Getting Foreclosed and moving into Hotel
 

(My landlord will be losing the place where I live, I've done nothing irresponsible here)

Since I travel 10-25 days per month for work, I'm considering putting what little possessions I own into storage and living in hotels (Marriott and Hilton preferred).

I'm thinking that my clients pay for S-Th travel nights, thus I will be on the hook for 2 nights per week, maybe 3, and for the odd off week the entire 7 nights. My airline tickets are paid too, so I can typically fly to wherever I want (within reason). Thus, I could take advantage of really cheap hotel rates in any city near a major airport, and live for much cheaper than I am currently living, paying for a place I rarely use.

I've been staying in hotels each weekend to mentally prepare for doing this, and so far I'm really liking it.

Has anyone here done this? Thoughts/suggestions?

Example: Friday - Sat night AAA rates at nearby FS Marriott are $79. That's $160 a weekend, or $620 a month, much less than my rent.

To be honest, that sounds miserable to me.

Your lease may still even be valid after the property is sold off.

I feel for you. Some good friends were renting in Las Vegas, when one day the bank's goons came to the door and told them they had to get out RIGHT NOW. They had NO idea. They had been paying their rent on time. Luckily for them, they were scheduled to leave on a job assignment in a month, so they talked the bank into letting them stay until then.

But you're right, things can happen without your knowledge.

If you're single and don't have a family to consider, I say why not until you can make more permanent arrangements. If you have kids, etc., they do need the stability of a real home. I love staying in hotels, and think of all the point you'll accrue :)

I met a man in Vegas, whose wife had passed on. He sold his house and moved into the Homewood Suites. It was working great for him.

You say you will be paying less than the rent you're paying now. PLUS you will no longer have an electric bill or a water/sewer/trash pick-up bill. Maid service will be free or the cost of a tip, if you tip maids at hotels -- most don't. As long as you get a reasonably priced storage unit for your "stuff," I don't see a problem. You might come out way ahead. Really valuable papers, jewelry, etc. I would put in a bank safety deposit box. I would consider selling big stuff rather than storing it once you're sure that you like the hotel lifestyle. A lot of stuff people put in storage never gets used again.

Food can be an issue. You don't want to end up spending everything on food that you saved on rent/utilities. We have a coffee maker, tea/hot water boiler, and cooler in the car for our travels. I think it's miserable to have go out just to get breakfast, so being able to make my own coffee/tea and fix my own breakfast in the morning is a biggie. I'm afraid we've been eating a lot of the $5 Subway sandwiches too. Some of the $5 foot long specials are actually healthy, like the chicken breast. Have them put all the veggies on it that they will offer and pick one of the whole grain breads. Now I actually do have a house in case you're wondering but I guess I travel way too much.

Evaporated milk and condensed milk can sit a couple of days unrefrigerated, so if you need milk for your coffee, cereal, etc. this is what I usually do. I find non-dairy/powdered creamers intolerable.

Obviously in hotels that include breakfast, fine, take advantage of that. You will still like being able to make coffee and a bowl of cereal in your room, though.

Wow, sounds awful to me. A couple months maybe. Not the life for me.

Try it and you'll soonfind out whether it works for you or not I guess.

Cheers,

Not exactly, but when I changed jobs, my house sold in 2 weeks (probably because I built it 3 years earlier and it was still in move-in condition when I sold it, as I was usually traveling) and had to start my new job right away. My new company paid for 6 weeks in an extended stay hotel (or as I liked to call it "assisted living"). I also traveled on business during this time. It was in California, which I love and where my folks live (so just being in the state was a "happy place" for me).

Well, I hated it. It never felt like home, it felt like I was living in a hospital (not sure why). I tried to cook, but it just never seemed comfortable. The room was small, so no separate kitchen. I grocery shopped and made breakfast, and brought my lunch to work, but it never felt right.

I could not wait until I bought a house and moved out of the hotel. Now generally I like hotels, but needed to feel like I was actually "home", when I came home from travels.

I know all people are different and maybe this will be great for you, but I thought I would add my 2 cents. Hope everything works out well for you.

Go to Craig's List and find someone who's renting their second bedroom in a luxury condominium. He/she will be happy to take your rent money and enjoy his/her space while you're busy traveling! :) I actually do this, renting out my second bedroom to . . . airline crew based out of DCA! :D My first roommate, a US Airways pilot, lived with my for a little more than a year and has moved to near DSM to live with his soon-to-be-fiance. My current roommate is a US Airways flight attendant.

