A big decision to make........

[rodsswag]

Hi all,
In the near future we will have an opportunity to buy a house.
The decision is to sell the camper for extra deposit or to battle through.
I have put so much into building this one, it is exactly what I want.
But a house is what we need.........
My wife has told me "It's up to you dear"
Can someone please help me out.
What to do?



Rod.................

[Bird]

. Probably not what you wanted to hear...

House is for life.. more you can pay off early the less you pay long term

[Jenko67]

Build a house....

[wilson79]

. Probably not what you wanted to hear...

House is for life.. more you can pay off early the less you pay long term

x2

[westvic]

. Probably not what you wanted to hear...

House is for life.. more you can pay off early the less you pay long term

X3

work out 25 years of interest on the value of the camper (assuming "standard" mortgage) and it gets scary

all the best with a tough decision

cheers
Steve

[scarps]

Many years ago I had to make a decision to sell my dream fishing/ski boat to enable us to retain our home.  It was a hard and heart breaking decision, but interest rates had gone through the roof and the only other option was to try and sell the house and rent. We sold the boat.

20year's later and we now own an even better home than the one we had, plus I also now own a new dream boat.  Just my experience.

[Jeepers Creepers]

Its up to you dear, sounds like ya selling it.

Its like when ya have a barney and you say i'm going out and she says, do what ya want.

Trust me, do what ya want, does not mean its Ok to go out and unless you are putting the wheelie bin out.


Anyway, good luck with the sale of the CT.

[time]

Yep, putas much as you can into the house.

Many years a go I too had to make some life style decisions, went without a lot for a good 10 years, but there was a big payoff with being able to retire at 52 and now live the good life with all the toys I want.

[KingBilly]

Mate, sell the CT and put the money into a home (not a house).  You can always make another CT when you finances allow.

Good luck
KB

Oh, and let me know when the house warming is on 

[Mallory Black]

Go House Rod

Family comes first. 

[rodsswag]

Thanks so much everyone.
Still a bit of time till I need to decide.



Rod........

[UIZ733]

No contest. The house/home. A camper is a depreciating 'asset', which is fine when you have a house.

[Fathom]

My 2c

Houses generally increase in value overtime...Camper trailers on the other hand seem to suffer from a terrible thing called depreciation.
I personally would prefer bricks and mortar and a lessor camper.  Or if it was the only option. No camper trailer.
But there are a thousand right answers.
Good luck with your decision.

[Jakster1]

I'm voting to KEEP THE CAMPER!

Sounds like you've devoted a lot of time and money building it up to exactly what how you like it and it would be such a shame to see it go.

How long would it be before you could afford to buy another?

My philosophy is to never sell a toy unless a replacement is in the shed or on its way, i learnt this lesson the hard way when I was into bikes and got rid of them and it took ages to get the wife to agree to spend the money for a new one. Riding was what I loved doing and I cut myself off not realising how much I would miss it at the time.

You'll have 30 YEARS to pay off the house, is the plan to do nothing in that time and just put every cent into paying off your mortgage?

Maybe another option is to sell the camper and buy a cheaper one? 

Don't forget you've still got to live your life and enjoy it along the way,

My 2c
Hope this helps.

[Rumpig]

I'm voting to KEEP THE CAMPER!

Sounds like you've devoted a lot of time and money building it up to exactly what how you like it and it would be such a shame to see it go.

How long would it be before you could afford to buy another?

My philosophy is to never sell a toy unless a replacement is in the shed or on its way, i learnt this lesson the hard way when I was into bikes and got rid of them and it took ages to get the wife to agree to spend the money for a new one. Riding was what I loved doing and I cut myself off not realising how much I would miss it at the time.

You'll have 30 YEARS to pay off the house, is the plan to do nothing in that time and just put every cent into paying off your mortgage?

Maybe another option is to sell the camper and buy a cheaper one? 

Don't forget you've still got to live your life and enjoy it along the way,

My 2c
Hope this helps.

i'd agree with this above.....how much would you get selling the camper? (we don't need to know, but be realistic here), if it's a sizable amount then maybe it's worth selling, but if it's not,  i reckon i'd opt for maybe keeping the camper myself. Could you work some longer / extra hours instead in the future to try and make the money up and then use the camper to unwind once you've put in the harder hours at work?

[paceman]

My 2c

Houses generally increase in value overtime...Camper trailers on the other hand seem to suffer from a terrible thing called depreciation.
I personally would prefer bricks and mortar and a lessor camper.  Or if it was the only option. No camper trailer.
But there are a thousand right answers.
Good luck with your decision.

i agree with this sentiment.  especially nowadays, a stable roof over your head is probably the priority at the moment....

[JCOJ]

Look at this way - what is the camper worth - as in actually what you could sell it for?

