Pros and cons of owning a vacation home and RV - Montana Owners Club

SouthernBelle · 03-26-2015, 11:58 AM

Steve and I have been thinking about buying a place at the beach (since prices and interest rates are down), but are not ready to give up camping. We eventually would like to live there. If you have owned a vacation home AND a RV at the same time, I would love to hear the pros and cons. Thanks

Tfthorp · 03-26-2015, 01:09 PM

Actually we own 3 and a Monty. Cons $$$$ and honey do list, oh I mean maintance on the properties. Pros I get to spend my winters in Vt working which I enjoy and she gets to spend hers in Fl where the warm weather is much better for her joints, not funny joints, has bad arthritis. Then together in NY and venturing out in the Monty the rest of the year. Did I say cons $$$$$. But it works for us so far. Kids will have to fight over the properties since there is no money!!!!!

Artemus Gordon · 03-26-2015, 07:28 PM

We have a beach home in the family and the RV. We park the RV out back and will keep beach house rented. Our joke is the rent is so high, we can't afford to stay there! Lol. Actually it true! Therefore we have a beach RV pad!

pineranch · 03-27-2015, 01:34 AM

There's AT the beach, then there's NEAR the beach. BIG diff in $$$$$. Do what works for your family.
Mike

**DQDick** · 03-27-2015, 04:16 AM

Mike has it exactly right. We had a condo in Florida, but the $$$ really didn't work for us. We like to travel and spend money. On the other hand we do have an RV home base where we store the stuff we couldn't part with and visit the grandchildren. You've got to do as much as you can that makes you happy. You don't know how much time you have left, but it isn't getting any longer.

H. John Kohl · 03-27-2015, 05:42 AM

I do not feel I could share the maintenance time with both system. At this time each would draw from the desired time with the other. Jim and Vickie made the RV choice over her River house.
Best of luck.
Safe travels.

K0LCB · 03-27-2015, 06:36 AM

have a vacation home I call Sol. It's cheaper to park him a few months wherever I feel like staying for a spell than Florida real estate taxes

SAndreasen · 03-27-2015, 08:14 AM

We have a home base in Iowa. That's where the daughter and family are. Love them Grandkids! We have a park home in Az for the winter and spend the summer enjoying camping with friends with the RV. Lovin life. Definitely joined the SKI club. (Spending the Kid's Inheritentece)

richfaa · 03-27-2015, 01:33 PM

Our vacation home is the Montana it is our magic carpet that takes us anywhere we want to go and stay as long as we want. We do have a S&B in Ohio that we try to spend some time in during the summer and will be there when we can no longer travel.

We decided not to purchase a RV lot in Florida or Texas or Az as we felt it would tie us into those places. We can put up a map throw a dart and go were it hits.We are in Florida for the winter will go home to Ohio for maybe a couple of months then head to Wyoming and parts that way till..... who knows.

mlh · 03-27-2015, 02:30 PM

I'm so lucky. We built our vacation home for 20k and have been living in it for 40 years and take the camper on vacations. The truck cost $50,000 and the house cost $20,000, don't that sound just like a hick??
Lynwood

c214dick · 03-27-2015, 06:24 PM

Just sold our winter home in Florida and kept our Illinois "forever" home and Monte. Too much time and money spent traveling between two houses and not enough time or money left over to enjoy the 5th wheel. Money saved on the Florida home will go to Monte improvements and more travel.

JandC · 03-28-2015, 05:03 PM

We only did 2 years full time after selling the Illinois house. We are spending our winters in the same general area each year in SW Florida. The $$$ is what made us buy another house, but in Florida this time. We just didn't see any benefit in towing the same 2400 miles round trip each winter and renting a spot for an extended stay. At the end of 10 years we would have spent almost as much as it is costing us to purchase a home.

So our RV experience really doesn't change much. We will still spend 2 or 3 months at a "home base" campground on the river in Illinois around family. Do extended traveling from there. Return to Florida each winter for 5 or 6 months. The difference is we will have to winterize the RV.

I guess the biggest "pro" for us was the fact that prices are going up pretty quickly and we always knew that eventually we would purchase a home in Florida. The only "con" I can think of is that we are going to have to spend maybe an additional $3,000 or $4,000 per year of our retirement income.

SouthernBelle · 04-03-2015, 05:13 PM

Thanks everybody. We are appreciate your advice. We still have a lot to discuss, so we will just have to wait and see what happens.

richfaa · 04-04-2015, 03:44 AM

If you are a full timer you need to have a domicile somewhere many have chosen to purchase a place in Florida, Texas, Az, etc.
Our Domicile is a S&B in Ohio. We will not be able to RV forever and we will need to live some somewhere That is why we kept the S&B and see no reason to purchase another home anywhere. If in the future when we can no longer RV and we decide Ohio is to cold for us during the winter we will have options open.

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