Or you can negotiate with the client to have your weekend hotel expenses paid for in exchange for not traveling. I know someone who did this in my first job, when I was a consultant. After 2-3 years, he saved enough for a down payment on a condo.

Stay sane - you should have a place to call home. I advise against just staying at random places on weekends.

Bingo.

Even it it's a bedroom in a shared apartment, as you suggest, or downsizing to a studio, having a home base is important to most people. A place to keep things, a place to connect with friends/family, a place to sleep on a familiar bed.

The other thing I note is that in the OP there is mention of 10-25 days of travel/month. That's a big variation, and it seems that the OP's cost calculations are based only on months at the high end of that range.

You might consider a Bed & Breakfast.

I'd never stayed in a B&B until I took a temporary job for several months, and the client arranged for me to stay at a local B&B that has a cottage in back of the main house, which is where I lived. It has a full kitchen/dining area and living room downstairs, and bedroom/sitting area and bathroom upstairs.

The rooms in the B&B house itself (a restored 19th century National Historic Register property) are also homey, and allow access to the kitchen if you want to do some cooking other than breakfast, and if you're social you can chat with other guests.

With travel slumping and lots of vacancies, the B&B owner was happy to trade a guaranteed monthly rental at a lower-than-usual-rate rather than an uncertain number of guest nights otherwise.

A simple +1.

I had a coworker who did this. She lived out of 4 huge suitcases. I think most of her stuff was in storage with her parents in Denver. The client paid for her hotels on the weekend in exchange for not flying. It didn't seem to bother her.

It seemed to work ok for her except for when the client had her travel somewhere else. Then she had to lug those four suitcases with her, though she could of probably stored them at the hotel.

Definitely not for me. I enjoy coming home each week, that I have too many hobbies that wouldn't travel well. Perhaps if your storage unit is near your regular hotel, it wouldn't be bad as you could regularly pick up belongings.

I really suggest a place with a kitchen. It will make it more of a studio apartment, and being able to prepare your own foods will certianly make you feel less placeless and more at home.

Try Extended Stay Suites...they are also quite reasonable..about 40 per night and very nice.

Even nicer, but slightly more expensive (50 to 90 per night), are "Staybridge Suites".

Both places have on-site storage and laundry.

I did this off and on for much of last year and only recently got a solid place.

While it does seem fun and is at times, it also has some serious pitfalls and things to consider.

1. Everything is in storage but you are not near storage often. Consider how you plan to access more clothing (seasons change, styles get old) and other important items.

2. How will you handle not having your personality? Unless you are staying in one place for a few months it's not logical to bring personal items with you and over time you come to miss them. Poker night without chips isn't the same.

3. Friends. As a serious traveler you no doubt know people here and there but without a central location for weekends it's like moving all the time. Seeing people is easy once, hard after that. And it draws on you.

4. Address. This is a simple but important one. You need a silent po box (suite #) so you can get mail and be sure it's safe when you're away.

5. Kitchen. Yes you can eat great food for cheap but 200 days without your favorite pasta or a simple bowl of ice cream for less than $3.99 stinks. Keeping things normal is key to not going nuts.

There's other items to consider but really what it gets down to is excitement versus the reality of not having any place to store the shot glass you got in the airport, no favorite glass for your drink of choice and no way your friends are going to show up for the big game.

On the other hand you're free and not just paying for a place you never see.

I say why not try it for a month. Its a little money saved and the first few weeks were a blast (fun places, exciting times). After that you can reevaulate easily. It's not like getting a place is a long process if you're ready to settle back.

Well, you could get a girlfriend. But she might not like it so much if you only use her place to crash and then do the big Houdini again and again. ;)

Address is important.

In a way, I like the non-materialistic approach to life this forces one to adopt. You can only have very few things with you. In our culture we usually identify ourselves inward and outward with material things we possess. This could be a good cleansing. But it's pretty hardcore. I mean, when you travel a lot you live with few of your personal effects anyway most of the time and probably it's nice to find them there when you get to what you call home. So the question is how well you can do without the notion of home and how strongly the notion of home is coupled to things.

