The real estate industry employs a small army of writers to make sure popular media is saturated with their side of the story.

We’ve previously covered that buying a home is one of the worst investments people routinely make and yet people still spout conventional wisdom that buying is better. Why?

I believe there are a couple reasons. First, all real estate is local and, here and there, there are good deals to be had, particularly if you have cash. Second, most people are poor for a reason and that reason is they don’t analyze investments and look to conventional investment wisdom as a guide. Unfortunately conventional wisdom is usually supplied by the real estate industry and this article is a perfect example.

The author is an economist for Trulia which is…prepare to be shocked…a real estate site. He proudly proclaims that buying a house is between 30 and 40 percent cheaper than renting. If the author didn’t call himself an “economist” I could write this off as another example of the self-serving chuff regularly ginned out by the mainstream investment media but looking at their numbers reveals some pretty glaring flaws.

“For owning, we assume a 20% down payment and 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 3.5% interest to calculate the monthly payment on a loan…”

20 percent of $150,000 is $30,000. If your rent was $700 a month, that $30,000 would pay your rent for 3 1/2 years!!! Let’s say your rent is $1,500 a month, even around here that will get you a pretty upscale apartment, that $30,000 down payment they’re waving away would pay your rent for 20 months, just short of two years. During that two years if something breaks, you call the super. If something breaks at your house, you pay for it.

For RVers that same $30,000 could buy a late model travel trailer or 5th wheel you could live in for 5 to 7 years with proper maintenance.

Later they recognize there is a $30,000 down payment and another $3,000 in closing costs but don’t clearly explain how that wipes away nearly two years of rent the down payment alone covers.

“…we assume annual renovation and maintenance costs of 1% of the home’s value…”

One percent is an incredibly optimistic maintenance figure, particularly on an older home. That’s $1,500 for the entire year, assuming you’re not paying for lawn service, watering your lawn, or buying a lawn mower. I looked at some of my parents maintenance bills, they had the floor repaired in one room of their house for $800, some roof work for $1,200 and other assorted bills that came to about another $400 and they live in a home that’s easy to maintain!

That same $1,500 will pay for maintenance on your RV for 1 to 1 1/2 years.

“This first step sets up a fair apples-to-apples comparison of renting versus buying the same unit in the same neighborhood.”

Rentals are generally smaller, 47 percent by their figures, so they’re bumping the calculated cost of the rentals up on a square footage basis. That makes renting look more expensive than it really is. Apartments are smaller because renters generally aren’t hauling as much stuff around with them.

Applying this same formula to RV living would really bump up the price because you’re trading 2,000+ square feet for around 450 square feet.

“For owning, as mentioned above, we assume a 20% down payment and price appreciation of 2.2% nationally.”

My only beef with that statement is the assumption of price appreciation. They’re assuming the value of your house will track, more or less, with inflation but there’s no guarantee of that. And there’s no mention of the possibility of another real estate market crash that we from 2005 to 2007. There are many buyers still underwater on homes they purchased in 2006.

When it comes to your RV you never have to worry about price appreciation because it’s never going to happen. Your RV is going to lose value every year until you sell it, period. You’re not hoping for an ROI on an RV so there are no unrealistic expectations. You can plot your depreciation curve out to infinity.

Housing works sometimes. We had a relative pass away and leave us this house. Not having a mortgage changes the math.

This is the kind of thing that really chaps my butt about the real estate industry and financial journalism in general. Nobody can afford to pay real reporters who do unbiased research so periodicals are increasingly dependent upon writing coming from people with something to sell you and the only way the real estate industry makes any money is if you buy a house.

So real estate agents, mortgage bankers, insurance companies and local governments all want you to to buy a house. It’s probably no surprise then that RV living as an alternative to conventional housing is little more than a voice crying in the wilderness.

This is a typical setup for RV living.

Little things mean a lot sometimes and you may not think that having enough ice is a luxury, but when half of your tiny amount of freezer space is taken up with ice trays, you might change your mind.

Over the years we discovered supplements to our mobile life that really helped out a lot.

Portable Ice Maker

Chuck your tiny ice trays and get yourself one of these self-contained ice makers. We ran distilled water in ours and it worked flawlessly for years. You don’t realize how much room ice trays take up in your little bit of freezer space until the only time you need them is when you’re on the road.

