Choose only one to have: house or car

[superminimalist]

If you had a choice of only one, which would it be: a house, or a car ?

Using 3 criterias: 1) affordability, 2) sleepable, 3) drivable,  a house meets only the sleepable criteria, but the car meets all 3 criterias since it is affordable, sleepable, and drivable.  So I would choose a car over a house.  What do all of you think?  Look forward to hearing everyone's thoughts on this subject.

 

[user 423]

Describing the average car as "sleepable" is quite a stretch.

 

[OldDesertGal]

I recently moved from a newer small car to a older conversion van using the same criteria. Lol

Definitely would choose a car over a house. I've only been on the road for a short time compared to others. I didn't know "driveability" would even be on my top priorities until I did it.

Some days, I'm not sure if I am going somewhere or getting away from somewhere.

Teresa

 

[bullfrog]

For us and many here the amount of work and money it takes to own and maintain a house made the decision easy. Even stationary my old motor home is much easier and cheaper to live in here where I enjoy being than the almost impossible task of buying or building a house. There are alternatives but few allow you to live cheap enough to follow the seasons I believe which we enjoy doing now that the cold winters really hurt our bodies. You could possibly live in a house cheaper and have more conveniences but you would be stuck in one place basically. Even owning and holding on to land is difficult today. Making it usable to live on legally ain’t gonna happen cheaply. While you are able one of the alternatives is seasonal work that provides housing, really it is probably one of the easiest and cheapest ways to live plus having a livable vehicle while doing so gives you lots of options.

 

[superminimalist]

I guess if one found the perfect place to be, and could afford it, and the place was walkable, then one could choose the house over a car.  I'm still searching for such a place.  Maybe one day I find it.  But in the meantime, I plan to move into a car.  If it get's too cold, then I can change my living place by starting the engine, and driving away.  Can't do that with a house.  If some noisy neighbors move into the neighborhood, again start the engine, and go somewhere else.  Can't do that with a house.  Ideally, would be great to find an affordable place, with great quiet neighbors, in a great dynamic area, that is walkable to all the important places.  And then live in a house, and not have a car.  Is there such a place in the USA?  Probably not.  So I plan to move into a car, and maybe someday I find the perfect place for a house, and then I can sell the car.

 

[nature lover]

This is exactly the choice I made less than a year ago. I could not Afford both a van and an apartment or dwelling of any kind. So I made the choice to have wheels on my dwelling in hopes of seeing and doing a lot more than sitting around home. So far so good. I have been full-time since June 1. I am a little scared of no resources to fall back on other than friends. Somebody the other day mentioned how their back up was credit cards but I have no creditCards just debit cards. With my family situation going through the divorce I don’t have any credit. But I put back some cash every month and hope that I won’t have to use it until I have it. So far sleeping in the van has been comfortable. Of course I part-timed for many years and camped all of my life.

 

[bullfrog]

A lot of younger people buy a house as in investment since most jobs today offer not much in the way of early retirement and health care costs payment. Many have been able to work extremely hard for 15 to 30 years and make enough off the sale of the house/property to take up the nomadic lifestyle, but again this is dependent on the market and your ability to borrow and find the right property. I am seeing more and more houses built to be an Airbnb with two or three extra bedrooms with their own private entrance/parking and full bath in order for help making the payments and build equity. If you are willing to go this route you might be able to live in several of your own houses eventually but it still limits you.

 

[user 423]

And then live in a house, and not have a car.  Is there such a place in the USA? 

There were places like that but word got out and lots of people wanted to go there.

That's the thing about desirable places; they never stay that way.

 

[MrNoodly]

I had a house. I sold it to finance the first few years of my nomadic life. And to unload that burden from my life.

 

[GypsyJan]

I am in the house until I retire. Meanwhile, I use weekends, holidays and vacation time to take road trips and live in the car. At this point, I prefer the car...less work & much less complicated. Once I retire, I will sell the house and be a full-time nomad as long as my health allows. When I can no longer be a nomad, I will rent a small place in a small town.

NL:
Fret not re finances. Someone on this forum once said if you run out of money before the next SS chek, park yourself in a free campsite and live off your canned goods and pantry until the next check. There is no rule that says you have to keep moving every few days. So keep your pantry well stocked with non-perishables and have lots of water aboard. Then you can stay put whenever needed for a week or two. This saves on gas, too.

 

[mpruet]

A house. You can always buy a car later on, but the cost of a house will tend to increase over time. Also if you have a house, you can always turn it into a rental property if/when you decide to live out of a car.

 

[maki2]

In a small town it would be a house and an E-trike with a trailer and rain/shade cover. Of course the town needs to be large enough to have a decent grocery store, pharmacy and hardware store. If I needed a vehicle now and again to haul larger stuff in I could rent one much cheaper than owning one. If I wanted to go camping now and again I could also rent a vehicle to do that for less than the cost of owning one.