Till

Let me address a few of the comments here:

1) On variation of travel - Yes it's true, my cost calculation is based on mainly reimbursable expenses including lodging, airfare, and meals, but for the off-times that I had to pay for everything I was planning to use acquired points to minimize my personal expenditures (thus, staying in Hilton/Marriott properties) and camping, as stated below.

2) On possessions - I decided a few years ago to minimize my things, and the only things I own now are some nice furniture. To put it simply, I could move everything important to me in two large suitcases, the rest of the stuff could be sold and the only thing that would be in storage is my paid-off car and some clothes. I don't feel an identity with possessions.

3) On having a crash pad - I think this is a good idea, but I completely despise the thought of roommates. I could stay with my GF except that she lives at home, so that won't fly but she could probably hold most of my clothes.

I also really enjoy camping and would consider that for temporary lodging, my goal is to save a ton of money and still have a decent standard of living. I'm starting to worry about not having a permanent base. Possibly having a defined end date or goal would make it easier.

I didn't state my goal, but it's to save enough cash so I can buy a house without financing.

I eat out 99% of the time today, so I'm already used to that. I already have the mail and bill process set up, and everything I need paperwise has been scanned into my computer.

Give it a try. If you do not like it, it is easy to just stop it.

Having done this, don't forget to look at all the potential state and local tax laws regarding residency (you didn't say whether its a commuting from "home" situation).

A local income tax situation (where you "make money") may change if they no longer recognize you have a residence elsewhere (where you "live").

Think of the money, time and heartache you'll save by sporadically employing an escort service in lieu of the convoluted and emotionally charged business of courtship and marriage.

That way, you won't even have to save for kids' college tuition.

Do big lodging at a hotels with airport shuttles, so you won't have to apy for parking.

Ok, so you already have a GF and don't want roommates. How about you get a small place, say a studio or 1BR apartment and share the rent with the GF. Use the nice furniture you have to furnish it. For the GF it would be a good deal because she gets to move out from her parents place, pay minimal rent, incur no expenditures for furnishings. For you it would be a good deal because you still have a real home to go to, pay less rent than now and probably less than what you'd pay in hotels, you'd also get to keep the GF who's most certainly not like to meet you in hotels and feel like a hooker all the time. Plus she would take care of the place.

Don't know what the financial situation is but if you split a $800 rent in two that sounds like a pretty do-able thing. Of course, it requires moving in with the GF which maybe you aren't ready for yet.

As far as buying a house without financing I think in principle that is an honorable idea and I wish you all the best for it. But, as long as your job is fairly safe, it might not be such a bad idea to at least have some mortgage to deduct from your taxes. It might also be a good idea to look at the market closely. How much longer are the low prices and foreclosures we have no going to last? In other words, right now you might be able to get a really sweet deal. If you wait until you have the money outright the real estate might cost 30% or so more already.

Do you have anything to work with right now? E.g. if you have 80k in cash. Buy a 100k house now while prices are cheap. Take 20k in mortgage, which can be deducted at least partially from income. Calculate how much that would save you in money per year versus paying rent and versus doing the hotel-homeless thing. Also consider the equity and standing that being a house owner brings you with a bank and the better credit status you will get. Possibly tell your GF to move in and pay a nominal rent (say half or a third or what she would usually pay). This will off-set at least the cost of utilities etc. Continue saving money. Pay off the rest of the mortgage as soon as possible so your house is entirely debt free. In two or three years you might be looking at a house which is entirely paid off and has increased in value. Sell the house and start the same kind of circle with a new property slowly working your way up.

The entry point right now is very good. I was hoping to be able to sell my place in the rather stable Austin market this year and with the proceeds and gains buy another place in a market that has crashed and is only waiting to recover. Unfortunately, that wasn't possible. I hope next year the prices will still be affordable when I am actually looking for something.

Till

I was voluntarily "homeless" for about a year and a half, after I realized that I was paying a month's rent for an apartment I stayed in maybe 2-3 nights per month. My mail was redirected to the office, the bulk of my stuff was stored at a friend's place, and I spent most of my nights at a service apartment near the client in Bangkok. I came back to SIN once or twice a month for the weekend, dropped by my friend's place to change the wardrobe a bit, and stayed in hotels, which were very affordable at the time.

