What should we live in when we come home?

[shzm93]

Hi everyone!

I'm new to MMM and looking for a bit of advice. My husband and I own a duplex in a western U.S. state that we've currently got all rented out. We are on a year-long, round-the-world trip and won't be returning back home for awhile. Prior to leaving the U.S. we lived in half of this duplex and only rented out the other half. From a financial standpoint I'm wondering what the best living arrangement might be for us once we come home. The options I can think of include:

1) Moving back into "our" half of the duplex, which would mean sacrificing roughly $600 of rental income,
2) Continuing to rent out the duplex, but rent an apartment from someone else (in our area that would probably cost us at least $500),
3) Live out of an RV (I secretly love the idea of this arrangement, but I'm not sure if it'd actually save us money), or
4) Live with family. This wouldn't be free since I'd insist on paying them something. This arrangement doesn't appeal to me (we are young and will likely start trying for a baby once we're done traveling), but I'd be willing to do it temporarily to save money, assuming our family wasn't opposed.

What would you do? As a side note, we are in the process of obtaining another rental property. As much as I'd love to live in it, I'm trying to remember that it's an investment meant for someone else to call home right now. Any thoughts are welcome! Thanks in advance.

[grantmeaname]

Welcome! I would never move back in with family because it's not worth the nonfinancial costs to me, but we've discussed the issue at length, including here and here. As for RVing, tons of folks around here do it to save money including Bakari and ERE's Jacob, one of the founding fathers of the ER movement. You should look if anyone blogs about living out of an RV in the city you'll return to and get a sense for what it would cost, but it's definitely a feasible option.

[storx]

I would recommend that you rent an RV when you get back for a week or so from one of the national chains to see if its something you would like, i bought our 2 year old 5th wheel towable 31.5ft long RV for $10,000 used and there was many on the market at the time around that price, we just went with the cleanest one with the upgrades we wanted.. If you dont plan to drive or boondock a lot, then i highly recommend against getting one with an engine, they are an extra cost that is not worth the hassle, plus it increases the cost of the RV typically 2 to 3x the price of an 5th version of the same exact model. Ours had 4 slideouts which allowed us to have an king size bed in ours. If you dont plan to move very much i would recommend buying a RV plot over renting from a park.. near the end of ownership of my 5th RV after 7 years of living in it.. we bought an RV lot w/ 40ft cement slab and an private utilities building on the end of the slab, the building had a bathroom w/full size shower, washer/dryer and a small storage area to put bikes and our lawnmower... we picked up the lot for $29k and later sold it for $35k after selling the RV... when we owned the lot my total expenses between water, electric, and taxes on the low annually came out to less than $250 bucks a month

[robartsd]

I'd definately second the suggestion to get a trailer rather than a motorhome if your're going the RV route - much easier to deal with engine maintanece when it doesn't have a small house attached.