Sell house, buy boat or vice versa?

[massnspace]

Sell boat, buy house….

[CarlF]

A lot depends on how much work is needed on the boat you buy before you go cruising.

The miniumium time is about 3 months. A year is not uncommon. This is even true of a boat in great shape. You will still want new mattresses because the foam makes your back hurt, the fridge will be on it's last legs, etc. A lot of this stuff will take a month or two to arrive after being orderered.

It's not fun to live on a boat that is being worked on. Everything is torn up. Workers show up as you're eating breakfast. If you're on the hard, you have to climb down a ladder in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.

Renting a cheap condo/apartment a few miles inland is usually very cheap. If you still have a car that's great but it's also easy to buy a car and sell it for almost what you paid as you leave for cruising. The condo also gives you a place to pile all your possessions until you're ready to load them on the boat. And an address for Amazon to deliver to. Stuff delivered to a boatyard/marina sometimes gets lost.

[Dirk01]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

Perfect!... I think people make a huge mistake selling a house, then when cruising doesn't work out, it's a tough road later on in life.

Sorry, but nope. I don't think so. You sell a house, buy a boat, try it, fail, sell the boat and buy a house (or a condo, which in my opinion is the better solution than to be the servant of your own garden - I did it nearly 2/3 of my life) again.
I'm NOT a cruiser, but I'll start my dream in less than 40 months. However, I've about 20, 25 or maybe 30 kNM in my wake (stopped counting). Transferred yachts for a friend 1+ kNM each trip. Mostly about 2 or so kNM. Last trip nearly 4 kNM. BUT I might fail to be a cruiser. I don't mind. I'll just do it and will see what happens. There's always a bush (German saying for there's always a way.).
I'll sell my house and buy a boat. I don't have to care for a house 10 or 20 kNM away from it (although there's a caretaker - it's now only 200 miles away and I've to do with it once a month or so. Now. My first renter was brutal. One or two times a week was a silent week.)
To have a house some thousand miles away is like an iron ball forged to your foot. DON'T DO IT! Sell it and forget it.

Just my 2cts.
Cheers
Dirk

[Dockhead]

Don't sell the house if it has any inherent value.

If it's in a reasonably desirable neighborhood in a reasonably desirable city, rent it out.

This MIGHT be a good time to sell real estate -- we're about due for a down cycle. But you can never predict exactly when these cycles will occur. People confuse luck with genius. Therefore, the only sure-fire strategy with real estate -- that is, which doesn't require luck -- is buy inherently good property and keep it through several cycles.

The main thing with boats is DON'T confuse them with ASSETS. They are NOT assets; they are consumption. Unlike with houses, they are sure to depreciate, and absorb a lot of money on the way down. So selling a house to buy a boat can be the road to poverty, if you don't have other assets. Having or not having financial assets in our cruel society means all the difference between a secure and a not secure life. You're not in Denmark, Toto. Those assets don't need to be real estate necessarily, but real estate is the most straightforward for most people, and most easily leveragable.

[Lepke]

I'll never live in a house again.

[TrentePieds]

There is a HUGE lesson in financial management, for those who don't have to have EVERYTHING spelled out for them, in the simple fact that a house, and more particularly the land on which it sits, is called REAL estate.

A boat is but a chattel, just another bucket with a hole in the bottom. As a component of an estate, it ain't "real".

Some of us are willing to pay the cost of what flows outta that hole for the pleasures that CAN come from boat ownership. Expensive hobby, tho :-)!

Even first year accounting students are familiar with the concept of SEPARATION OF ENTITIES.

Keep your decisions and dispositions regarding ownership of real estate STRICTLY separate from decisions and dispositions regarding boat ownership.

Cheers!

TrentePieds

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Lepke

I'll never live in a house again.

Nothing wrong with that at all. Ocean view which you can change any time you want to. What's not to like?

But it still doesn't make the boat an asset.

Houses are of course not the only kind of asset worth having. The Germans for example mostly live in rented apartments, and invest their savings into funds. That also works perfectly well if you do it right (real estate is only any good either, if you do it right).

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

There is a HUGE lesson in financial management, for those who don't have to have EVERYTHING spelled out for them, in the simple fact that a house, and more particularly the land on which it sits, is called REAL estate.

A boat is but a chattel, just another bucket with a hole in the bottom. As a component of an estate, it ain't "real".

Some of us are willing to pay the cost of what flows outta that hole for the pleasures that CAN come from boat ownership. Expensive hobby, tho :-)!

Even first year accounting students are familiar with the concept of SEPARATION OF ENTITIES.

Keep your decisions and dispositions regarding ownership of real estate STRICTLY separate from decisions and dispositions regarding boat ownership.

Cheers!

TrentePieds

Good advice!!