Hi Sarah,
I think that might be a too personal for public consumption and I am not sure it would help. I will say that we lived in an area ( near Silicon valley) where an old, run down, ugly, tiny shack often cost more than a million dollars and the medium home prices ( including condos) were something ridiculous like 850K in our area when we sold. We had a beautiful large home on 3 acres with ocean views and a vineyard....very hard to find there.
We lucked out and bought our second home before a record rise in home prices and happen to get it for a steal after 2 years of hard searching for a property that we could turn into our dream home with tons of sweat equity. We did and do a lot of research into housing, so there was a plan to the madness, but some luck comes into play too. As it started skyrocketing and others were thinking of buy,buy,buy, I was thinking about selling because I knew a bust always follows a boom.
I think we are at the beginning of a world wide glut and crash of housing( there might be some exceptions & some places affected more than others), so prefer to stay liquid now and find renting a better deal. I tend to like to buy low and sell high if I can,so keep my eye on trends, taking calculated risks.
Thus, yes, we did have a very high end home, but we also put a tremendous amount of work and thought into it as an investment as well as our dream home. We are rather ordinary people though, so the opportunity is available to everyone. Our first home was extremely modest and even our dream home looked like a mess when we bought it. We are not extraordinarily rich, but regular folks, who live a frugal life and are willing to take calculated risks especially when it leads to greater freedom and quality of life. We loooooved our home dearly, but we love this family bonding and travel lifestyle even more.
Travel....especially slow travel and living like native, is not expensive, but maintaining "stuff" is. Mobile living is easier today than it has ever been and there are lots of ways to do it. Selling a home and cars is one way. We like the travel 7 months in an RV, winter 5 months in a luxurious villa for cheap method. We can travel the world much cheaper than we can live at home...... even in Europe. I would not buy in Spain now, but I love renting in the off season and can walk to everything I need, groceries are delivered.
Even though we have traveled by RV from Amsterdam to Istanbul and Prague to Morocco and more, we have not spent that much money on gas or put much mileage on our vehicle. We could actually live MUCH cheaper than we do, but we do like luxury and to splurge some ( some luxury boutique hotels, fine meals, luxury apts , music lessons for our child via internet etc, etc) .
I was inspired by the Terhorsts who have been doing this for a long time and they retired early long ago in their 30's and became permanent travelers. starting out in Paris I think. Check out their website http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Shores/5315/ or our other friends listed there> http://www.retireearlylifestyle.com/orderpage.htm
There is a famous family that took a year off and wrote a book about it many years ago ( took a nanny with them too!) They sold there house in Ca in rising market. When they came back, prices had skyrocketed and they had to buy a far inferior home with much less room. They had to learn the hard way that they would have been much better off if they just rented out their home like you did.
There is also a family that more recently did a trip around the world ( left when we did in 2006). He was canned from his job when they returned. There house had a serious decline in value and the market was horrible upon their return so hard to sell. They eventually moved out to a different state where he got a job, but it has almost been a year and they stillll have not sold their home. Now they would have been much better off if they had sold their home before leaving like we did.
I could go on with other such stories.
It is VERY important to look at housing before taking an extended trip. I hope this is helpful to you and others. I should probably write a post about this on my blog.
As a traveler you might enjoy this one:
Around the world
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