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Old 16-02-2016, 14:03   #61
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Re: Newbies ask the Old Salts : did you "Sell everything" OR "Keep a home Base" ?

@Ann #60

Not sure if you meant #60 specifically in reply to me, but, yes, you are obviously right in what you say. I believe I've covered OUR bases as best I can given OUR circumstances - and personal circumstances are obviously the key :-)

Item: I expect that in three years - four at the most - I will be "legally blind". It doesn't worry me. My friends are already kidding me that I "park (the car) by ear". I'm fairly confident I'll still be able to find my way around a thirty-footer. Even on deck :-)

Item: I had no intention of running away to sea again, but MyBeloved got insistent, as I have related elsewhere. We are both remarkably fit for our ages, but of course there is always the risk of deteriorating health and of accident. "Beastly Medical" (B.C. Medical Plan) is as good as the vaunted medical services of my native Scandihoovia, and since we don't intend to "go forrin", mebbe except for an occasional turn around the SanJuans, "off-shore" medical insurance doesn't even come into it.

Item: The condo is, physically, in "professional" care, via Strata Council and Management Agent, and will therefore not be left to suffer the way vacant properties usually do. The "condo fees" (contribution to the building's operating expenses and upkeep) are slight enuff that her Brittannic Majesty in Right of Canada is pleased enuff to pay them for me. So "whether it (our cruising) be long or short" , to use Lizzy's immortal words, we will have a base to return to and to slide into as if it were an old, comfortable pair of slippers.

Item: If we choose, which I doubt that we will, the condo can be rented out for income. The oversight of the property, and such delicate questions as tenant selection and discipline would then be handled by the rental agent. But as I said: I made damnsure that I'm Prexy of Strata Council - at least for now :-) Something others, who may be contemplating similar arrangements, should never forget is that while in these politically correct times we speak of "principal and agent", the old term is "master and "servant". I should think that in the US, as here and in other places where English legal tradition runs, the law operates in full recognition of the older term :-) But obviously it behooves the individual citizen to KNOW what local law has to say about such things before he predicates his financial well-being on dispositions local law may not support or on dispositions that may remove effective control from his own hands.

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Old 16-02-2016, 14:53   #62
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Re: Newbies ask the Old Salts : did you "Sell everything" OR "Keep a home Base" ?

We just sold our house and what a relief! It was in the USVI, and our original idea was to use it as a vacation rental. But that was too much to keep up with while cruising. However, I know lots of people who rent to their kids, or keep the house empty while they are cruising. Some sell their houses to afford the boat and cruising lifestyle. It's a very personal decision. For me it was liberating to get rid of all the stuff.


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Old 16-02-2016, 15:52   #63
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Re: Newbies ask the Old Salts : did you "Sell everything" OR "Keep a home Base" ?

There are a number of great blogs that go over the whole home ownership from a financial standpoint...a couple of good reads are:

Why your house is a terrible investment

Renters For Life - Go Curry Cracker!Go Curry Cracker!

Now take these with a grain of salt, of course there are emotional attachments to a home or a particular piece of property that can factor in, but from a $ standpoint, unless you are independently wealthy it makes zero sense to keep a permanent place.

Personally I'm selling my home in the upcoming months for what the market will bring. Its a beautiful waterfront home with sunset views to die for, and although for me it is not about the dollars, it is about the freedom of having no headaches once you leave. Plus I'm thinking it will be nice to have a few new sunset locations to soak in. Everybody has a different circumstances, but like a previous poster put if you have a back up plan you are sort of giving yourself an excuse to fail. I am letting go of the rope and seeing where the journey takes me.
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Old 16-02-2016, 16:14   #64
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Re: Newbies ask the Old Salts : did you "Sell everything" OR "Keep a home Base" ?

Ok, here's a scenario. Buy boat, sell everything else including house. Move on to boat. Suffer health crisis that prevents you from living on the boat, maybe even for just a few months. Do you have somewhere you can stay?

