Land home, yes or no?

[Boatsie]

Mr Alan Smith, you remind me of a brilliant friend.
I scored a 24 foot lightweight and I'm looking at rigging.
27 years ago there was discussion regarding bracing strouds and lowering the mast step. I believe this will be done prior rigging.
Yes. It places tubes across walkways but it secures the main bit. Eg me. Finally a grab handle next to galley, just gotta duck when needing to open forehatch.. Sail store access. And it tensions rig..
Then leads another choice. $300 to get a secondhand skiff rig.. Larger length, high halyard kite and no back stay. Or use original mast.

I just want to get on plane faster because..
Girlfriend gets seasick and I think if we go out, get on plane, smooth the ride and enjoy the gain.

I'd get a better chance of where I'd like to be.
I'd love to get into an ocean and brace. Draw c on sea, time a barometer and plane a v many hundred mile.
Or.. Keep a seaworthy trailer sailer..

Sharpie reads like real beauty.. Wishing you the best weather too.
If I remove guard rails and race 1 season would I get uphill plane flat with 3 on trap?RL24.
Chatting with rigger soon. No stay? Love wow.

[Bill Streever]

Sold the home, but set the money aside in a conservative investment fund for an eventual purchase of a land-home in the indefinite future. Three years into fulltime cruising, we (wife and I) are not yet even remotely eager to have another landhome. (Glad to be rid of maintenance, earthquake damage, property managers, property taxes, etc., etc., etc.). Someone described houses as an appreciating asset: I can't resist pointing out that this is not always true, especially after correcting for costs (taxes, maintenance, etc.) and inflation.

[AJ-SeaChange]

We became empty nesters, wanted to adventure again before we got physically too old.



Sold everything in Australia, learned to sail in Gibraltar, bought a Jeanneau SO 45.1 in Spain, we have just spent our first winter in Kas, Turkey and we'll be setting sail for another Med season in a weeks time.


There's no going back, we love living and working on our floating home.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

If you have gone cruising*, did you sell your land home? Did your boat become your only home?

Sold it 38 years ago (the house), wanted to live aboard. It's working out fine.

[ATHughes]

We sold our cars and rented our townhouse for 2-years, then renewed for 2-years while we circumnavigated. It has worked out well, and provided extra cash flow for those boating expenses, expenses, expenses...

We are now selling the townhouse, buying in FL, and will be sailing the Mediterranean for 5-seasons. So far, so good!

[Dsanduril]

I didn't answer the poll because we've done it both ways

Fifteen years ago we got rid of pretty much everything. Then we went back to the land life for while and bought a house. This time we've been gone three years. We (and the bank) still own that house and have it rented out. Doesn't really do more than pay for itself, but as Ken says we're at least hoping it is an appreciating asset.

[theDangerz]

Yes!
Emphatically, yes!!

When we first quit the jobs and ran away (not to sail at that point, but to move into a van and travel full time) everyone said to “sell the house- it’s just how this is done”, they said.

Didn’t feel right to us to sell, and we already looked at it as more of an investment than a “home” anyway.
Looking back... I’m SO VERY glad we did!!

We only had enough savings for what we assumed would be a year or two on the road, and I’m sure selling the house would have meant a bigger window/more security.... but at any point in between if we had decided to go back we would have been priced out of the market (way out!), and over the last 7years it has gone from us having to pay a few hundred a month to the mortgage to breaking even and now to it paying us!!

In between we returned home a few times to do improvements, to convert the garage into a bit of a “home base” for us so we can return at any point if we ever want to (while still having someone else pay the mortgage)... and now rent out both while we travel.

There is no right answer for everyone here... but for us, if we had sold the house we would have been back at home and working to afford the mortgage years ago, as where now the house is essentially paying us to travel!
It’s what we like to refer to as our “creative land use plan”

[Tang]

No we decided to keep our home as its an appreciating asset. Maybe if we decided to live and sail the Mediterranean we may reconsider.

[SV MAKAI]

Kept the land home. It's now a rental. I have had good results renting it. I can live off the rental income alone. I had to move back on land for a while last year (Kidney Transplant 3 months ago) I'm moving back to the boat by the end of next month.

SV Ma Kai
San Diego

[Mike OReilly]

Looks like the “keep the land home” option is starting to creep ahead now. This is what I expected to find.

Keep the votes coming .

[ArmyDaveNY]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Looks like the “keep the land home” option is starting to creep ahead now. This is what I expected to find.

Keep the votes coming .

As theDangerz pointed out, there is no right answer for everyone. It seems the replies, as opposed to the votes, suggest that the majority who keep their home are renting it. This makes a lot of sense as opposed to just keeping it vacant. A primary home is not a good investment whereas rental property is often a decent investment.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by ArmyDaveNY

As theDangerz pointed out, there is no right answer for everyone. It seems the replies, as opposed to the votes, suggest that the majority who keep their home are renting it. This makes a lot of sense as opposed to just keeping it vacant. A primary home is not a good investment whereas rental property is often a decent investment.

Agreed. I think I’ve used that ’no right answer for everyone’ many times here on CF

Yes, it does seem that most people who keep a land home do rent it out. Sounds like a good plan for semi-passive income. And it keeps the home available if/when a return to land-life happens.

Of course, others have pointed out there are downsides of this approach. As you say, there’s no one right answer for everyone. Every choice comes with pros and cons.

BTW, in case there’s any confusion, I wasn’t trying to discover the “right answer” with this poll. I just wondered what people actually do. Clearly both options can work.

[Apollo366]

At age 35 I sold everything & started cruising,did the So. Pacific and back to Hawaii cause ran out of $$. Moved back to CA and sold boat, started land life again.

Now I'm 75 and back to cruising. Kept my house and have a friend living there till I get at least to Aus or farther this time, no $$ probs this time!

When I'm done with this cruise it will probably be the last one as slip rental in So. Cal. is very, very expensive and really no where to go other than the Channel Islands which I did when they were unspoiled in 1978.

[Group9]

We’ve done it both ways. The first cruise we took, we did selll the house and everything in it. Getting started again from zero wasn’t much fun. We decided we were keeping the house the next cruise. We rented it out and it was a wash expense wise, and nice to come home to at the end of the cruise. Next time, I don’t think we are even going to bother to rent it out.

[RickG]

The short answer is yes.

We sold our house, moved to an apartment while we shopped for our liveaboard, sold the rest of our stuff, and now live aboard full time. I am 56 and still work in Washington, DC, but work remote half of the time. We are in Marathon, FL this winter and will be in the VI next winter. We will haulout July-October in Puerto Rico and will get a short-term rental in DC during that time.

Cheers, RickG