Hi! Very glad to have found this site. I'm still in a sticks-and-bricks apartment, I'm trying to figure out exactly how this is going to work. I uprooted myself a year ago from the house I had owned, partly/mostly because the jobs dried up in the area I had owned the house in. I had to move across the country. I guess I've come around to the idea that there's a fundamental shift going on. The old ways just don't work anymore. People of my generation can no longer expect to live in the same place all our lives, and the quicker I embrace the new reality and start living that way, the happier I'm going to be.
If I could ask for some help verifying a couple of assumptions, I would very much appreciate it.
ASSUMPTION #1: There are five main kinds of parking:
(a) stealth, in the city
(b) BLM land, dispersed camping
(c) Campgrounds that are mainly focused on tent camping but that let you park at your campsite vs having to walk in
(d) Campgrounds specifically for RVs, aka "RV parks"
(e) Land that you own (similar to what you'd get if you bought a lot through e.g. Gokce Capital, but I'm sure there are plenty of agencies like them)
ASSUMPTION #2: All of the above come with disadvantages, namely:
(a) always trying to avoid the knock on the door
(b) BLM isn't really a thing on the east coast, there is dispersed camping in Maryland but there really isn't very much of it, and what there is, seems like it might be in out-of-the-way places and hard to commute to a physical office a few days a week. It seems like the sort of thing you'd have an easier time with if you were retired or 100% remote work, and you could really dig in for several weeks at a time
(c) harder to do errands and come back to your same campsite, campgrounds seem to have rules restricting in/out ability, and they tend to not offer long-term rates
(d) if you have an RV made in the last 20 years? no disadvantages. if you have an older RV, or a van that isn't an RV at all, they will look at you funny and may say no, especially during certain seasons
(e) zoning; also, liability during times when you're not physically there keeping an eye on things
I'd much prefer a van to an RV. One of my favorite parts of being a homeowner (when I was one...) was that I could make everything exactly how I wanted it. If I have to go with an RV I'm really going to be chafing against the fact that somebody else decided what kind of drawers to put in and how the shower should be set up. Living in somebody else's idea of what a living space should be, is antithetical to my nature.
BUT... I'm wondering how this whole thing is going to work, with holding down the job, visiting friends who live in more populated areas, etc. With some of the parking options, it worries me that I might get back from visiting someone on a Sunday evening, not be able to find a spot, and have to spend hours on a Sunday night dealing with it and risk being in a bad spot to go in to work the next morning.
The idea that there are RV parks that offer long-term rates, and there's no hassle, you just find the RV park you want to go to and you make a reservation and you go there and you can make it into a home base... is awfully appealing. And I figure if I do get an RV there's nothing stopping me from ripping out the interior until it's just a rectangular box (with some plumbing here and there) and then pretending it's a van.
Am I off base with either my assumptions, or my conclusion? Are RV parks on the east coast less unfriendly to vans than I think they are? I would also love to hear people's thoughts about doing this in Maryland specifically. I've tried various searches on the forums here using Maryland as a keyword and combining it with other keywords, and I just haven't gotten a lot of results. A lot of the stuff (LTVA and BLM especially, but also places like Caballo Loco) seems to be geared more towards the western states.
Thanks!! Very glad to be here.
If I could ask for some help verifying a couple of assumptions, I would very much appreciate it.
ASSUMPTION #1: There are five main kinds of parking:
(a) stealth, in the city
(b) BLM land, dispersed camping
(c) Campgrounds that are mainly focused on tent camping but that let you park at your campsite vs having to walk in
(d) Campgrounds specifically for RVs, aka "RV parks"
(e) Land that you own (similar to what you'd get if you bought a lot through e.g. Gokce Capital, but I'm sure there are plenty of agencies like them)
ASSUMPTION #2: All of the above come with disadvantages, namely:
(a) always trying to avoid the knock on the door
(b) BLM isn't really a thing on the east coast, there is dispersed camping in Maryland but there really isn't very much of it, and what there is, seems like it might be in out-of-the-way places and hard to commute to a physical office a few days a week. It seems like the sort of thing you'd have an easier time with if you were retired or 100% remote work, and you could really dig in for several weeks at a time
(c) harder to do errands and come back to your same campsite, campgrounds seem to have rules restricting in/out ability, and they tend to not offer long-term rates
(d) if you have an RV made in the last 20 years? no disadvantages. if you have an older RV, or a van that isn't an RV at all, they will look at you funny and may say no, especially during certain seasons
(e) zoning; also, liability during times when you're not physically there keeping an eye on things
I'd much prefer a van to an RV. One of my favorite parts of being a homeowner (when I was one...) was that I could make everything exactly how I wanted it. If I have to go with an RV I'm really going to be chafing against the fact that somebody else decided what kind of drawers to put in and how the shower should be set up. Living in somebody else's idea of what a living space should be, is antithetical to my nature.
BUT... I'm wondering how this whole thing is going to work, with holding down the job, visiting friends who live in more populated areas, etc. With some of the parking options, it worries me that I might get back from visiting someone on a Sunday evening, not be able to find a spot, and have to spend hours on a Sunday night dealing with it and risk being in a bad spot to go in to work the next morning.
The idea that there are RV parks that offer long-term rates, and there's no hassle, you just find the RV park you want to go to and you make a reservation and you go there and you can make it into a home base... is awfully appealing. And I figure if I do get an RV there's nothing stopping me from ripping out the interior until it's just a rectangular box (with some plumbing here and there) and then pretending it's a van.
Am I off base with either my assumptions, or my conclusion? Are RV parks on the east coast less unfriendly to vans than I think they are? I would also love to hear people's thoughts about doing this in Maryland specifically. I've tried various searches on the forums here using Maryland as a keyword and combining it with other keywords, and I just haven't gotten a lot of results. A lot of the stuff (LTVA and BLM especially, but also places like Caballo Loco) seems to be geared more towards the western states.
Thanks!! Very glad to be here.
