I had a small class B unit, I could do this a lot cheaper than the hotel thing... IF I could swing the RV itself.

Carol will of course chime in on her take on the 'mid 90s' thing, but I'll add my .02c now...
While RV's are vehicles, with all of the maintenance and upkeep that come with it, they also aren't typically used as hard or as much as the family car. So a mid-90's DP has probably had a relatively easy life vehicle wise. Most RV's spend more time parked and idle than on the road, so long term storage issues become more of an issue than wear and tear ones. A diesel engine in and of itself is a long term engine, meaning it is designed for a long 'life cycle', several hundred thousand miles is what a well maintained diesel can be expected to last... the rest of the chassis and running gear is a different story. Carol's got a pretty good shot at finding that mid-90's gem, which has relatively low miles and wear and tear, but is still serviceable for what she intends to do with it.

Carol,
for what it's worth, there are a couple of rigs for sale on the escapees forums (which are at rvnetwork.com (escapees.com works too, but takes you to the club main page, rvnetwork.com is their working page for the forums etc...), including a 2009 jetta sportwagon TDI all set up and ready to go behind your new home... including tow bar etc...
 
Well, Ned covered some of the points. And thanks, I have been watching that forum as well.

@Rob: Finding a loan on a gas rig over ten years old is difficult if not nearly impossible. That jumps to 15 years with a diesel rig. I am not looking for a loan but what it means to sellers is that a significant price drop is in order because it requires a cash sale. The point being the rig is not going to secure the loan. Track values on NADA and you will see what I mean.

Storage conditions ARE the issues in purchasing a diesel rig. I got taught diesels a number of years ago by the diesel instructor at the college where I was teaching woodworking. I learned that the fuel system must be and remain pristine clean at all times. The get-it-on-the-road cost will be to drain and replace all fluids, replace all rubber items including tires (especially out here in the west), flush all tanks and clean appropriately, check EVERYthing electrical, and replace all the filters. This applies to the coach (house), the engine, and the generator. Might get lucky with the batteries, coach and house batteries. With the checklist I have it will take a couple of people around 4 hours to accomplish this. And a very patient seller. When we get done, then we can look at age and wear and tear issues, like upholstery, shades, awnings, windows, cabinetry, etc. And then there are leaks or potential leaks, the condition of the roof, the water and drain systems, and the bathroom (the room that has had the most use!). There are no CarFax reports. There are RV checks but with a much less definitive disclosure. String and careful sighting will play more into determining if the rig has had major repairs.

What I am now researching is the ratio between the allowable load against the weight of the rig. In other words, how many pounds can I load into the thing and or tow. The other reason for the diesel is to be able to tow a decent sized trailer on something other than downhill.

I am looking for a top of the line model, Monaco, Newmar, Beaver, etc. Some had models with a slide-out in those days. A slide-out is on my list. For me, that would make it a more comfortable full-time living arrangement. There were lessor models offered in that time period but with much chintzier materials. There is some price difference but for the difference I am old enough to want to indulge in something nice.

Running gear desired is a 300-350 HP motor, preferably Cummins, a 6 speed automatic Allison tranny, on a Spartan chassis. That will narrow it down some. But this combination has stood the test of time as reported on the various RV forums. Then there is air suspension, rear cameras, electric steps, tow bars, hitches, solar panels, etc. All extra added value if available.

The other thing I am looking at is enrolling in an RV driving school for a couple of days. This won't be like jumping into my Honda! :rofl:

Also @Rob: I have a list of websites that I track on this issue. If you need them, let me know.
 
Last edited:
Wayyyyy over my $30K budget and way too many miles. I can get what I am looking for with way less than 100K miles, so why not? :)

And picky me is not enthralled with the looks of the Blue Bird. Too much like its school bus predecessors.
 
Carol, it looks like you've done your homework, and know what you want. Best of luck finding it.

Exactly right Ken. I hope you find exactly what you want Carol. This reminds me of a colleague who retired and sold his house about 14 years ago. They bought a motor home with plans to travel for a year and land in Texas near relatives and sell the RV and buy a house. You guessed it--they still have the RV and have not bought a house. They visit relatives in Texas and move on. Wouldn't work for me, but they love that life. Good hunting!
 
Probably not in your price range, but I could see you traveling in style in this:

527209_398125610249984_554583064_n.jpg
 
Top