I kept this up for a while even after the Bangkok project ended, but the logistics started to get a little stressful when I had to shuttle between projects in two different countries, plus hotel prices also started to escalate pretty dramatically, and in the end I got my own apartment again.

I don't regret the experience: the savings were pretty remarkable, I got real good at packing my carry-on, and it's interesting to see how little you actually need on the road to manage and even feel like home... but I doubt I'd do it again.

Sounds VERY interesting. Packing tips and your packing list for that time would be super helpful and highly appreciated. Pretty PLEASE!. :)

Till

Er, that depends.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/omni/...s-problem.html :D

I agree with tfar that the idea of paying cash for a house is noble, but the math might work out so that the income tax deduction is worth the cost. If you are considering carrying a mortgage at all, interest rates are so incredibly low right now and it's a buyers' market.

I would love to sell my condo and take advantage of the cheaper, plentiful housing stock but unfortunately there are already five condos in my building for sale. I am very concerned that when we finally buy a house interest rates will be much higher than they are now.

Try the hotel thing for a few months and see if you like it--it's easy to stop the experiment at any time. I'm interested to see how this turns out for you.

There are other threads floating around from people who've done this.

I'd think carefully about the storage thing. How much stuff do you actually have that matters? If you're storing a bunch of furniture and stuff, when you retrieve it from storage you'll likely say "why was I storing this crap", much better to just sell it and start over fresh when you decide to return to a normal life.

The big issue is storage for a couple boxes of all that paperwork that we tend to collect - tax returns, etc. If you can get it down to a manageable size you can get a safe deposit box at your bank - they actually cost less than you might think.

You will need an address for certain things. Will a drop box always work? Can you use that for a driver's license, etc? I honestly don't know.

If you plan to use the same base every weekend, I'd talk to a nice hotel in your area, the nights you need the room are exactly their "off" nights (Friday-Saturday) and you might be able to cut a deal. They will also store a couple suitcases for the week.

How big a wardrobe to you have? My double closet is stuffed. I do need to pare down, but even with work clothes, play clothes, summer stuff, winter stuff, I don't think I could pare down enough to make this work.

I agree that one big issue is never having a place to just crash and heat up that bowl of mac and cheese. Eating out (or having takeout) every single day gets old for me really fast, and I begin to have trouble even after a week of vacation in a hotel.

Note that at the time I worked in the tropics, so no need for bulky winter clothing, and for work I rarely if ever needed to wear a tie, much less a jacket. But this is what I usually had with me:

- 3 collared shirts
- 3 T-shirts/polo shirts
- 2 pairs of trousers (usually one khaki Dockers plus one dark suit trousers, both of which could be worn to work)
- 1 pair of dress shoes
- 1 pair of black sneakers (can be worn to the gym, out on town and even to work in a pinch)
- 1 light sweater for planes and chilly meeting rooms
- A week's supply of semi-disposable socks, undershirts and underwear (in South-East Asia, it's usually cheaper to buy new than to get them laundered in hotels...)
- 1 pouch of toiletries
- 1 pouch of electronic gadgets (headseats, chargers, adapters, etc)

That's pretty much it? (Laptop, business documents, passport etc go into a separate carrying case.) Everything fits nicely into a regulation rollaboard, esp. when you use the space within the spare pair of shoes for storing socks etc. The single best packing tip I can give you is to figure out your routine, so everything has its preordained space: then you know where to find it and where it goes, and can pack in 5 min flat and not lose/forget anything.

Consider how you'll do your laundry, since realistically you're not going to have access to a washing machine. In my case, laundry at the service apt was free, as was 3 pcs/day at most Marriotts when you're Plat, and at both of these I could leave it over the weekend and pick it up when I got back.

Be careful with the storage back home. I used an un-airconditioned spare room, and much of my stuff went moldy from sitting around in boxes for a year. Clothes are best stored in a closet still wrapped in plastic from the dry cleaner's.

Good luck and enjoy the homeless life :D

This has been a very interesting discussion to say the least and again let me address some of the suggestions:

- I've already undertaken a huge "cleaning" and the only things I will need to store are my pickup truck, and the rest of the stuff (outside of furniture, which will be sold) can fit into the cab and bed of my truck.

- I can easily pack for a week in just a backpack, I travel very lightly and live light as well. it really is liberating not being weighed down by junk and trinkets.

- I cannot live with my g/f, she comes from a very traditional household and culture, so that is outside of this discussion. She could hold some of my clothes in her closet.