Lets say $10,000 (I have no idea and you can give the exact figure if you want to)

If you put that $10,000 into your mortgage at 6% (rates are better than this at the moment but just go with it), you will be saving $600 per year on your mortgage.  That's $50 per month.

Option A: Sell the camper and save $50pm on your mortgage

Option B: When you buy your new house, get a really good mortgage broker (I can recommend one if you need) and get the absolute best interest rate that is out there.  When you get that ask for a bit more off.  You will be able to get a rate that will save much more than $50pm and therefore you can justify keeping the camper.

The home is very important, but there is no point being a slave to it.  The camper represents time away with the family and gaining experiences that only travel brings.  The questions is - is that time and those experiences worth more than $50pm to you?

[Swogjb]

Look at this way - what is the camper worth - as in actually what you could sell it for?

Lets say $10,000 (I have no idea and you can give the exact figure if you want to)

If you put that $10,000 into your mortgage at 6% (rates are better than this at the moment but just go with it), you will be saving $600 per year on your mortgage.  That's $50 per month.

Option A: Sell the camper and save $50pm on your mortgage

Option B: When you buy your new house, get a really good mortgage broker (I can recommend one if you need) and get the absolute best interest rate that is out there.  When you get that ask for a bit more off.  You will be able to get a rate that will save much more than $50pm and therefore you can justify keeping the camper.

The home is very important, but there is no point being a slave to it.  The camper represents time away with the family and gaining experiences that only travel brings.  The questions is - is that time and those experiences worth more than $50pm to you?

Option B makes a lot of sense to me

IMO because your camper is fairly new, you will tag a bigger hit on it.
Keep the camper and go for JCOJ's option B



Ps ....I have  been following your camper build and must say your camper is looking awesome.

[Bunyip]

A tough one.

When we bought the KK LB said we would sell the house before the kamper.

When I lost my job we sold the house and still have the kamper. Might sound silly but we have now just bought a place having moved, by selling the kamper we would have lost a significant amount of money as the kamper is only just over a year old and the depreciation means that we would have covered little more than the loan itself. Different story if you own the camper I suppose.

The finance boffins may say that anything you put into the camper already is sunk costs, but can you recover what you have spent on the camper by selling it?

On the other hand I am sort of with Jeepers here, "do what you want" does not sound like a ringing endorsment for a free choice.

Bunyip

[Doug.b]

Keep the camper
If the camper is worth $10,000 just buy a house $10,000 cheaper.
I have had 2 houses in my life so far and never put myself into debt that much I can't still enjoy life.
I use them as a stepping stone to the next one.

Doug

[patyv]

Happy wife is a happy life

[kylarama]

House.  Short term pain for long term gain.

11 years ago I had to sell off my toys to top my house deposit.  Bike, go kart and my beloved ski boat that I'd restored.
18 months later I mortgaged for another 18K to spend on house renovations.  When filling out the forms I think I accidently put down 23K and the extra may or may not have gone towards a new bike.
Sold the house 2.5 years later for a tidy profit and still have the same bike 11 years later, along with another house.

[rodsswag]

Thanks so much again......
It is getting harder......
What we are thinking is.
The camper brand new is 30K+
Not to sure on what to sell it for yet.
I have spent well over 200 hours building it. (I know my own time can not be counted)
I think this would also save on leaders mortgage insurance. (If that's what it is still called)
More than 20% deposit.
JCOJ I think I might just take you up on that offer when we get closer.



Rod...............

[rodsswag]

House.  Short term pain for long term gain.

11 years ago I had to sell off my toys to top my house deposit.  Bike, go kart and my beloved ski boat that I'd restored.
18 months later I mortgaged for another 18K to spend on house renovations.  When filling out the forms I think I accidently put down 23K and the extra may or may not have gone towards a new bike.
Sold the house 2.5 years later for a tidy profit and still have the same bike 11 years later, along with another house.

Something like this is what we are thinking....



Rod.............

[Nomad]

Thanks so much again......
It is getting harder......
What we are thinking is.
The camper brand new is 30K+
Not to sure on what to sell it for yet.
I have spent well over 200 hours building it. (I know my own time can not be counted)
I think this would also save on leaders mortgage insurance. (If that's what it is still called)
More than 20% deposit.
JCOJ I think I might just take you up on that offer when we get closer.

Rod...............

Both you and JCOC are spot on here. As I was reading through the thread the only reason I could come up with was if you were going to tip over the 80% LVR and incur Mortgage Insurance......and lets face it, its 5k to10k for absolutely nothing of value to you and is dead money.

As the resi market heats up I think you will find lenders are going to loosen up on LVR's and a good mortgage broker may be able to get you a 90% or even a 100% LVR which means you can have your cake and eat it too.

Just as a caution though factor in say a 2% increase in interest rates and see if you can still get ahead / comfortably pay your mortgage.

Best of luck with the decision. I hope you can get some good advice to really assess your option.

Cheers Nomad.