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Full-time RV travels in the United States and Canada
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Rocky Road to Full Time When we decided to go full-time, we thought the logical thing to do was to put the house up for sale and go ahead with disposing of our contents. We had the yard sales and they were quite successful. We found a home with relatives for all the family heirlooms. That was one of the hardest things to part with. We have visiting rights to the heirlooms 8}. A friend and her husband came along and bought nearly all of our furniture. After they left we had very little large stuff left to dispose of. We should not have sold the furniture. When people came in to look at the house, it was hard for them to visualize what furniture in the house would go where. If our table and chairs, couch and chair, coffee and end tables etc. were still there, I believe we would have sold the house sooner and for a better price. We still had the fridge and stove but that was about it. We listed the house For Sale in July of 2003. The furniture was all gone by August of 2003 and the house didn't sell. We had lots of lookers but only a few low offers. The economy wasn't great in our area that fall. We had been living in the motorhome in our driveway. I think people that looked at the house thought we were nuts to be living in the RV when a perfectly good house was right there and empty. They must have wondered what was wrong with the house, because we weren't living in it. We knew that nothing was wrong with the house, but people buying a stick house don't realize RVers passion to be on the road, in their RV. We moved back into the house, in the fall of 2003. We used our camping table and lawn chairs and an air mattress on a water bed frame, that we hadn't disposed of yet. It was a very long, long winter. We had planned on being in Florida, and here we were still stuck in the snow. Spring finally came and we moved back to the RV. We were happy to be back into a regular bed and were optimistic that the house would sell before summer. We waited and watched as people came and went, from the comfort of our coach. Our Real Estate Agents gave us very little feedback. We wanted to know if we need to put in new rugs or what. We wanted it sold! They said no new rugs, let the new owner put them in. We were getting very frustrated, but they kept saying do nothing, it will sell. In July we received an offer and turned it back. They were looking at another place also and did not make another offer. They put an offer in on the other place and it looked like that was going to be the end of them. Doug and I discussed our options and decided that our desire to spend our winters where it was warm outweighed our desire to hold out for a higher price. We contacted the Realtor and asked him to contact their agent to find out if they were still interested. They were and we came to a figure we could both live with. After all this, they wanted a quick closing. That is one thing we could do right. We were completely moved within a day. We were on our way Aug 7th, 2004. If we had it to do over again, we would still go full time, we would just wait to sell the furniture and a few accessories until the sold sign was on the house first. If you are in doubt ask your realtor which way the houses sell fastest in your area, before making the same mistake we did.
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