Home Is Where The Mail Is

Who is to say where home is when you live on the road? Apparently the Post Office.

One of the toughest questions we get is, "Where are you from?" Should we say the last place we lived before fulltiming? Should we say the last place we stayed for more than a month? Should we say where we are born?

Usually we give a rambling answer about being full-time RVers and traveling all over the country. The other answer is a little embarrassing because officially we are from South Dakota, but we have only spent five days in the entire state. You see, South Dakota is where we get our mail. It is also where we have our driver's licenses and register our vehicles, and where we vote.

When you become a fulltimer, you will have to choose your state of residency. If you are keeping a home or condo somewhere that will probably be "home." But if you are cutting ties, the world is your oyster. There are nine states with no personal income tax: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. This makes them popular with full-timers. But there are pros and cons that you need to weigh before choosing one, including, but not limited to,: amount of time you have to live in a state to qualify for residency, voting rules, state sales tax, property tax, the state's stand on the Real ID Act, and ease of use.

In 2008, fulltime RVers who had residency in Tennessee were disenfranchised when the state removed them from the voter rolls. Three fulltimers brought suit against the state because they were being treated differently than homeless people. The judge who heard the lawsuit said "homeless people are residents of the place they live, even if that place is a park bench, while plaintiffs have not clearly pointed to any place they live."

The Real ID Act dictates that you have to have a physical address to qualify for residency. Fortunately many states have opted out of this for now.

I was tempted to set up residency in Texas because I am a native son. Texas is also home of the Escapees Club, one of the biggest RVing clubs geared towards fulltimers. But Texas makes you get vehicle inspections each year and has a hefty property tax.

We chose South Dakota because it was easy to qualify for residency and the cost of registering your vehicles and property taxes were low and are a one-time deal. There are several mail forwarding services in the state. We went with Alternative Resources because they had the most comprehensive web site (I know, real scientific). The state is a little slow on getting voter registration and vehicle registration online, but it is not too difficult through snail mail. To register to vote you must list a physical address, but they allow you to use hotels or RV parks. And SD has decided not to implement the Real ID Act, probably because they would loose thousands of "residents" if we all leave.

As with other decisions you make when becoming a full-timer, take your time and do your research. There is a good book called "Selecting an RV Home Base" from the editors of Trailer Life magazine that gives you the details on each state in one place.