Frankly, I'm overwhelmed by the huge variety of information/fora available on this topic and would simply appreciate some recommendations from others familiar with the topic. I included an overkill of details below for those interested :)
I'm not new to medium term RV dwelling. From ages birth to 17 I spent at least three months every year living in a 28 ft travel trailer with my parents and sister (well, dad was only there on weekends), parked for the entire time at a lake two states from our "real" house (camp host parent), and I did some car/tent dwelling for months at a time in my early 20s when I was single. We have a major life change coming up and within two years our life will likely require lots of mobility for at least half the year if all goes even remotely close to plan. And to be honest, we are in our late thirties/early forties, rarely break $30-35K a year, and really don't want to jump back into home ownership once our current house sells. It's been like a chain holding us to a single location, and we aren't really the type to put down deep roots.
STATS
It will be us and our 14 yo son (who is 100% on board with the idea). 0-
We have shed most of our belongings, and we tend toward minimalism anyway. Currently, we were planning to move with the smallest Uhaul truck available. If we do the RV thing, we wouldn't even need that, since most of the stuff being moved is furniture.
We have lived in small spaces (although not this small). We were in a 400 square foot townhome for many, many moons with two kids.
No debt once the house sells. About 12K in savings currently. Expecting there to be more once we sell (bought when the market bottomed out here in in 2009, market is hot right now. Hot as in the last two houses on our block that sold in April did so above asking price and before they were officially listed).
Spouses job is 100% mobile and self contained in that it only needs her computer. Job loss on her end is not a serious concern, as her client base is both international and well diversified. I'm a student on grants and scholarships. After tuition, fees, and estimated book costs are taken from my awards, I will be bringing in $11-14k a year for the next two years (as long as I maintain my GPA). Yes, this overage goes to me to cover living expenses.
We'd likely park dwell for 8-9 months of the year for the first two years, at least. I have contacted a few recommended parks in the area to get an idea of the RV restrictions (size, type, age, etc) as well as costs. I was very, very impressed with the low cost and the fact that most utilities, including Wifi, are included at many of the parks. Long term stays do need to be in a deeded park due to RV dwelling restrictions in the county.
We'd likely buy used on the dry side of the state, simply because prices are lower this side of the Cascade crest and I have a gut feeling that moisture and mold issues might be less around here.
We will not be rushing into this. I have a couple of months here to research, then we have a long term stay arrangement for up to 2 months when we get to the west side so we can do on the ground research.
