Write the Interest Off Your RV

I’m a “think out of the box” type of person; I finished college and didn’t enter the corporate world. Instead I chose a different path – first starting my own business with my husband, then moving into a field I absolutely love. However, that type of thinking has made certain things like buying a house a bit more difficult, especially living in an expensive city. So, my “thinking out of the box” mindset has lately been pondering the idea of obtaining my “dream home” through a different route:

• Buying Land —–> Living in an RV ——–> Building a House

Maybe that’s not so extreme, but it’s definitely a different path.

This past weekend, we went to look at a few RV’s at a show. From pop-up trailers to 36-foot fully contained double axle RV’s, we got an idea of what we think we could comfortably live in with two adults and three cats. We have more shopping to do since our tentative plan is a year away, but we did find out some interesting facts about RV’s:

1. If you live in your RV and have a building permit, your RV is considered a “second home” and therefore you can write off the interest on the payments like a house. This was an exciting fact.
2. Many RV’s, especially the very expensive ones, work similarly to a mortgage; you can take out a 20-year loan on them making the monthly payments very affordable.
3. It’s super hot inside many of the RV’s without the generator or motor running. We both decided that if we really did this, we’d have to start in the fall and finish building by late spring to avoid the heat of July and August!

Of course there are some kinks we have to work out first, like if our county will actually allow us to live in our RV while we build our house (and what kind of RV – 5th wheel or fully contained). We haven’t been able to get the official answer on this one, but a visit to our assessor’s office should answer this question. We also have to find affordable land we can build on. Most of the available land in our area is in the periphery of the valley located on hillsides and in mountains. I don’t want to spend too much money on land preparation, so finding some accessible land with a flat pad is a must.

If the answers to both of these questions work out in our favor, there’s a very good possibility of us living in an RV come late summer of next year. If not, we move to another option we’ve been discussing – buying rental property in a cheaper state.

This idea is probably the more extreme option we’ve been discussing lately, but it could also be a solution to how we can become property owners in a town where the average cost of a house is $375,000+.

What do you think? Is this crazy or logical?