Finding a New House

We received (and accepted) an offer for our house on January 24th with a closing on March 4th (later changed to the 5th).

We had 40 days to find a house.

That sounds like plenty of time, right? Not when you are trying to build and don't own land. Shoot, even if we weren't trying to build, the market is on fire (see previous post for proof). Therefore, we had a few options: rent, buy a house we don't love to tide us over, or buy a house on wheels and travel.

Since you are here, you know the option we chose.

Huh, what's that? RVing is one of the most popular pastimes during COVID-19, you say? And it's near impossible to find an RV quickly, you say? Why, yes. Yes on both accounts. It would've been nice to know that a month ago!

It didn't help that I had done little (read: zero) research into RVs over my years of dreaming about traveling in one. I had no clue what we would need in one. I had no clue what it would cost me. I had no clue if I was even allowed to drive one! I just assumed I'd figure it out when it became necessary.

Sensing my plight, my sister offered to introduce me to a friend of her in-laws who had recently retired and was traveling the country in an RV with his wife. And apparently this man has been planning this for years. Hmm... sounds like such a person may be helpful right now. Yes, please.

That led to an introduction to a wonderful human being that I'll call Nick (because that's his name).

My sister gave me Nick's information, and we quickly set up a call. Nick vomited information on me for an hour (and I mean that in a very, very positive way). I'd pick his brain over text and email for the next few weeks as we started shopping.

I stopped by an RV dealer on the way home from the office one day (I normally work from home but was in the office for the week). I stopped by the local RV dealer on another day. I tried to soak up as much information as I could, as quickly as I could.

Quick aside: I was assigned a very nice saleswoman at one of the dealers. She was almost as new to the game as I was. While showing me how one rig had an external TV, she told me I could watch TV "when [I'm] out under the northern lights!" It wasn't the best sales pitch.

Following those solo dealer visits, I took the family with me one day. After viewing a bunch of rigs (that's what we super professional RVers call them), we started to get a pretty good feel for what we wanted/needed in one. It boiled down to: a king size bed (RV kings are slightly smaller than standard kings, so it's not quite as ridiculous as it sounds), bunk beds, and a washer/dryer.

Once we honed in on our requirements, we started looking for models that matched. Turns out each of the major manufacturers had a single model that fit our requirements. Eliminating the super expensive ones, we were left with two or three.

That was about the time Nick told me he had a Jayco Precept Prestige and that he loved it. As it turns out, the Precept Prestige was one of the ones we had honed in on. If it's good enough for someone who had researched for years and had now lived in it for over half a year, it was good enough for me!

Our local dealer didn't sell Jayco, so I started looking around online. I found six rigs nationwide of the model we had chosen. Six.

You probably figured it out by now, but yes, we were looking for a new model. I realize that buying a new vehicle is one of life's poorer financial decisions, but we wanted the peace of mind that came with a factory warranty and a new model. Plus, we weren't just buying a vehicle; we were buying our next house.

I contacted all six dealers one night. I got a call back almost immediately from one in Mississippi. Unfortunately for him, he was calling from home and didn't have pricing information on hand (why he didn't look that up before calling, I do not know). He said he'd call me back in the morning. I needed to get something immediately, so that little oversight on his part would ultimately cost him the sale.

I heard back from two other dealers the next morning that their rigs were under deposit. Then I got a call mid-morning from a dealer just outside of Chattanooga that theirs was under deposit but fell through. It was mine if I wanted it.

Before I tell you what I did next, remember that RVing is one of the most popular pastimes at this point and that two of the six dealers I had contacted no longer had units. Oh, and remember that I'm about to be houseless in a few weeks.

Yeah, I bought it. Over the phone. Sight unseen.

On February 13th, we traveled to Ringgold, GA to pick up our new house.

Our new house: a 2021 Jayco Precept Prestige 36B