Sold the House with Everything In it - Yeah !

[Thunderchild]

Man you are living my dream. I am not a boat owner yet but I will be in a position in the next year or two to purchase my sailboat. Doing all my preliminary work now.

[In Training]

Don't let anyone bring you down. You should be sooo excited and happy to have the biggest hurdle gone. Congratulations -- see you out there in 3 or 4 years.

We have 9 rental houses and our personal house to sell before we are in your position, so I am turning the very darkest shade of green!

We are going to boat shows and spending our first week in St. Thomas, Blue water cruising lessons, this winter. Trying to get excited about the little steps, since the house hurdle is so large and will take so long.

Would love to see that smile when you leave the dock to go cruising, probably hurt your mouth it will be so big. Have lots and lots of fun.

[Charlie]

I admire someone who has the courage to sell everything and buy a boat. Frankly I don't have the balls. I like the idea of going cruising for 10 or 15 years and going around the world but I want to be able to come back to something. Now my plan has been in place for about 20 years now and I have a paid for boat, a house where we could break even if we rented it out and am five to seven years away from enough passive income to be able to live comfortably on a boat without working. But I like the idea of having a house to come back to. I would consider selling my current house and buying a smaller less expensive one but I would want something to come back to. Preferably with an ocean view.

I'd like to raise a toast: to those of you who sold it all and are leaving to those of you with brass balls!!!

[VirtualVagabond]

Originally Posted by cengel

Don't let anyone bring you down. You should be sooo excited and happy to have the biggest hurdle gone. Congratulations -- see you out there in 3 or 4 years.

We have 9 rental houses and our personal house to sell before we are in your position, so I am turning the very darkest shade of green!

We are going to boat shows and spending our first week in St. Thomas, Blue water cruising lessons, this winter. Trying to get excited about the little steps, since the house hurdle is so large and will take so long.

Would love to see that smile when you leave the dock to go cruising, probably hurt your mouth it will be so big. Have lots and lots of fun.

Welcome aboard CF.

Just curious... wouldn't it make sense to sell the house for capital to buy the boat, and keep the rentals for an income stream?
Tell me to butt out if I'm meddling, but your plans are so similar to mine I'm interested in your thoughts. (I've just managed to sell the house )

[Kindle]

Cengal- Welcome aboard and good luck with your plans. We will see you out there soon.

Don't worry, no one is bringing me down. I am comfortable with our decision. I also realize there are many versions of "the dream" and infinitely more ways to achieve it. Selling out is not needed or desired for many people. Everyone has a different criteria of want they want to accomplish, comfort factor needed to be able to enjoy it, and the resources to work with.

I grew up on a sail boat, my husband I lived aboard for years. Somewhere along the way, we got side tracked and started doing what was expected. We got degrees, careers, a house, 401Ks, and with that came a whole 2 weeks of vacation a year. Well, now we can say we did what we were supposed to do - and we are choosing to go back to what we always wanted to do!

Charlie, I don't feel like I have brass balls. I feel like I am listening to my inner whispers. But, I'll raise at toast with you anyway!! (clink) It sounds like you have a really solid plan yourself!

Virtual Vagabond- congrats on the sale!

[familycruisers]

Think I'll end up with enough to get ours and get it equipped for some funds that...anyway if that happens I want to rent this house (think I can rent it for twice what our payment is. What do you think of that one? Not to hijack, just same questions!
What's the benefits of selling as opposed to turning it over to a realitor?

[Kindle]

family cruisers- had we been able to rent the house for a profit we would have. Couldn't happen for us so we are celebrating the freedom. Having a home base/re-entry plan would be nice but it was not essential for us. You just got to figure out your comfort level. The rental headaches might really be worth the income/investment/home base. Best of luck! Maybe some more people here who have rental investments can give you some insights.

[Thunderchild]

Cengel,

I would keep the rentals and rent out your house. I am an investor also and I would use my rentals to keep the "cash flow" coming in. Great way to have cash on hand to really enjoy the sailing life.

[In Training]

Ok, don't know what your rental experience has been like, but we have had rentals since 1997. At first not bad, 8 out of 10 were good tenants, but now it seems 8 out of 10 are trash. Just no concept of how to take care of things.