Of course if you live in a small town and are friendly with neighbors they will very likely let you borrow their pickup now and again if you need it. You set yourself up with a good support system and then be part of the system helping others.

 

[user 423]

A house vs. a car is apples-to-oranges costwise.

My income level pretty much limits me to the vehicle option.

 

[crofter]

For practical reasons you will also need a place to park whatever vehicle you are calling your "car." Some people own land parcels or even houses in order to have a parking spot for the "car" (usually a van) as an auxiliary dwelling unit. Other people pay rent in order to have a parking spot for the "car," to landlords, RV parks, the Forest Service, BLM LTVA's, other campgrounds, or even San Francisco parking meters. The rare dweller pays no rent and owns no land of any kind, and finds their parking spot for their "car" on areas of BLM land that have no fees, or stealth parking in cities and pays no parking fees or parking tickets.

The idea of living free is very sexy and intoxicating, but in practical real life, having a spot to park is essential to dwelling, however you manage to do that. Even though my rig is set up to stealth, I would say that more than half of my spots are pay and not free. My all time fave spot is free, but I do not go there that often. Last time I checked, the adjacent land was being sold at high prices for housing development, ie someone found my free spot and is selling it. I could still try to camp there as it is a sliver of hidden public land, but I will surely have snooty neighbors.
~crofter

 

[crofter]

I guess if one found the perfect place to be, and could afford it, and the place was walkable, then one could choose the house over a car...

You could get a house on wheels and keep the axles greased and the tires in shape for when the neighborhood goes down hill and you want to leave. Called a mobile home. You should not pay more than 7 or 8 thousand for a used one (this is what the dealers pay for the used ones). You will also have to pay a couple thousand for moving and setup. If you set up your used mobile home on your land, you could rent it out and live in your van out back as an auxiliary dwelling unit. More areas will allow this than will allow van dwelling on your own land.  ~crofter

Note: You can pay more than the above price, but that is the bottom dollar that dealers pay. You will want to gut it and refurbish it to your own standards anyway so why pay extra.

 

[crofter]

....Fret not re finances. Someone on this forum once said if you run out of money before the next SS chek, park yourself in a free campsite and live off your canned goods and pantry until the next check. There is no rule that says you have to keep moving every few days. So keep your pantry well stocked with non-perishables and have lots of water aboard. Then you can stay put whenever needed for a week or two. This saves on gas, too.

Thanks for this great advice. Also when you get to zero income, friends and family with a driveway can really help you out, and many will be glad of the company and having someone to help out with the heavy lifting.     ~crofter

 

[eDJ_]

If I were living in a City with public transportation (Bus Line) and had a regular job not far from my
exit point,  I might go with a house or apartment.   But the minimalist lifestyle would have me looking  for a very small house or cottage with 7 to 800 sq ft of floor space including a small porch.

I see more and more of these manufactured "Day Cabins" being delivered around where I live.  These are hollow shells and are built out like we build out Vans.  I wonder if a  well insulated one of these
could be all electric (so it would be on the grid) and connected to city water/sewer to make an abode.

[img=300x300]https://i.pinimg.com/600x315/86/6e/a4/866ea4cd3c4c68286a729a808f4fc474.jpg[/img]

As Van Dwelling grows now, this may be the next big thing for those wanting a summer home in the north and ride out the winter as a snow bird somewhere in the south. 

I had to take a back street to get to my home recently as one of these was being delivered on the street I usually come in on.  This is the third within 2000 ft of my home.  Where I live there isn't much
zoning.  I think divorced kids returning home and Grand Folks who can't take care of their home & grounds are resorting to moving back to stable conditions. But a lot of  "side yards" seem to be getting these now days.  It could be a lucrative business to build them out for those traveling building trades people.

 

[NctryBen]

I’m currently building a sticks and bricks place replacing an old hunting shack my grandfather and my dad built over 69 yrs ago. I plan to turn it over basically to my kids and hit the road only coming back to cook a little syrup and finish the place for them. As soon as I started the building process I fell into a number of health issues and it’s forcing me to get outta here at least in the winter. I’m building a truck camper and will be hitting the road soon and working on it as I go.
Even when I return in the spring to cook maple syrup I hope to continue living in the camper and keeping my life simple and free. I’ll be retiring from the fire department soon (even though I just got recertified as a first responder.) I’ll hopefully keep my mowing part of the maintenance job I’ve got for the township now. My vote is home on wheels!

 

[ckelly78z]

OK, so you have a car to sleep in, where will you be parking this car to be safe, and comfortable. Stealth camping is risky, and sometimes illegal, so paying a campground fee might be the answer. BLM land is hit/miss especially in these uptight times, but I guess you always have the option of moving easily. Will you be able to sit in a lawnchair, or cook outside while stealth camping ?

I choose my 10 acre farm, where I can get in my camper and travel if I want.

 

[RoamerRV428]

house over car if I could afford all it entails.
house living would trump living in a car any day to me.

now if we could expand on that, into say bigger motorhome or something LOL

but house first over car as long term living arrangements.