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Old 16-02-2016, 17:54   #65
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Re: Newbies ask the Old Salts : did you "Sell everything" OR "Keep a home Base" ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by hamburking View Post
SELL.

So long as you have a house ready and waiting, you are not really "living" on the boat...it is a shoreline tied fast. Time to cut the cord, leap from the nest, and don't look back. You don't need that magnet drawing you back.

The cost of owning a home you are not living in must be huge...property taxes, utility bills, all that capital sitting there. Even if you rent it out, there is property management, insurance, leases, tenants and headaches...your mind will always be thinking about the property.

For what the property costs to sit empty, you could stay in a 5 star hotel whenever you need a break from the boat. Many hotels give a nice monthly rate.

The only reason I can think of to keep the property, would be if you are so wealthy that the cost is not important. In which case, sell the property, you can always buy another.

Think about your obituary...will it say "had a nice home to come back to" or "sailed the world and never looked back"?

Life is about living, not what you own.
To each his own, but living on the boat gets old, it's nice to go back to the house. Our boat is a second home.
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Old 16-02-2016, 20:47   #66
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Re: Newbies ask the Old Salts : did you "Sell everything" OR "Keep a home Base" ?

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To each his own, but living on the boat gets old, it's nice to go back to the house. Our boat is a second home.
It's good of you to have prefaced this with, "To each his own" because I don't think that living on a boat does get old for many. We sometimes take a "land cruise", rent a string of AirBnB spots at some pleasant places. It can be fun, but we're always relieved to get back home on the boat. We sleep better in our own bed. We are adapted to our boat. Your boat as your "second home" may get old, but a boat as your only home for all your adult can be an irreplaceable refuge that's good to get back to.

There's something else that troubles me about a house. Don't people continue making payments for houses even after the mortgage is paid off? I hear of (in the USA) my friends with houses paying a few thousand every year in property taxes. I have a friend with a Florida waterfront house that pays more in property tax each year than the cost of a year's marina dockage plus my insurance and total utilities charges. Now, I don't stay at marinas full time, but if I did, it would cost me about 6K/year for a nice place in Florida. I pay less than $200/year for my boat registration (Tax).

I must say that I'm not living on a boat for the purpose of saving money, but it seems to me that it's a perk that comes with the choice. I paid off my third boat loan twenty years ago and I like the fact that we can live comfortably on less than half of our retirement income. I don't think I could do that in a house.
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Old 16-02-2016, 22:38   #67
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Re: Newbies ask the Old Salts : did you "Sell everything" OR "Keep a home Base" ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by GafferMate View Post
... Robert Pirsig, (Zen and the Art of Motorcycles) wrote a wonderful essay for Esquire in the 70's, called "Cruising Blues'.

http://moq.org/forum/Pirsig/cruisingblues.html

There ya go!



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Old 16-02-2016, 22:46   #68
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Re: Newbies ask the Old Salts : did you "Sell everything" OR "Keep a home Base" ?

@ Trentepieds #61,

Sorry about your vision. I myself have been legally blind in my right eye (without correction) since I was around 30. I have incipient cataracts, light diffusion really bothers me. I know how much I regret my visiual difficulties.

I know well, I may be incompetent to deal with land based life by the time and if it becomes my lot.

But we all do, if we are lucky, as our hearts lead. I'm staying here while I can.

I think you've done very well with your planning, and I hope it works out well for you, you've earned it!

As to the OP, well, we all have what we have, and we have to work out for ourselves what we can live with. Good luck with it, you guys.

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Old 17-02-2016, 04:55   #69
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Re: Newbies ask the Old Salts : did you "Sell everything" OR "Keep a home Base" ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by timbenner View Post
To each his own, but living on the boat gets old, it's nice to go back to the house. Our boat is a second home.
A second home is a luxury few of us can afford. If cost were not an issue, I would have many homes. Its interesting that the boat is the second home, not the first.