Good plan to have rentals and in 20 years paid for, then income for retirement, but a lot of work in between. The part no one talks about:

Tenants stay 1 - 2 years (once in a while you get a really good one that stays 5 years, but rare). So approx every 18 months you have walls that need to be painted, holes to patch, appliances to clean, yard work you wouldn't believe as the dog they weren't supposed to have destroyed the back yard with holes to china -- broken faucets, toilet tanks or lids, shades all gone or destroyed, screens gone or destroyed, carpets to clean or replace, etc. People can be pigs when they don't own the house.

Better to have the house empty than to rent to a bad tenant, so it takes 4-6 weeks to get a half way decent one. They steal gas and then you have to get on the list to have the pipes pressure tested before they will turn it back on, etc. all the time the house is empty and you have to make the payments, taxes, insurance, etc. with no money coming in. That 7 or 8% that the company takes that is handling it for you well, normally that 7-8% is your maintenance money. Also, you have to pay for all this stuff to be done including mowing the grass if you are on your boat and not there to do it yourself, so you will be very lucky to break even. They represent a lot of people so your house might not come first.

Did I forget to mention than then when the house was empty those 6-8 weeks someone broke in and stole all the copper plumbing, even the copper on the hot water heater and put holes in the walls to see where the copper was? A sign of the times.

If this is your personal residence, well you know those nice kitchen cabinets you have -- not nice for long. You don't need the headaches and the worry when you are out on the water -- might as well stay home.
Also don't need to put $20,000 into the house when you come home to get it back in shape.

So that is our experience and why we are liquidating everything. Husband 60 and I am 61 so we figure if we are on the boat for 15 years we would not want to come back to a residence where we would need to do outside maintenance anyway, better at a condo or something like that when we are 80. Also have no idea of where we would want to be by then geographically.

Plan is to spend half of what we end up with for the boat in case when we are finished it doesn't sell right away we would still have sufficient funds to buy something on land. With both our social security plus investment income we should have sufficient funds to live and save each month for maintenance on the boat. Plan is to be at mooring ball or anchor all the time. Both of us grew up on lakes and have lived on river for past 30 years. Both dive, kayak, fish a lot. With this many properties, could take 3-6 years to liquidate so I am trying not to get ahead of myself.

Just want anyone who is planning to rent for income that (1) that income may not be there and you may have additional expense instead (2) the condition of the house will not be nearly as good as when you left (3) do you really want that on your mind when you are out there?

If those three things don't bother you, then keep the properties and sail. We have chosen to liquidate and have only the boat to maintain and spend money on.

[Thunderchild]

WOW!! Where do you live and where are your properties? I have only had one bad tenant after 5 years with 4 houses. I guess some do have bad instances but yours sound really bad!!

[In Training]

Well, realistically, we did have 23 rental properties and only have 9 left (downsizing for past 3 years). Of the 9 we just had two really bad ones (why I am so negative at the moment) so 7 good -- but it is the bad ones that stick in your mind. New tenants moving in next Friday to one and expect the other to be done a couple of weeks later.

The copper being ripped out was one of them (never had that before) and the other one they broke a pipe and never said a word -- basement with two feet of water -- surprise! Nice find when went to collect rent and house empty.

We even keep ESP service on all our rentals so the furnace, hot water heater and air conditioning is covered for maintenance -- they just call NIPSCO and they take care of everything.

If you can afford to liquidate and be ok at end of cruising -- just will be a nicer time for you if no headaches back home. Again, just our choice as we are sick of cleaning up after people when they move out. Don't want the phone calls and liabililty, etc.

Maybe if we were younger we would feel differently, but not rollling with the punches as well as used to. Just kind of sick of it.

[Charlie]

When I started out in real estate I had those problems and after working all day I would have to go fix whatever was wrong with the rentals. When I was young that was fine but it got to be a bother. I ended up partnering with other people and then doing a tax deferred exchange on my small properties for bigger ones. Included in the cost of doing business is the onsite maintenance and the onsite management and far less headaches. Besides even capitol gains taxes add up after awhile. It was a pain to get the partnerships started but I now work half time and get paid enough to live full time.