Sell house, buy boat or vice versa?

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by bjn68

Where can you buy "a ridiculously cheap waterfront house with jetty in remote unknown location"??? This was my plan but every where I looked, any property, even a broken shed, near the water has a HUGE price tag!

Agreed. It's not a where but a when. 1962 or something.

[massnspace]

Buy house….

[fxykty]

We’re in the sell the house and buy the boat camp, but we had two houses to start with.

We used the sale of one house to pay cash for our boat and provide money for the works list. We lived in the other house for the first four years of boat ownership, kept working to pay off all debts and to build a kitty, and sailed as much as possible including twice several months at a time for ocean passages and tropical cruising. This time allowed us to really get to know our boat and to prioritise our upgrade works (and, as she is an older boat, repairs and replacements). We were fortunate to already be living in an area where we could berth our boat nearby.

When we finally moved aboard we sold our house and more importantly all of our stuff - all that’s left in a relative’s house is a box with photo albums, originals of vital statistic documents, and some heirloom jewellery. The proceeds from the house sale went into a managed fund that can pay us income - so far we haven’t had to touch it (just as well, given the post-Covid and European war market meltdown).

For the OP, if you are planning to work while living and cruising on your boat then you can put everything from your house sale into the boat. But if you don’t want to work then what will provide income and occasional capital expenses?

Many people will tell you that you’re crazy to sell off all property and move onto a boat. Ignore them! Though there is some validity to that as you should have a plan on what to do when (if) you want to return to land life in the place you left.

As Ann and others have said, do as much as you can to ‘try before you buy’ the live aboard lifestyle.

[wyb2]

Originally Posted by bjn68

Where can you buy "a ridiculously cheap waterfront house with jetty in remote unknown location"??? This was my plan but every where I looked, any property, even a broken shed, near the water has a HUGE price tag!

Originally Posted by Chotu

Agreed. It's not a where but a when. 1962 or something.

Well, both. Grith, who made the original suggestion, has their location as Australia. The OP was asking about the eastern US.

Australia has 8% the population of the US packed into only [checks Wikipedia]… 75% of as much land. Something tells me that is not irrelevant when it comes to property values. On one hand, the Outback. On the other hand, it is literally an island, so kinda hard to beat for potential waterfront property.

In the states, where everything (including the general culture) was built when there were 100 million fewer people, I think affordable waterfront property falls into two categories:

1. Nine months of winter (Alaska, northern Maine, Michigan’s UP) or
2. Industrial wastland.

[bjn68]

Agree with you, WYB2! I am currently in Texas, waterfront property is either in an industrial zone or in a mosquitoes infested zone... anything livable, how small it can be, is too expensive for any regular joe!

[TheKraken]

Wow, thank you, everyone, for taking the time to respond...I REALLY appreciate it!

[SV__Grace]

Wise advice from Cate and I echo everything she said (except SF Bay is terrible for cruisers or finding a liveaboard spot) and as a couple who has sold our Silicon Valley home to cruise full time and live on the hook in the PNW I would add two things-

1. A boat is a bad investment while a house is typically a good one. Ideally you would hold onto your house unless it has enough equity to sell very profitably and safely invest the proceeds so your money works for you while you lose money on your boat. Speaking of losing money, expect to spend 20-50% of the purchase price to repair, upgrade and update your boat to be a long term liveaboard/cruiser. Few can simply buy a boat and cast off without doing so. Again- great lifestyle, bad investment.

2. You are NOT clear about what you mean by "living aboard." If your desire is to live on your boat in a marina, good luck finding one to do so. Investigate that before making any decisions.

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Here are some things you don't know yet:

1) whether or not either of you is prone to seasickness [if a history of carsickness, yes]

2) how the two of you will work together when things go wrong at sea

3) how the two of you will deal with separation from friends and family

Those things are things you can find out by doing, not just dreaming about, but going out and sailing, intentionally when it's "bad weather" and learning about yourselves and learning your routines for reefing in a hurry, tidying up the lines, etc. Then you learn about how different kinds of weather and sailing situations affect the two of you. Your good lady wife needs to know everything necessary to get the boat safely to shore if something bad happens to you, for both your safety; and you also need her to know all that so that you are comfortable to sleep when she is on watch. For these reasons, it is best that she learn separately from you, so different courses taught by different instructors can be a really good deal because you can compare what you learned and work out what works better for you.

In your shoes, I think you should sell the home, but buy another (or a city condo that could be rented out while you cruise to avoid the "wormhole") move to somewhere there is good sailing and you share values, perhaps WA State? or the SF Bay area [good reliable winds, good sea access] Live, work, and get a 27-30 ft. boat and sail in all weathers while you have a hot shower and good take out food to come home to. After you see how it goes, see if you still want to "go cruising"; it really isn't for everyone. And you haven't risked the [perceived] security of retirement.

After 20 yrs. of being retired, sailing, and cruising, you may want a change, and a home to go to or exchange for retiring elsewhere. (like if you want to go back to CO)

What you think you want to do is a total lifestyle change, very much outside the norm, and many people will advise you against it. There will be unintended consequences. That's how life is: by choosing A, you automatically un-choose B-Z.