I thought the original question assumed the boat as the first home, and asked if the second home (land house) should be retained.
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Old 17-02-2016, 12:11   #70
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Re: Newbies ask the Old Salts : did you "Sell everything" OR "Keep a home Base" ?

Place the house with a competent property manager “if” it will turn a profit or pay for it’s own keep being a rental. If it’s a burden..dump it.
In time..if not now, it will turn in to passive income to assist with cruising. At some time down the line you may decide to sell, realizing more profit as home prices tend to increase over the long term.
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Old 17-02-2016, 13:27   #71
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Re: Newbies ask the Old Salts : did you "Sell everything" OR "Keep a home Base" ?

Another solution...give the home to your kids. Let them live there or deal with the headaches of property management.

This way it still stays in the family.
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Old 17-02-2016, 14:36   #72
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Re: Newbies ask the Old Salts : did you "Sell everything" OR "Keep a home Base" ?

@Ann:

Remember when LizzyBelle had a lively debate with a chap who wanted to buy a seagoing condo on what sounded like the minimum wage in Italy, and you were laffing at me cos I suggested we should all sing Bandiera Rossa ;-)?

Well - The reason my planning has come together nicely is that I came here, north of 49, all those many years ago. That was really only an "accidental" choice. Lady Luck had a great deal to do with it. I've known the world-class Metropolis of Vancouver since it was a pokey little village in the rainforest. A particular little duplex on Vancouver's West Side - sweet little thing - I was offered in 1957 for $6,500 is now listed as a "teardown" for $1.8M. I have to laff tho. There was no way I coulda found the sixhunnert'n'fifty buck down payment in 1957.

But the reason that a proletarian like me can afford to be a yottie - in a modest kinda way - is that Vancouver's property prices have gone ballistic. 26% increase in the average listing price in the last year, I hear! Compare that to Detroit or Flint!

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Old 18-02-2016, 05:09   #73
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Re: Newbies ask the Old Salts : did you "Sell everything" OR "Keep a home Base" ?

I'm selling everything when I go, currently in the real planning stages, biggest choice is east or west coast.
I'm not worried about selling, even if I came back after a year I have no interest in living where I am now. Only family is on the east coast, really loved the time I spent on the west coast, I'm leaning west.
The town I'm in now has nothing left to offer me, started and ran a business here, closing it down on my own terms, made a lot of money buying properties before the "boom", almost doubled my money on each flip, bought the last for 93.5, put about 10 into it sold it for 195 3 days after I made the last payment on it. Bought the one I'm in for cash, will make a little when I sell in a year or so
I will be home base free after that, will be moving right onto a boat somewhere.
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Old 20-02-2016, 13:15   #74
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Re: Newbies ask the Old Salts : did you "Sell everything" OR "Keep a home Base" ?

We tried the renter thing...didnt work out. We are in the process of selling now. We may keep some acreage in timber as an investment but then again we may sell it also. We never plan to move back to the area our house is so why keep it. The land has negligible tax so we may keep it for investment or for an asset to sell in an emergency. As far as keeping a house, I don't recommend it. We tried to keep our house up while we lived in an apartment in New Orleans and the house suffered from being empty plus we felt torn between two homes. Since we have moved on the boat I have not really missed our house nor land hardly at all. Occasionally missed my barn and tools. I also feel that the whole safety net thing makes untying the lines more dificult. If we ever get to the point where we can't or dont want to sail anymore then we will worry about that then.
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Old 20-02-2016, 15:42   #75
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Re: Newbies ask the Old Salts : did you "Sell everything" OR "Keep a home Base" ?

There is no right or wrong. If this is your first foray offshore, I would hold onto things. A lot of people don't like it or tire of it fast. Just trying to be realistic. Real estate can change value fast. My guess is up here it has doubled in value just since the recession. No need to make "ultimate" commitments yet.
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