Heavy Duty Lawn Furniture

If you get lawn furniture and loungers made for big and tall men they’re wider, better made and will last longer. Most time you’re not transporting them long distances and the heavy duty models don’t take up any more space when you’re traveling. Living in an RV, you’ll be using your lawn furniture more so it pays to get the good stuff.

A Weber Q100

We used and destroyed nearly every cheap propane grill ever made. Finally I bit the bullet and got a Weber Q100 and our grill problems ended for good. Anything with the Weber name is going to cost more but sometimes it’s worth it and the Q100 is one of those times. It’s solid, heats quickly, cooks evenly and cools off fast for quick repacking. Ours is nearly four years old and it’s still easy to find replacement parts.

A Fold Down Couch

You know those stubby couches that come in most RVs? Take that stubby little monstrosity and push it right out the door. Move the recliners into that space and get a longer, fold-down couch to go in the space where the lounge chairs used to be. You may have to take it apart to get it in the door. If you want to stretch out and take a quick nap those stubby couches are too short for people of average height. If you need a second bed, those folding couches with an inflatable mattress take forever to set up and take down. With a fold down couch you just slide the couch out a little, release the catch and boom, instant decent size bed.

A Good Fan

If you’re counting on your Fantastic Fan for a breeze you’re going to be disappointed. These low profile floor fans move a lot of air and don’t take up a lot of space. When you can keep the air moving in your RV it will smell fresher and you’ll run the A/C less often. Not only that but when you’re in tight quarters with the neighbors, the white noise from a fan will cover a multitude of minor sounds from outside.

If you bought every one of those things you’d end up spending less than $800 (depending on the fold down couch you get) but will make your RV life a lot more comfortable. Little comforts mean a lot when you’re on the road.

We all make tradeoffs in support of our lifestyle but RV living has a number of factors to balance on top of the normal lifestyle choices. Your big decisions for a mobile lifestyle are going to fall into four general categories:

Space

A 40 foot coach with superslides is going to offer a fantastic amount of living space and so would a 45 foot custom Mobile Suites 5th wheel. The tradeoff for RV living is the bigger your RV, the more difficult it is to move from place to place. That 40 foot Class A RV is going to have a 300 – 450 hp diesel engine and get, conservatively, 8 miles on a $3.95 gallon of diesel fuel. Maintenance is going to cost more and there will be more of it.

In the RV lifestyle space is a premium luxury and one area you should give the most thought and planning before heading out on the road.

Power

I don’t mean electrical power, but that would be a factor for wilderness camping, this would be the power of the engine of your coach or tow vehicle. It’s important because the power of your tow vehicle dictates, to a large extent, the weight and size of your camper. When you start stepping up the ladder from 1/2 ton to 3/4 ton to 1 ton there are significant costs and, at each step up, the vehicles become more complex. Just generally complexity in RV living is not your friend.

The same math works for coach style RVs. The bigger they are, the bigger the engine the greater the expense to operate, but cost is not the only consideration. If you plan on towing a car or trailer you have to make sure your coach engine is adequate to drive the RV with the additional weight of the car. The terrain will also make a difference. Hauling a load up and down steep grades will tax any engine and more the more spare capacity available the better.

Budget

This is probably the area that gets the least amount of planning and yet ends up curbing travel time more than any other single factor. Most people do fine budgeting for living expenses but frequently under-budget for travel related costs. Travel includes more than fuel costs, which are not insignificant. You also have to budget for flat tires, repairs, tolls, and unless you want to be trapped in your RV…probably not why you adopted the RV lifestyle…you’ll want to budget for entertainment and exploration.

Travel is not cheap and there will always be unexpected expenses.

Convenience

Convenience is related in some ways to your budget, but only peripherally. The least expensive camping areas also tend to me the least accessible and have the fewest conveniences. In many wilderness area campsites there is no supplied electricity or water and there may only be a single septic connection for the entire campsite. In those situations you’ll have to haul your blackwater in a portable tank called a blue boy or pack up and drive to the dump station.

Don’t underestimate the lure of convenience. After being on the road for a while you’ll long for plug-in power, a water connection and a septic connection. My wife likes amenities like a pool and gym. After doing both wilderness camping and a lot of traveling my wife found that longer and longer stays at resort RV parks was more our cup of tea.

Once we settled into that lifestyle, RV living was a blast. We lived in tropical resorts and it was like being on vacation for months at time, even though I was working the whole time.

We also looked at the Itasca Navion IQ line, which I still maintain is too small to live in full time but sure is nice for traveling. One of the selling points for me with the Navion line is they’re built on the Mercedes Sprinter chassis, a vehicle normally used as a sturdy delivery truck. It turns out Itasca makes another RV on the Sprinter chassis called the Reyo.

