My lease is ending soon and I don’t know if I should renew it or bite the bullet and go ahead and get some land and an RV. Is RV living really better than apartment living? What are the pros and cons?
If you ignore the 75k upfront investment.
Hello, friend. I live in a 30′ bunkhouse travel trailer – there’s a bedroom in the back with 4 bunks (or, one single bed, a shelf full of snake terrariums, and a ton of storage), and a stateroom in the front. In the middle I’ve got a dinette. L-shaped kitchen, reclining sofa, wall mounted tv and electric fireplace.
I’m in my second year, although this is the first year on my own land, completely off-grid. Everything takes work, and preparation is everything. I could speak for days about what I had to do to have a winter with zero issues.
Would I go back? No friggin way. People look at tiny homes as a good idea and a real house, but will shit on RV dwellers…well I look at my trailer as a pre-fab tiny home. I don’t own a vehicle capable of Towing it, and it’s never had a plate on it. I live in the woods with the birds and the blueberries, my neighbours are deer, the rabbits are everywhere. I live in Paradise, just a creature in the forest like all the others ????
Unless you live in NYC, it’s not cheaper. It’s all hype
Also, houses appreciate in value. An RV will eventually fall apart and be worthless.
The issue is where you put it. Yes it can be cheaper but it will end up worthless in the end.
The problem with these units is finding a spot for them and people underestimate how much maintenance they take to keep water out of them. The components are also cheap and will need to be replaced more often than what you would in a house.
Lot rents are expensive. Often over looked and many parks charge for electricity at corporate rates.
Most areas won’t let you buy a lot and put one on it. Even if they do lot prep is expensive but most areas simple won’t allow you to do it.
Ownership sites can be an option in some states, but watch the HOA fees
The cost to own one of these things is a lot higher than people realize and the fact that it will eventually be worthless is very often overlooked. They have a ton of seals and sealant on the exterior that need to be babied or they leak, when they leak the pressed luan delaminates and creates a mess.
The upside of them are they are fairly easy to repair if you are handy. If you are not not then get used to paying people $180/hr + to come out and work on them.
If you do all your own work, have a place for them and are handy they can be a good deal. The vast majority of people that buy them can’t pick up a screwdriver, don’t have any idea where they are going to put it other than “oh there are RV parks around here” and have no clue how big of a money pit they are.
It’s definitely a lot of hype, but unpopular opinion….. It can also be true. It’s a matter of choices.
I bought a 25′ class c for 50k, financed. My monthly payment is $600. I spent around $8k replacing and upgrading the old crappy solar system, and now I boondock on public land.
The amount I save in rent will pay off my up front costs in like a year.
But that’s not why I do it. I don’t expect my life to be much cheaper now. I do it because I love it. Traveling the country, seeing indescribable sights, having invaluable experiences.
tl;dr if you buy a small cheap RV to boondock and make sacrifices it can save money. If you buy a massive RV and need to stay in campgrounds it will be incredibly expensive.
ETA: as others have said, maintenance and repairs are also a huge factor.
“RV living” is not about parking and being stationary – that’s “tiny house living.” Both are good, but they serve different purposes, and you need to decide what you want your life to be.
And the only people who think RV living is cheap are those who have never done it, but the reward payback comes in the adventures of the nomadic lifestyle.
Source: Is it really worth the hype?
