I do a lot of mulling over, most of which never amounts to anything, but occasionally I'll plan to do something and then push ahead with it.
Lately I've been looking for a way to live in desert country, preferably Arizona, for some indeterminate amount of time every year, but I'm kind of stumped. I don't want to buy a condo because the HOA fees are pretty ridiculous. I could rent an apartment, which offers the advantage of ending the contract every year if I want, but somehow I just see me and the missus trying to go to sleep at night with some bozo next door playing his stereo loud until 2 in the morning (probably less of a problem if we were to rent an apartment in a 55+ community; on the other hand, maybe not). Airbnb might work, but a lot of places don't allow pets (I doubt that I could board Daisy for more than a week; she gets depressed when Mrs. Paco and I are gone for too long - interestingly, this is the opposite emotion of what most of my relatives feel). I could buy an RV, but I worry about the cost of maintenance, and if the thing breaks down in Texas somewhere, what the hell do we do? I should point out two things: (1) we would most likely be driving out west, and (2) we are not campers (I mean tent and sleeping bag campers).
One possible option is to buy a mobile home in an RV "resort" park. There are several RV parks in Arizona that have sections set aside for mobile homes, and several have used, and in some cases, new mobile homes for sale. The price of a mobile home is not astronomical, the annual space rental fees seem manageable in some of the places I've looked at, and the personal property taxes are not too bad. Not a tremendous amount of privacy (possibly not much different than an apartment), but the main purpose of the domicile would be just to have a place to sleep at night and to prepare most of our meals; the idea is we'd be spending a lot of time hiking and doing day trips to various parks and going to museums and such. Daisy, of course, would make the trip out west with us.
If anybody has any observations/opinions, feel free to jot them down in the comments. So, mobile home, apartment, or some other alternative? Or should I just stay put and quit daydreaming?
8 comments:
I live in Tempe.
Paid around $10k for my 1980something mobile home. It was remodeled at some point so it doesn't look like a trailer.
Rent, including electric, water, sewer, trash, is $7-800, depending on a/c use.
Lots of places will let you park an rv, rent's about the same I'd guess.
You'd have to have someone kill weeds in monsoon, August-October, but that's about it.
Prices might have gone up.
I don't know about other areas outside the Valley. Tempe is pricey but a good location for the east valley.
Of course, the trailers are mostly not new here, a park with new trailers is probably more expensive.
There's a pool and a club house with pool table. I've seen much nicer ones, with bigger club houses and party halls.
I should say, I looked on Craigslist but found this place with just a for sale in the window when I went to see another place.
My neighbor bought his from the park, he paid $30k and his mortgage is pretty high. He got boned.
There are 55+ places, but they sound uptight.
I will say I've learned to ignore screaming kids. I don't even hear it anymore. If they start getting killed by zombies I won't even notice.
If you're worried about breaking down I've read that a good choice is a fifth-wheel, the truck breaks down, it is separable from the residence and when the trailer is parked you have transportation for shopping and recreation, though not as good gas mileage as an economy car. You could get a spot at Veeshir's park to try it out and it's easy to relocate if you can't get used to the screaming kids.
Yeah, I kinda went through the same thing a few years ago. As I mature, my dislike for winter weather goes up. It would be nice if I could spend December to March in a warmer climate, so I looked at possible affordable (for me) ways to do that. After considering basically the same things you mentioned, I gave up and have pretty much resigned myself to living out my days here in S.Illinois. I keep hoping this Globull Warming they're always talking about will finally kick in, and the winters here will get more tolerable. Plus, living here on the edge of a cornfield, not surrounded by the screaming hordes, is way less stressful to someone like me.
Sorry, that's not much help.
Thanks, guys, good observations and advice all the way 'round.
RVs are nice for traveling if you want to avoid hotels and want to save money by making your own meals. We just spent the summer in our RV (which we have now sold), and there are pros and cons to it. For one thing, space is limited even in a big one (32 feet), and there's the inconvenience of having to dump the tanks every couple of days, and having to use the park laundry room, in which there are never enough machines for the population. They have truck engines, so don't break down often, but there's the fact of having to get used to driving a very, very long vehicle and finding a gas station that can take the length. They are also difficult to control in high winds, which you get a lot of out west. We saw the entire continental US in ours, but we have aged out of that kind of adventure now.
Some RV parks have nice little park model homes to rent, can't say how high the rent is. Some will even sell them, but the park model only, you still have to pay a ground lease. I expect it's just like living in a mobile home. But you will probably have amenities like dishwashers and washing machines. You'll most likely have to pay your own utilities.
The worst part about all of it is that RVs depreciate horribly and you will never get your money back unless you can sell directly. I don't know about the park models.
Also, RV parks (we stayed exclusively in KOAs, which are cheaper than actual RV resorts) have strictly enforced quiet hours.
Very helpful info, Rebecca, thanks!
Post a Comment