Am I crazy, need advice

[highdesertranger]

I think a good idea would be for you and your wife to come to the RTR. that would give her some first hand experience with people doing it. highdesertranger

 

[Ella1]

Things rarely go as you hope they will.  An aquaintance of mine:  She and her husband got a great job offer from somewhere else in the country, rented out their nice home to some decent people :dodgy: .  Then the 'decent people' were transferred elsewhere, so they turned the house over to a coworker w/o telling the owners.  The coworker never paid the rent.  No one ever answered their calls.  Husband finally flew back to find out what was going on, and found the house trashed.  Between the loss of rent and the cost of repairs, was it worth it? 

Yes, things happen. Exactly why a good property manager may be necessary, research into renting etc was suggested. Tenants need screened, by owner and/or property manager, contacts signed, all laws and clauses in contract need followed. In the instance quoted, those first tenants are probably legally responsible for the damages, unpaid rent, etc esp if an appropriate contract had been signed.
One does not turn their biggest asset over to strangers and walk away, hoping they'll be responsible people.

Even if the OP decides to sell, he STILL needs to do his due diligence as to a good realtor. A good realtor is not necessarily the one who says s/he can get the highest price the quickest.
And the seller must read that whole contract and understand it.

 

[DannyB1954]

Unless the VA rules have changed since Vietnam, You may be in for some disappointments.

Unless you were exposed to something like agent orange, or you have PTSD from some military event that you had, your ailments do not seem to be service related. Welcome to getting old. If your disabilities are not service related, you do not qualify for VA medical due to your income, (make over $35k and you are considered too wealthy for benefits). I was in during Vietnam 1972 to 1978. My VA educational benefit expired in 1988. After my honorable discharge I worked for 10 years then considered going back to school. VA said too late for you, if you don't use it in 10 years, we take it away. You say you have been out for 10 years, so hopefully the rules have changed in your favor. People think all Vets are entitled to VA benefits. Not true even wartime Vets have to read the fine print.

 

[Oldmopars]

Unless the VA rules have changed since Vietnam, You may be in for some disappointments.

Unless you were exposed to something like agent orange, or you have PTSD from some military event that you had, your ailments do not seem to be service related. Welcome to getting old. If your disabilities are not service related, you do not qualify for VA medical due to your income, (make over $35k and you are considered too wealthy for benefits). I was in during Vietnam 1972 to 1978. My VA educational benefit expired in 1988. After my honorable discharge I worked for 10 years then considered going back to school. VA said too late for you, if you don't use it in 10 years, we take it away. You say you have been out for 10 years, so hopefully the rules have changed in your favor. People think all Vets are entitled to VA benefits. Not true even wartime Vets have to read the fine print.

You may be right on some of the benefits, however I have a groupe of friends that have similar ailments to me, and they are getting some money even though they have good incomes. I am not counting on that money anyway.
The schooling from the Post 911 GI Bill is different. I have been to the web site and looked it all up. I have 15 years from DOS to use those. One detail I may have to look into is on residency. I had planned to claim Florida for its friendly RV laws for full timers, and if I claim Miami as my home, the BAH is almost $2400 a month. However, I don't know if I could just change residency and then say I am attending an On-Line college, or if I would have to attend a Florida college. It may not even matter, I will have to check into it.

 

[Oldmopars]

So, I have been talking to my wife a bit more on this subject and I may be closer to a plan. I have talked with my wife before about living in a tiny house and she is good with that. I think she would even be good with the School bus as the tiny house as long as it is well done and cozy. She is also tired of the traffic, as I write this she is sitting on I-5 and it will take her over 1.5 hours to get home. It is currently a parking lot and not moving. She is open to living off less, or at least reducing our spending to free us up. The biggest thing though is that after talking to her tonight she said that she would be willing to move to the Oregon Coast (maybe Southern Washington Coast) and buy a plot of land.
So, what I am thinking is that I could sell our house, we would end up with between $70-100K cash in hand. We can buy a small lot near, but not on the beach. So far prices are between $15,000 and $65,000. This would get us out of our mortgage and on to a piece of land that we owned. I could park the Bus on it as a tiny house and then decide if we want to go with a site built tiny house down the road. Of course I would have to work with a realtor to find a plot of land that is zoned to allow year around RV parking, I have found a few. Septic, well, electricity is added cost, but Solar, composting toilet, and Propane could lower those costs. I could use Green cleaning products and water my yard with the grey water (filtered).
Due to the nature of my job, as long as I can get to an Airport (Portland Airport) I am fine. I currently have a co-worker that lives down there and our company is just fine with it. So, I could keep my current job for a while longer and wait to settle into our house in Oregon. Once we know if the Bus will work and we are completely debt free, we can decide if I will continue to work there, or try to find a more local job. The local job will be less pay, but if we are debt free and own our home/land, it wont be a problem. I could even still go to school on the GI bill and survive off the lower BAH of that area (about $1000).
I think this would be a little better approach, as it would allow us to step into it and could put off the job/School issue for a little longer. My wife could stay at home, both of us want that. It is also good location wise, her family lives in Salem Or, my Mom and second husband live in Washington, my brother near Portland Or. and my sister/brother-in-law are full time RVers. SO, I think the Oregon Coast could be a Win-Win.

 

[becca]

Sounds like you have put a lot of thought into this (and some excellent input from others). There are some financial (tax) benefits to renting out your house if the time comes and you have doubts about selling. One is that you can expense the depreciation over 27 years (based on your costs basis in the house).  It would be important to have someone you trust check in on things from time to time.  My friend had entrusted a property manager with his house in Florida after he moved to Arizona -- and his experience ended up being pretty bad.  

I certainly relate to your desire to take time to enjoy life, and your partner, while you are still physically able to do so. There are other mentions on this site that challenge the wisdom of waiting until we retire to be free and have fun.  

You have clearly addressed many aspects of this lifestyle change and have plenty of time to fine tune the plan and take some trial runs before making the full-time plunge.  Applause to you -- and I join the others in thanking you for your service to our country.

 

[Oldmopars]

Sounds like you have put a lot of thought into this (and some excellent input from others). There are some financial (tax) benefits to renting out your house if the time comes and you have doubts about selling. One is that you can expense the depreciation over 27 years (based on your costs basis in the house).  It would be important to have someone you trust check in on things from time to time.  My friend had entrusted a property manager with his house in Florida after he moved to Arizona -- and his experience ended up being pretty bad.  

I certainly relate to your desire to take time to enjoy life, and your partner, while you are still physically able to do so. There are other mentions on this site that challenge the wisdom of waiting until we retire to be free and have fun.  

You have clearly addressed many aspects of this lifestyle change and have plenty of time to fine tune the plan and take some trial runs before making the full-time plunge.  Applause to you -- and I join the others in thanking you for your service to our country.

Thank you for the input. Right now I am looking more at buying some property on the Oregon coast. Then sell the house to pay off everything. That way my wife can stay home and I will not need to work at the job I have, but can get a job that is better for my issues. We could still RV 6 months out of the year, or even 3. I am still figuring out how this will all work. I may even be able to transfer to a job in my company that would allow me to work from home, customer support. 
We will just have to see how things go. But, at least I have more of a workable plan that my wife is happy with. And that is important.