20 year plan, good or bad idea?

[corzy]

Ok guys, so i have this idea and was wondering if anyone has ever done it, or know someone who has...looking for some sugestions/advise
me and my wife love florida, i love boating...so i've got this idea of buying a house boat (just due to size/cost) and finding a marina that would take one (not sure if they frown at big square ugly boats or not) docking it there and leaving it as our cottage basically.
now ive done a real quick search for boats in florida, found a fixer upper 50 foot houseboat for 27 G...im pretty handy, so dont mind doing some work, this particular boat looks to be in ok order to live in now, just upgrades/small repairs, not sure if the engines run, but there small anyways and i have a bit of 2 stroke experience so not overly concerned about the engines (since it would be docked and not driven)
i also found a few marinas that have big enought wells for it for $500 a month (but not sure if they care that its a house boat or not)
but since we would only be down there for the most 6 months (well into retirement...many years away ) i was also wondering if boats this size could be pulled and stored out of the water when we wern't there for less than the 500/month....
and since this boat in particular is (in my mind) super cheap, i wouldn't be devistated if i a huricane blew it into the gulf (certainly wouldn't be happy but i know thats a risk when your down there)
well anyone with anything to add or suggest or tell me im a fool is much welcome
thanks
corzy

 

[jkust]

Re: 20 year plan, good or bad ide?

Re: 20 year plan, good or bad ide?

You'd enjoy Amsterdam. You only live once and if you have a desire to live on a houseboat I say go for it. I'm cramped in under 5500 square feet, at least a half acre, multiple car garage and room to expand. You are certainly at a different point but I'd love to hear how it works out.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: 20 year plan, good or bad ide?

Re: 20 year plan, good or bad ide?

I'm sure they can be hauled and stored "on the hard" for cheap; it's not something that would be economical to do frequently. While it's up you can work on it and clean and paint the bottom.

 

[corzy]

Re: 20 year plan, good or bad ide?

Re: 20 year plan, good or bad ide?

ya thats what im hoping for. but also hard to do stuff on a boat 2000 miles away when all we would want to do is relax and vaca haha
not sure if amsterdam is our cup of tea, not big pot heads hahaha...but good for you and your 5500 square, we live in a solid 800 square and love every inch... : )

 

[JEBar]

Re: 20 year plan, good or bad ide?

Re: 20 year plan, good or bad ide?

I believe that for a good bit less than $500 a month you could find a place on land to store your houseboat while it would not be in use .... it seems to me that it would be better for the boat to do so instead of having it sit in salt water for 12 months a year .... for many years one of our dream trips was to go to somewhere in Minnesota near the upper part of the Mississippi, buy a house boat, take it all the way down to New Orleans, around Florida and up the east coast using the Inland Waterway, hit the St Lawrence and get as far west as possible .... then sell the house boat .... its a trip we will never make but it sure has been fun talking about

Jim

 

[emoney]

Re: 20 year plan, good or bad ide?

Re: 20 year plan, good or bad ide?

There's tons of options for "Snowbird Living" down here and a houseboat is one of them. What are you concerns, out of curiousity? I took a little different tack, in that I knew I would retire down here, so I came down 20 years early so the house would be paid off by then. There are also tons of mobile home parks where the residents are ALL retirees (park rules) and you can pick up a furnished park model for under 20K. Take the extra and buy a boat and there you go. There are still some "on the water" in the upper half of the state.

 

[corzy]

Re: 20 year plan, good or bad ide?

Re: 20 year plan, good or bad ide?

that would be a real cool trip JEBar, long long one, wondering how much gas you would burn doing that haha, well worth it though.
emoney, i dont really have any concerns yet, as this is just a pipe dream, im 29 and my wife will be 28 this year, were 8 months pregnant with our 2nd (both will be under 1.5 years old ... busy busy)
so i just like throwing out the idea to bug her every now and again...
she would never live in a trailer and i feel by the time we would be financially ready to buy something down there the economy will be back to normal and we wouldn't be able to afford anything nice near water that we could afford.
but a trailer on water i think i can bug her into (due to the classy boating life hahaha)
now ive looked up marinas, and for a normal boat you could get a 50' well for like 550 (prolly plus utilities) so i would hope you could store for well under 500/ month onland...but maybe not...thats why i love these forums, love to learn from other guys' mistakes/experiances
thanks for the input guys
corzy

 

[emoney]

Re: 20 year plan, good or bad ide?

Re: 20 year plan, good or bad ide?

Not sure where you're looking, but down here $10 a foot doesn't allow for liveaboards. THey charge extra fees for that. Make sure, btw, the marina allows liveaboards. Lots of them are starting to say no. And, btw, the trailers mentioned are for retiree-living, so you guys couldn't even move in them before you turn 55, lol.

You may have to go our route. We wanted to be "on the water", so we bought a house down here that's our main residence. If I want to spend any time "up north" I go visit relatives, lol. Even if I wanted to own 2, it would still be cheaper, probably, to have the main house here and the "cottage" up there. Plus, I wouldn't have to worry about the cottage rotting out from underneath me, because the one thing you're missing is that "fixer/upper" boat won't last 10 years, let alone 25-30.

 

[bekosh]

Re: 20 year plan, good or bad ide?

Re: 20 year plan, good or bad ide?

for many years one of our dream trips was to go to somewhere in Minnesota near the upper part of the Mississippi, buy a house boat, take it all the way down to New Orleans, around Florida and up the east coast using the Inland Waterway, hit the St Lawrence and get as far west as possible .... then sell the house boat .... its a trip we will never make but it sure has been fun talking about
Jim

that would be a real cool trip JEBar, long long one, wondering how much gas you would burn doing that haha, well worth it though.
corzy

You can actually go all the way around. There is a canal at Chicago, between Lake Michigan and the Illinois River. And the Illinois connects to the Miss. It's call America's Great Loop. If you'd like to read the adventures of a couple that just completed the Loop a few weeks ago, check out Ken and Pat's Great Loop blog.

Here's a map of the route they took. 7,812.4 miles over a full year.

My wife and I plan on doing this when we retire in a couple of decades. Buy an old diesel powered trawler and putt-putt around the US until we're too old to do it.

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: 20 year plan, good or bad idea?

inland water will be cheaper in florida for a house boat and theres less chance of a hurricane causing any problems. it realy depends what kinda house boat you want. a house that floats is cheaper but is more a perminate thing as it requires hook up to sewage and electrical. my father-in-law had one that he rented to snow birds during the summer and we used during the winter as a place to fish in comfort then the marina closed so he sold it rather than having to deal with moving it to another location. if i was looking at a 20 year plan then i would be looking at land on the edge of town thats water front and still undeveloped in the hope that in 20 years the town comes to the property then you will have your own water/dock rights. you would have to do a lot of research to make sure that live aboards are allowed in any area and hope you are grandfathered in if that ever changes.