Same Chassis, Different RV

While the chassis underneath is the same that’s where the similarities end. The Reyo is a compact little dual-slide Class A coming in at 25 feet, just a little longer than the Navion, but it seems bigger.

As with the Navion two people living fulltime in a Reyo is going to be cramped, but I could see traveling for months on end with little difficulty. The Reyo is made for traveling with a 3,600 watt whisper quiet LP generator that is one of my favorite features of the Airstream Class Bs.

The Reyo is offered in three floorplans that differ in the sleeping arrangements. The 25Q has a queen bed, another has dual twin beds and the third floorplan has a rear bathroom and fold out queen size bed in the living room.

My only ding on the Reyo is the ceiling height is a modest 6’5, which makes me involuntarily hunch over a little. Other than that it’s a roomier version of the Navion.

36 gallon gray/black tanks and it’ll hold 26 gallons of diesel, which means at today’s prices you’d be looking at roughly $75-$100 per driving day in fuel costs. You have enough towing capacity to dolly or flat tow a small car, but not a big one, and expect some sluggish response uphill considering you’re working with a 188 horsepower 3 liter engine.

Those are the kind of tradeoffs you make in the RV lifestyle. You can have a 40 foot coach and 450 hp diesel engine but you’re going to pay for it, both in terms of fuel costs and maintenance. There isn’t any work on a big diesel that doesn’t cost $800 – $1,000. An RV on a Sprinter chassis is going to get better mileage and carry more reasonable maintenance costs, but you’re going to feel it going uphill towing a car.

The more I’m around RVs the harder time I have warming up to maintenance on a 450 hp diesel.

One of the RV models that I’ve been really impressed with this year are the Navion and Navion IQ Class Bs built on a Mercedes Sprinter chassis by Itasca, a member of the Winnebago brand.

The 24 to 25 foot diesels come in various floorplans, most of which feature a rear bedroom and small living area attached to the kitchen. One floorplan, the 24M, has a larger bathroom in the rear and fold out bed in the living area. What sets the Navion line apart from most other Class Bs are the raised ceilings, providing a comfortable 6’8 of headroom, and two small slides to expand the living area and bedroom.

The IQs would be perfect to turn into a mobile office (my personal dream) or for traveling. With a thrifty Class B you can travel for little more than the cost of food and fuel. Any Cracker Barrel, Walmart or truck stop can be your overnight refuge and you still have the option to hook up at a campground if you need services. At just 7’6 wide you can park in any standard parking space.

Your Navion will carry anywhere from 35 to 37 gallons of freshwater, depending on the model, and 26 gallons of diesel. With blackwater capacities between 29 and 36 gallons you can go a surprisingly long time between septic dumps for an RV that size.

The only floor plan I don’t like is the one with the bathroom in the back, the 24M.

My only ding on the Navion line is that the 3,200 watt diesel generator is an optional extra. What’s the point of being able to park in a standard parking space if you still have to plug in for power?

I’d still maintain that a Class B is too small for full-timing, if I was going to try it would be in a Navion IQ 24G.

The real estate market out in California is hot right now. – Photo by Aaron Rosen

If you’re thinking about selling your house to launch your transition into fulltime RV living, now may be better than waiting until later.

The problem is the days of cheap money are coming to a close. The Federal Reserve is making worried noises and mortgage interest rates have already risen above 4 percent and could be on their way to 5 and 6 percent in the next couple years.

So there are two forces that may conspire to make your home harder to sell in the days ahead. One is rising interest rates and the other is rising home prices. Sure, it may feel good see the numbers on your house go up, but higher home costs combined with rising interest rates will quickly reduce the pool of eligible buyers in the days ahead.

Still a Shortage Of Inventory

We’re at an awkward point in the housing recovery. There are still many people who would love to sell but are still underwater on their home values. As home prices continue to recover, particularly in places like Florida, every jump in prices will lift some family waiting to sell over the threshold where they can finally put their house on the market. Waiting for the top of the market could see greater inventory, fewer buyers and higher interest rates.

Right now as many as 44 percent of homeowners still find themselves in a negative equity situation (see my post on housing costs). Why wait for those people, some of whom have been waiting to make a move for over five years, to put their homes up for sale?