- I'm not asking for financial advice on the house purchase. Paying mortgage interest just to write off a little income does not work for me.

If your girlfriend can hold your clothes, why can't she just give you her address as your official residence for postal purposes?

It hasn't been said one way or the other in this thread, but surely you know how to use priceline bids and save half on hotels? Hate to see anybody spend $200 on a $60 room.

I would tend to think that this would be ideal if the OP is very indepentent and really has no close ties to anyone. That being said, over the long run it will probably get old as at some point I would assume that the OP would want a spouse/SO and maybe a family. At very least, the vast majority of people want some base of friends.

The OP is going to need to coordinate a good airline fare and an inexpensive hotel room. Generally, airport hotels and extended stay hotels have good weekend rates, particularly if one uses Priceline or Hotwire. However, the latter normally does not have shuttle services and the OP would need a rental car. But the extended stay option gives a feel of a real home.

This life won't be easy or expenseive at times (like around peak travel dates). But to the OP try it for six months or a year.

There are a few threads that address the idea of being "homeless" for a bit.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...onsultant.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...l-so-much.html

Just out of prurient interest. You say you don't really care where you spend your weekends as long as its close to an airport, yet you also have a Girl Friend. Where does she fit into this picture if you don't care where you spend your weekends and your weeks are spent traveling for work?

Tell me more! I had not heard about this benefit.

I did not see anyone talk about this. Might not be able to do this depending on locations but they are doing this at LAX. Just a thought

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jul...e-lax-colony20

I'd have referenced that in your subject line, I'm sure everyone clicking on this thread assumes that you are losing your property through foreclosure.

If that is true, the bank was probably violating the law (at least in CA, not sure about NV though I would expect the law to be similar in this regard). If you have a valid lease with the owner (at the time it is signed) then you have the absolute right to possess the premises. If a new owner acquires title ti the property, via foreclosure, auction or sale, he is still bound by the prior lease. Any attempt to intimidate the renter prior to expiration of a proper 30-day notice of lease termination could be actionable. I'd say your friends had a nice lawsuit if the story is as you describe.

+1

Given low housing prices and low interest rates right now, why not buy now and the excess money you can save beyond your mortgage payments goes to something earning more than your mortgage rate? I know you have the dream of buying a house without financing, but there is a time-value of money and, hey, the living space problem would be solved.

One thing for the OP to consider. I assume that while you may not run a credit card balance you need a credit card to reserve and rent cars and for hotel (additional charges if the client is paying for the room). If your cc company(ies) get a whiff of you not having a permanent residence, they may very well cut your card off. Read some of the posts on FT and it is truly scary what some people have experienced (either rightly or wrongly).

My suggestion is since you travel five days a week and don't seem to have an issue with the location of your two day residence, find a locale that is dirt cheap while having a fairly viable airport nearby. TUS, OKC, JAS, MEM, LEX while maybe the most hip places would afford you a low cost of living but would not require driving hundreds of miles just to get onto a flight.

What I was saying!

Till

Thanks for all the thoughts

I've been doing this for about 4 or so years, though not always hotels. It's always a guess as to where I'll lay my head next week. :)

Let me clarify - typically, when not working, I stay in hostels, with friends, or with my family. I have a post office box and small storage unit in Nashville, TN. My family lives in Saskatoon, Canada.

It does get tiring sometimes. As others have pointed out, the psychology of just having your own place to go "back" or "home" to is nice, and I've missed that. As well, my older friendships have mostly deteriorated, and it is difficult to maintain a relationship. Then again, I've met countless people in the past few years during my travel and made new friends. There is freedom in being able to decide (provided I have the money) to travel anywhere I wish. My lifestyle certainly isn't for everyone, and I get rather annoyed when people only see the "glamorous" or exciting side of being able to travel everywhere without realizing the sacrifices you make to allow that.

Limited free laundry is one of the perks if you upgrade to the Executive Rooms at the JW Marriott in Jakarta or Bangkok, and as Plat I was always bumped up. No idea if this is the case anywhere else, or whether it exists even at CGK/BKK anymore.

If I were a potential tenant today, I would insert into the lease agreement that the landlord provides me with a copy of his mortgage statement each month and that if he were to make three or more consecutive late mortgage payments, that I would be let out of my lease.