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sha33er

Well we bought the Benimar yesterday. It had everything we wanted and things we didnt even know we wanted till we saw them.

Our big decision now is when to sell the house. We are aiming to leave early 2008. The plan was to be in Austria to watch England play in the Euros but that might be wishfull thinking at the moment. Do we put the house up for sale sooner rather than risk it later. We have family we can stay with but i realise this is not always an ideal situation.

What is everyone elses experience with this.

Also when we sell the house, pay off the rest of the mortgage and motorhome we will have about 80k. Never having had that much before we dont know what the best thing is to do with it. Bearing in mind I am 41 and my husband 38 it has to last a long time if we dont eventually find somewhere to settle and work.

advice please

houseboatdream

Hi Sha33er

Firstly congratulations on purchasing your first motorhome, don't worry about "buy in haste" as in your previous post if it ticks all the right boxes then why wait, you are losing camping time. As you will see from a post i made last week we went from a tent to a second hand van to a brand new van and a plan to go full timing in less than a year. Make sure you get out and use it as soon as you can.

It is so difficult to know when to put the house on market for sale. We are planning to be off full timing round europe in 2007, sometime between 1 September and 19 November is our start date. At the moment we just have the house advertised as a private sale on the internet. This has generated quite a few viewings, even two second viewings but nothing further. I don't feel in any particular rush although we do not actually have to sell and may rent the house out (having done this before). Plan is probably to put it with estate agents for start of new year, 2007.

Are your two remaining kids a constraint? We are "waiting" until daughter finishes last year of three years at college, which will be July 2007. Otherwise if you have no constraints why not sell up and go as soon as you can?

As for the money, I would put it in a high interest account and give yourselves twelve months touring before making any firm decisions about what you are going to do and where.

Keep us up dated with your progress, there are a few of us planning to full time from late 2007 onwards.

Liz

SandJ · Specs DB Admin

Hi Sha33er,
Well we have a lot of members going or gone full time, as it is the weekend a lot may be away. One thing I would say is get out in it as much as possible before you finaly decide. We have had a few that have found it to be the wrong Motorhome and have then changed.
The best bit of advice I could give is to pay the £10 to join and then you will have unlimited advice and guidance. Good luck on your travels.

Steve

slaphead

hi sha33er.we also have a benimar and intend to drive off into the sunset (algarve) in jan/feb. our house is on the market..if it does'nt sell by xmas we're going to let it out. i'm 55 in dec and my forces pension go's up so we are going to live on the spanish national monthly pay.
life is too short!!go 4 it! good luck...by the way ..if anyone wants to buy a 4 bed semi in devon.e-mail me... Cool

shortcircuit

Slaphead

spanish national monthly pay.

Kay?

Pusser

Congratulations of taking a big step. Personally, I would hang on to the house for as long as you can and if you do not need the 80k right at this time, rent the house out to provide income and also I expect the house price will rise too. Downside is of course you still have to pay the mortgage off each month but consider changing to an Interest only mortgage and see if you can hack that. That way you still own the property, still enjoy any appreciation, and a bolt hole if things go tits up.

If you do flog your house £80k left sounds a lot but it is very easy to trickle away even what appear to be large sums. Perhaps buy a mobile home somewhere handy so that you have a base to come back to and work if things do not go quite right or better still, buy a very cheap property in the heart of a town and leave it empty avoiding taxes or rent it out but it will propbably earn you money when you come to sell it.

No one knows the future but sometimes unbelievable things can happen so do not put all your eggs in one basket.

tramp

hi sha33er,
we have been fulltiming for nearly 3 years now Razz

and are of a similar age to yourselves and had a similar amount Crying or Very sad

we put the money in a high interest account [abbey] with instant access and good rate about £200 interest each month. the delema with the house is simple sell as you can`t take the plunge till you remove all safety nets and there will alwats be that what if Rolling Eyes

!!!. as long as you don't spend all the money you can always buy something all be not what you had before but then you would have changed as a person due to your experiences in the van. have a look at our web site and feel free to ask questions as we have internet access in the van via data card.

sha33er

Ohyou mean those two twentysomethings that share our home with very little financial contributions and nil cleaning and maintanence help.

Well my brother still lives with my mother and he is forty three so a little shove in the right direction now seems appropriate.

I think 200pounds a month seems a good return for doing nothing. I am sure there is still some places out there were that amount is considered a fortune and could happily survive. Wont make any decisions till we have been going a year though.

think we will put house up for sale in spring. seems like a good time. Might even try it without estate agents at first. any tips on that would be great.

I am going to have to be a member of site soon as i think i am running out of posts.

cheers

sharon and darren

Pusser