RV Inventory Healthy

Like the housing market, the RV business is finally recovering as well. When credit dried up after the market crash of 2007, it hit the RV industry hard. Factories closed, workers lost their jobs, dealerships went out of business. In the years that followed less competitive manufacturers consolidated with stronger competitors. Now there are fewer manufacturers but they are stronger and more efficient. The RV models coming out now are amazing and the fit and finish reflect improvements in the assembly process.

Inventories are up, prices are good and money is available for those with good credit. The timing is good if you’re thinking about launching out on a life on the road.

Some parks feature live entertainment on the weekends.

One of the common criticisms My House Has Wheels gets is that I don’t devote enough of the book to RV full timers who want to travel a lot. There’s a reason for that. Or that I don’t spend enough time on free and low-cost camping options like boondocking, dry camping and parking lot surfing. There’s a reason for that, too.

First off I would argue I spend plenty of time on RV traveling in the book which, if you have the money to cover your fuel bill, really isn’t all that hard. All you have to do is figure out where you’re going and the stops along the way to get there; the rest is gas money and wheel time. The scenery outside the RV door changes, but your inside routine stays pretty much the same.

A hog roast was one of many activities at one RV park.

The reason I spend more time on the realities of living in RV parks is, based on our experience and three years of interviews with other full timers, we discovered that the vast majority of people who live in their RVs do not travel as much as you’d think. Everyone starts off traveling a lot; the first year or two you’re rarely in the same place twice. After you’ve seen the country and got some of those miles under your belt, traveling becomes less attractive and you start spending longer and longer times in the parks you like.

The typical travel pattern that comes out interviews is RVers will loop the country once or twice, then settle into a small number of RV parks, usually just two or three. Boondocking is the same story. There are very few people who make their RV career on BLM land. Regular trips to the septic dump or hauling a blue boy, filling your freshwater tank and constant power management wear on you over time. One day you roll into that RV park with water, sewer, cable and internet and think, “Man, this is nice!”

Parties. Lots of parties.

That is the way of it for the large majority of RV fulltimers. Then the day dawns that you find that one RV park like Many Mansions or The Great Outdoors and pretty soon you’re building a set of steps to your 5th wheel. Maybe in the future you get the bug to travel again. All little brush up maintenance and you’re on the road again, or maybe not.

You may be sitting there thinking that you’ll never lose the itch to travel and there are a hearty minority of people who never do. But as you’re contemplating life on the road, ask yourself one question: When you live in a resort, where do you go on vacation?

When you live here, where do you go on vacation?

This type of destination camper is much like a travel trailer but not made for camping.

If your RV research is limited to RV shows and dealerships in your area, you might be missing out on a fulltime option that is kind of a compromise between a mobile home and an RV called a “park model’. There are different names applied to this style of trailer, which are sometimes called “oil field housing” or “destination campers”.

Park models actually encompass several designs of RVs that are licensed the same as a regular camper trailer but range in a continuum from models nearly indistinguishable from travel trailers to models that look like a house or cabin with features like a sliding front door, shingle roof, porch and siding.

Park models are generally not built for camping and need to be hooked up to a power box, water and a solid pipe to the septic receptacle for any of the systems to function. They have an electric hot water heater, like a house, and regular home-size refrigerator. Park models will usually not have a leveling system, storage tanks, and not all have a 12 volt power system. Even at that many models still share some features in common with travel trailers, like extension slides and frequently use the same type of HVAC systems.

If you’re not going to be traveling in your RV, park models make a lot of sense. They’re bigger inside, usually have better insulation and energy efficiency and are built like a regular house.

Another big advantage to park models is you don’t have to maintain a tow vehicle. Most people with park models pay a delivery service to transport them to the park and set it up for them. You don’t simply drop off a destination trailer and level it, most of them they’re mounted on jacks or blocks and fitted with a solid PVC pipe connection to the sewer outlet.

Some RV parks start looking more like trailer parks.

Park models lend a sense of permanence to an RV park and when there are too many it starts to look like a trailer park. When that happens the transient campers start to complain that the place doesn’t look like an RV park. For that reason some parks don’t allow park models with a shingle roof and set limits on stays.

A park model might be for you if:

You Come Back To The Same Park Every Season

At many parks you can pay a small monthly fee and just leave your destination trailer on its spot during the off season or have it moved over to the storage lot.

You Live In a Permanent RV Park

There are RV parks that sell spaces, like The Great Outdoors in Titusville, FL. You’ll find many people fulltiming in park models there.

