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Lots of RV dealers are advertising, "Rent too high? Rent an RV." If I were a betting man I'd bet the cost of living (rent, food, medicine, utilities) is going to stay sky high from now on. The era of cheap is over. People will have to tighten their belts and lower their expectations of what the American Dream means to them. In Los Angeles where I live tents and RV's litter the landscape. It's people's only alternative to unaffordable rent as municipalities refuse to build affordable housing. Has anyone contemplated moving into an RV?
"Can't afford an apartment in Los Angeles? Rent an RV"
Location: IN>Germany>ND>OH>TX>CA>Currently NoVa and a Vacation Lake House in PA
3,259 posts, read 4,330,509 times
Reputation: 13476
I've done it. After my 20 year marriage with my previous wife ended, I moved into my RV and lived in it for three years. I actually preferred it to some roach infested apartment building with noisy neighbors sharing walls with me. It's a really good way to live for a single person.
Of course, I lived in various RV parks (moved a couple of times chasing job opportunities) and not parked on the street. That's illegal in most municipalities. RV parks generally have nice lots with comparatively low cost.
I can sort of speak to this, though I have not yet lived in my RV. I bought a larger older-model RV to use as a spare room and to live in part-time during a major renovation of my house.
That RV is currently a rental unit, but I AirBnB it rather than make it a permanent living space for a long-term-renter. My city only allows an RV to be lived in (on private property) for a limited time each month. I keep it moveable for plausible deniability, I make sure I'm extra-super-nice to my neighbors so they don't sic code enforcement on me, and I do occasionally move it and set it up for off-site rentals. I have another RV that I rent out full-time that I allow renters to drive.
Both RV's bring in a LOT of money, but the drive-able one is about double the profit for the same effort. Or it was, before gas prices gave all those RV'ers a heart attack. Now many more people want a stationary rental. Luckily, that's not too much of a problem because most owners of RV's are curtailing their vacation plans to avoid paying for gas. So there is an unusual plethora of open spots in the local campgrounds, even now during the high season.
I would consider helping out the local housing crisis by allowing a long-term renter in my RV. The mobile RV makes a lot more money for the time invested, so I wouldn't mind not having to clean the stationary rental after every guest. I'd use the extra time to run a second mobile rental. Further, the entire setup cost under 25K (Privacy fence, hookups, the RV itself, and some interior renovations) so I'm not hung out to dry too badly if I get a deadbeat renter and have to go through the nightmarish eviction process.
That said, you'll be hard-pressed to find a city or town that allows you to live in an RV permanently. NOBODY lets you park and live on the street. You might get away with it in some really rough areas of the city where the police look the other way, but living in an RV there is asking for trouble. The cost of a parking space in a recreational RV park exceeds monthly rent, they're hard to find, and most parks limit the duration of your stay. The cost of a space in a purpose-built mobile home park is cheaper, but good luck finding one. As well all those parks have minimum RV standards, so you're not going to be hauling your chuffing sub-$50,000 scrap heap (like that hunk of water-damaged junk pictured above) into one.
All that said, there are some really remote areas where you could probably convince a landowner to let you boondock, but you'll be hauling your rig into town for water and dumps pretty often. If you are good at making friends you might convince them to let you build a pad, install hookups, and pay them a monthly rent to use it, but then you're right back where you started; spending more on your RV than you would've on a small apartment in a much more convenient location.
I've got a really handy side-gig going with RV rentals without (hardly)ever RVing, myself, but I'm in a pretty unique situation.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,570 posts, read 81,147,605 times
Reputation: 57788
Municipalities do not build homes, developers do. The reason housing is not affordable in many places (such as L.A.) is that more people want to live there than there is housing for. There is still cheap housing in every state, just not in the most desirable areas. In southern California, for example, the average home in Thermal is under $300k, because it's too hot and there are no good jobs or entertainment. The only way a developer is going to build "affordable" housing is if they are getting something in return to overcome the loss of profit, such as a significant tax break, or a significant discount on city-owned property. I don't see RVs as a solution, the trailer park is becoming extinct, and cities are cracking down on resident RV parking , even in ultra-liberal Seattle.
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