Hello - House may be selling quicker than I thought

[FreeToBe]

Hello Everyone,

I've been lurking on this site for quite some time now and have been dreaming of escaping the rat race (58 year old guy living and working in the frozen Northeast).  I recently put my house on the market thinking that it might take many months if not years to sell, but I'm getting an offer today (one week after listing it).  So, if this sale goes through (we still have to negotiate, have the inspection, etc), I could be free soon to pursue a different way of life and have to start making a lot of decisions about the future.

I've been really wanting to downsize (my house is way too big for me) and travel.  My thought right now is to purchase a Ford Transit High Roof Extended body and build it out myself (I have tons of tools and somewhat experienced in building projects), but I'm worried that even that may be too big.

Anyway, I wanted to introduce myself and thank everyone for the tons of information on this site.  I'll post more here when I find out what's going on.

Thanks!!!

 

[ArtW]

Welcome!

 

[OutdoorFT]

Welcome! You can try a Kia Soul and work your way up until you find a right size vehicle

 

[Zizzer_Zazzer_Zuz]

May your problem become my problem (selling house quickly) realtor comes tomorrow to take pics and list the house!

WOOT!

 

[FreeToBe]

Welcome! You can try a Kia Soul and work your way up until you find a right size vehicle

I have a Toyota Highlander now and it has crossed my mind to just live in it for a few months.  I don't know how much fun it would be, but it would be doable.  If that's still too big, then I'll look at that Kia   :shy:

 

[FreeToBe]

May your problem become my problem (selling house quickly) realtor comes tomorrow to take pics and list the house!

WOOT!

Well, this is the third time I've tried to sell it over the 22 years that I've been in it.  After the last time, I realized that I was going to have to spend gobs of time and money to get it up to snuff.  It's still not perfect, but it's showing better than it has in the past.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed until it's all done, but need to start thinking about the future.

Good luck with yours!!!

 

[rvpopeye]

Welcome to the posting side of the forum !
Good Luck with the quick sale and we'll be waiting for all your questions that need answering.

 

[DesertDweller]

Congratulations! Ours sold in just 2 1/2 weeks, then my dear David told them we could be OUT in just 20 days. THAT part was a nightmare, but we managed it. We've been looking at those Ford Transits for our business, and we really like them. Still looking into them. Good luck in whatever you choose, there's a big, wide world waiting for you 

 

[DuneElliot]

I feel ya. Our house was on the market for only two weeks and we got an offer. Working through negotiations right now. It's gonna be tight. They want to close on July 17th...less than a week after I get back from five weeks in England. It certainly doesn't really give me enough time to do everything (only have two weeks from the lay off at work until I am on either a backpacking trip or in England). So feeling a little stressed.

I guess it's better to sell it quickly than have it just sit there for months or years.

 

[FreeToBe]

Welcome to the posting side of the forum !
Good Luck with the quick sale and we'll be waiting for all your questions that need answering.

Thanks!  I do have a million questions, but luckily these forums and Bob's videos (as well as other video creators) have been extremely helpful.  The biggest questions in my mind now is how big or small to go with a rig and what it will be like from an emotionally standpoint to go fulltime.  I do think I could easily live in a Ford Transit (or similar vehicle) physically, but it's hard to get in my mind what is the right size and if I'll go bonkers if I'm stuck inside for days on end.  I did have a small Class C in the past, and that would have been plenty big (but I only used it for weekends and short vacations).

 

[abnorm]

Congratulations  Freetobe on the sale...............I'm waiting on a purchase contract at the moment.......my neighbor's going to flip my 100 yr old house in Orlando

I also chose the High roof extended length Transit.......It's right-sized for me as my last home.......Boondocking in the SW and traveling

I've got my build-out started in the garage........waiting to purchase my ride after the sale

Good Luck on your plans...............doug

 

[FreeToBe]

I feel ya. Our house was on the market for only two weeks and we got an offer. Working through negotiations right now. It's gonna be tight. They want to close on July 17th...less than a week after I get back from five weeks in England. It certainly doesn't really give me enough time to do everything (only have two weeks from the lay off at work until I am on either a backpacking trip or in England). So feeling a little stressed.

I guess it's better to sell it quickly than have it just sit there for months or years.

DuneElliot and DesertDweller - I think we're all in a similar boat.  I've been working so hard on getting the house ready for sale and mentally preparing for it to sit for months on end without selling, that it didn't really cross my mind that things could start moving really quickly.  The folks that are making the offer have already sold their home, so I'm guessing they'll want to move in relatively quickly.  If that's the case, then the stress is only just starting (and I thought the stress was just getting the house ready).

I might change my mind any day now, but the way I feel right now is that I may never want another house!