You Don’t Want To Maintain a Tow Vehicle

A tow vehicle is a big expense. What we spent on one trip to the service center would have paid someone to move our camper over 700 miles, much farther than you’d usually be moving it. When you add in insurance and fuel you pay a lot of trailer movers.

You Stay In One Place 6-8 Months At a Time

A destination camper with three slides. This person leaves his camper onsite year round.

If you stay in one place for long periods of time, one of the reasons park models are also called oil field housing, a park model is going to be a lot more comfortable and a lot more like home. You have many of the advantages of a home and still maintain some degree of portability.

Not many RV dealers carry park models, one of the reasons it really pays to do a lot of research before you head out for your life on the road.

Kitchen islands are a slab of unusable space in your kitchen.

Last time I went over manufacturers fixation with stubby couches butted up against a booth style table, set off by dual padded lounge chairs. The lounge chairs are okay because you can move them, but most of the time a second couch would be better for fulltimers.

RV makers and dealers might want to take a page from furniture stores and start offering upgrades on furniture packages and different arrangements. Even the cheapest furniture we’ve found in stores is better than the furniture in most RVs and campers. There has to be a better way.

But I’m on to a new gripe today, this one is common to coach style RVs. One of my peeves is the master bath in the back. In coach after coach the difference between a 35 foot coach and a 40 is a master bathroom in the back. If you’re going to drive an RV that’s five feet longer and take on the maintenance of a 450 HP diesel engine, you should get more than a bathroom for all that trouble.

If you’re going to get a longer coach, get more than a bathroom.

I really like the half bath off the kitchen in big coaches. It’s handy for company and when you’re on the road. And the space does get tight in a 35 foot coach and I’d give it up before taking on a 40 foot coach.

Another thing that irks me is kitchen islands that nailed to the floor. That cramps the kitchen and parks a slab of unusable space right in the middle of the kitchen. Sure you get a little storage, but there’s plenty of storage in an RV and you don’t need to sacrifice your kitchen space to get it.

Good job, Heartland. A kitchen island you can roll out of the way.

Imagine my surprise stepping into a Heartland model with a kitchen island on lockable rollers. Now that’s a good move. You can either leave it in the kitchen and move it around or take it out completely, what most of you will end up doing.

For full time RV living, you need open spaces. If that means sacrificing counter space to get it, that’s a good trade. 300-400 square feet doesn’t sound like much but, if it’s arranged right, it’s more than enough.

At least you can move the inevitable dual lounge chairs.

After living in an RV for nearly four years and covering RV shows so often I’m getting to know the staff at the dealerships, I’m convinced that most of the people who design RVs live in houses.


The reason I suggest that RV designers are home dwellers is because I see the same floor plan designs year after year. Certainly RV manufacturers listen to their market and they certainly listen to the sales figures, but what’s obvious is they don’t eat their own dog food, so to speak.

If RV designers lived in RVs, you would never see this:

And yet that’s an arrangement familiar to an RVer; a short couch tucked up against a both style dining table. And it drives me bonkers.

First off living in an RV your kitchen table doubles as a desk when you’re not eating on it. Actually, the only time I’ve seen most RVers use a dining table is when they have company. So that space where the booth is needs to be flexible. Padded seats are fine but the modular kind you can move around are way more useful. My ideal dining/desk arrangement would be a comfortable swivel chair with a fold out adjustable table for two with two single chairs for company. It shouldn’t be that hard to find a design that works that can still be anchored down safely for travel.

Sandy is depressed about the stubby couch and booth-style table. Don’t make Sandy depressed. What’s too bad is this is otherwise a great design. See how light and bright the interior is otherwise.

With a modular table there’s more room for a longer couch. I just don’t get those stubby little couches. The kind that fold flat are way more useful than the kind that pull out and the inflatable mattress couches are plain useless. Couches in RVs need to be long enough for normal people to stretch out and take a nap. If your feet hang out over the end that’s fine, so get rid of the armrests.

I hated our stubby couch so much I threatened to take a circular saw and cut the armrests off.  My wife talked me out of the idea, but I really hated that crappy, stubby couch.  Come on you guys, even Ikea has better designs.

So, you home dwelling RV designers, two words from a road warrior “open space”. Got it? Stop trying to break up RV interiors. Open space, modular furniture, flexible arrangements. Everybody got that? Okay, because is I see another dining table anchored to the floor at the end of a stubby couch I’m gonna hurl and, trust me, that’s not a pretty sight.