Good luck with it.

Ann, long term cruiser

[more]

Originally Posted by TheKraken

Hello all,

My wife and I are trying to relocate to a boat by 2025. Without getting too mired in the financial details, I just want to know from those who have "sold everything" and moved to the liveaboard life...did you sell your house and use the cash to buy a boat, or did you leverage your house to secure a boat loan, sell the house then pay off the boat loan?

My wife is of the mind that we sell the house and rent a place on the USA east coast (we live in Colorado right now) and shop for a boat (we are well within budget to do so) while I had suggested the latter (get the boat loan etc.). What have you done and what do you think is the better path? Either way there is an outlay of cash (rent into a wormhole for a place we don't have any equity in, down payment and interest if we get a boat loan instead while trying to sell the house) as my inexperienced eyes see it, but I just wanted to pick your brains.

Thanks ahead of time!

Aaron

dont do this if is possible rent your house.
puting for example 500 000$ in house and 500000$ in boat after 10 years house price is 1 mil $ and rent income 0,2 +- mil$ for boat have exspense min 100000$ and resale value 0,25 mil$ max
PS.
yacht market is crashing. simply is veryyy hard for sale any yacht,also with yacht under market price.no customer
Bavaria yacht for example from annualy 3600 yacht builid drop under 400 yacht.
when sombody try order bavaria C57 dealer say no free slots,this is big lies. shipyard close my marina is simply closed ,and fancy designer,architect now design kitchen for ikea. and similar customer. i talk with shipyard worker in caffe bar, all people lose jobs.and now working on closure work,and recive paycheck from yacht owner and similar.

[X Fernandez]

Just a couple of things to consider:

Financing means the boat will most likely need to be no more than 20 years old - depending on your plans that might limit you.

Financing will also likely require you to make certain repairs before closing. This also adds constraints.

Financing also means insurance is required on day one. More constraints, maybe repairs required or location of boat.

I would guess that you should view as many as 20 boats before actually buying. Each time you see a boat you learn more, more about the process and more about what you really want in a boat. Seeing that many boats will require travel. Maybe more easily done from an East Coast location.

Either of your plans is completely doable, it’s just a question of which constraints bother you and which don’t.

[Jandm5132]

For what it's worth, we bought boat and really learned to handle her over a 2 yr span (while still working). Then sold house and got rid of almost everything. We were liveaboards for 10yrs, and never had tenet issues, maintenance problems, etc of a house. We used house proceeds to pay off most of boat loan. It was lovely for us to not have that headache of an anchor on land. But for part time cruisers, having a "land home" works well. Just keep in mind that finding slip space, or even a haul put yard where you can safely leave your boat for months can be difficult to fine at times and pretty expensive too.

[Kinkircating]

We are currently having a semi-custom catamaran built and are just keeping the house until it’s completed. We are fortunate enough to be able to have a paid for home and then just pay cash for our build, but definitely going to downsize once it’s done.

Our intent at this time is to have a small condo as a home base somewhere that can do two things. First act as a placeholder for our return to dry land after what we hope is a decade of more of cruising the world. I do worry a tad about inflation and having sticker shock when we come back so having something small but reasonably nice will soften that landing. Second we plan to have it not so nice that we wouldn’t want to rent it out, so although we don’t need it to earn money we would like it to pay for its ongoing maintenance & operating expenses. We will pay cash for this place as well.

I’m planning on the boat being worth nothing when we are done with it, anything extra will just be a bonus. All of us are depreciating assets just like these boats, so make sure you don’t let finances stand in the way too much of making a lot of incredible memories (hopefully more good than bad!…but they all make for great stories). I’m a big fan of the concepts in the book “Die with Zero”, and although we won’t achieve spending it all, owning a boat certainly helps in that regard lol.

[Shrew]

Selling an appreciating asset to 'invest' it in a depreciating asset is moving in the wrong direction.

Now........selling the appreciating asset and investing the principal, then buying a boat is a better option.

Alternatively, sell the house, and invest in one or more rental properties. Then taking the rent as income to pay for the boat might be a better option. You keep the appreciating asset and generate positive cash flow. Once the cash flow has paid for the boat, the recurring income persists.

[mickand]

Sell the house, furniture, cars - don't put anything in storage and buy a reasonable RV to cross to the East Coast. Stay and use that to boat shop, then sell it when you find one.
RV living will give you a taste of what it's like to liveaboard and if you don't like it, use the RV to travel and find another house.

[MVDarlin]

Keep the house, rent it. Sell it after a few years if you find the boating life suits you. Try cruising the Sea of Cortez in Mexico. You can get a decent used sailboat there for $50k. Excellent cruising. Plan on putting the boat on the hard from June to Sept.

[lo2jones]

I sold the house, bought a house with enough money left to buy an Amel 41 in good condition. Selling the farm to buy a boat never sounded good to me. After cruising, I’ll be able to move into the house full time.