 

[FreeToBe]

Congratulations  Freetobe on the sale...............I'm waiting on a purchase contract at the moment.......my neighbor's going to flip my 100 yr old house in Orlando

I also chose the High roof extended length Transit.......It's right-sized for me as my last home.......Boondocking in the SW and traveling

I've got my build-out started in the garage........waiting to purchase my ride after the sale

Good Luck on your plans...............doug

Hi Doug - that is really encouraging to hear that you have the High Roof Extended Transit and like it.  I'm thinking along the same lines.  I'll probably be doing some easily accessible boondocking in the SW and camping at State and National Parks.  Depending on when everything happens, I may head up to Maine for a few months and then start working my way down to Arizona for the winter (or I might run out of time and just head straight down there in the Fall).  Have to see the timeline for everything.

That's a good idea about starting the build in the garage before buying the Transit - that hadn't even crossed my mind.  I could get started as well (already have a good idea of the layout that I'm looking at) - I would also like to hold off buying the Transit until the house sale

 

[CautionToTheWind]

Best of luck! One step at a time...

 

[Zizzer_Zazzer_Zuz]

The biggest questions in my mind now is how big or small to go with a rig  ...

I went bigger than most; I bought a school bus. $4000 for a 2006 Ford Diesel with 118,000 miles.

I've got 14 feet behind the driver, it's 7 1/2 feet wide, and 6"1' of head room. Being able to stand and do some basic exercises if cooped up was an absolute requirement for me. I can take three good steps and can do some basic yoga on the floor.

 

[DesertDweller]

Think about the kind of lifestyle you have, and make your decision based on that. No one vehicle fits every person. Some need more space, some need less. Some people are more active travelers, and some are not.  

We went with a class A motorhome, but also use an 18 foot Ford van to travel to a lot of events. The RV is the "mother ship" and our "office", since we'll be spending 8 or 9 months out of the year here in Arizona, then travelling constantly for three or more months to work our events. 

We've been drooling over that Ford Transit though, with the high top! We can load a lot of stuff in it, and load a few sleeping bags into it as well.

 

[FreeToBe]

Think about the kind of lifestyle you have, and make your decision based on that. No one vehicle fits every person. Some need more space, some need less. Some people are more active travelers, and some are not.  

We went with a class A motorhome, but also use an 18 foot Ford van to travel to a lot of events. The RV is the "mother ship" and our "office", since we'll be spending 8 or 9 months out of the year here in Arizona, then travelling constantly for three or more months to work our events. 

We've been drooling over that Ford Transit though, with the high top! We can load a lot of stuff in it, and load a few sleeping bags into it as well.

Thanks Zizzer, DesertDweller, and CautionToTheWind,

All good advice.  I do plan to travel more and see quite a bit.  My first thought was to get a fifth wheel and truck, but the more I looked at it, the less appealing it became, mainly because it was going to get terrible gas mileage when towing (and only slightly better when not).  I look at my life now, and even though I live in a large house, I use only a tiny portion of it.  I don't have any pets and probably won't have any when retired (although haven't ruled that out yet), so that's not a concern currently.  I don't have any grand kids that will be staying with me either, but would like to travel to visit family that are spread out around the country.

So, basically, I want to be as mobile as possible, but have a certain degree of comfort.  Some of my criteria are an easy to drive vehicle, being able to stand up inside, one nice place to sit (passenger seat on swivel would be perfect), comfortable single bed, toilet (composting or porta potty is fine), small area to cook (just basic stuff, nothing fancy), a little desk area, and a little bit of storage for my hobbies (mainly photography, guitar, and board games).  The high top transit seems like it would be perfect for that, as long as I don't go too far off the beaten path.

Thanks for everyone's thoughts!

 

[rvpopeye]

I'm on the southern coast of Maine.

 

[rvwandering]

Welcome to the CRVL forums FreeToBe! With your traveling plans the smallest van or RV that you'll be comfortable in sounds like the best choice - definitely not a fifth wheel! Try visiting a RV dealer and checking out all of the different types of RVs. A class B will give you a good idea of the living space in a built out van. Good luck with your house sale and the search for a new home!

To help you learn the ins and outs of these forums, this "Tips & Tricks" post lists some helpful information to get you started. We look forward to hearing more from you.

 

[DesertDweller]

Some of the smaller class C's are also very nice. All the comforts of home, fridge, flushable toilet and a shower to boot. I actually veered towards one at first, but we have that "space need issue". I'll have to say, I'm glad though, that I relented and we got the class A, love the fact that it's like a "mini condo on wheels" for our long term stays, yet we have the versatility to go anywhere in our van. 

One thing I figured out about having that house, and all that "stuff" in it, is that we only used a portion of it to actually live in (like you), and I found that we were merely paying all that money to STORE all that crap, LOL!  Gee, and we could have been out exploring outdoor places and dining in nicer restaurants. Go figure!