Interested in trading beautiful home for a boat

We are looking to downsize and get back on the water and are wondering if anyone out there would trade their boat for the equity in our home here in Thousand Oaks California. I,m sure it is a long shot but we felt it worth putting out there. We have between $ 250K and $ 300K in true equity and the home is simply beyond description. We owe about $650K between the mortgage balance and a few debts we would need to clear. We are looking for a sportfisher or pilothouse perhaps. Hatteras, Bertram, Viking, Cabo , OA, Flemming, etc. 40 ft plus. We have also considered 54 Bertrams and 55/60 Hatteras as old as 1978 and would still consider it still for the right bristol older SF. my cell is REMOVED. Let me know. Craig

Will look into it. I know there are many out there that would say selling a beautiful home to down size and buy a boat along with a small condo instead is not a smart idea but the reality is I am not enjoying life much these days dreaming about getting my 8 year old on the water where I belong and she yearns for. Life is short and at 57, I simply need to make a change and feel I could certainly live on an older 60 Hat for a little while until we figure out if we want to buy a condo, small home, rent, or move and do it down under in Australia possibly taking the Hat or Bertram with us. Costly I know but it appears there is a market for these high quality boats down there and relocating to Australia has always been a thought of mine. With where we seem to be heading here in the US, it may be time!

My 42 year old wife is a special education teacher so my immigrating down under will most likely be " under her wing ". We might give living here in the US another last ditch try before we venture long distance but where we as a country are going is pathetic and I simply dont have any faith it will get any better ever! I,m afraid we are done.....the land of a few very rich self centered individuals and corporations, a mass of immigrants here to take a free ride.....and a mass of hard working people the government ( who are amongst the first " few " ) has targeted to pay for everything.

Its why I am considering scaling down and at least enjoying some badly needed and EARNED on the water time with my family. At 57, I can still build high quality homes.......with details that seem to be a fast becoming thing of the past. Perhaps, I can find some new clients down under that would embrace a Yank with good ethics and abilities that is there to work....not take....

We actually sold our home....and bought a boat!

Its funny but since the last post I made on this thread, we sold the house after putting it on the market for a day, went to Australia, bought a used Prado Landcruiser and put 13,000 kilometers on it looking for a place to build our next nest between Sydney and Cairns........ 13,000 kilometers later..and just shy of the maximum 90 day stay, we couldn't wait to board the Quantas 747 and come back to Southern California......but only for 3 days while we saw some friends/family....and set out in our F450 that didn't sell while we were away........enroute to Saint Augustine and the St Johns county of Florida.

After numerous trips to Florida and N.C........I knew I liked the people and lifestyle enough to put Southern California in my rear view mirror for good! Since here, we found a rental home with a pool, a proper school for the little one, and have entered into a purchase of a 2005 Pursuit 3370 I found for a very fair price. With a decent nest egg still in the bank, we are going to get out 9 year old American version of " Bindi " on the water to fish, explore and do what we all do on/around the water. I fought buying the boat at first choosing instead to see what we could buy home wise here. Not knowing where we will actually end up over the next few years, we elected to rent and get on the water....and enjoy what we have been missing since Summer was born! It kills me it took so long to finally do it but because of greed and corruption within the financial arena, the world was thrown into a GFC and the rest of the world was put on hold......many loosing everything .....including their life in some cases. Its is beyond sad how greed overcomes ones life....where more and more is better.......and its never enough!

Enough negative, I am simply grateful we managed to keep our home through that extremely challenging time and lived to see it through......and managed to move away from what we considered to be a very shallow society in/around Los Angeles and Orange County...

Well said as I wouldn't change a thing either. Things could be far worse. We did something most thought was crazy by going to Australia. We almost sent our 40 ft container with everything we owned ...on the water before we left on Quantas. The issue was the Australian government told us we weren't allowed to send our belongings on a visitors visa ( 1 year visa ) and needed to wait until we had working visas to send our belongings. Thank god we decided to abide by their request as we almost did it anyway feeling it took 8 weeks to get there by ship...and we would certainly have job offers by the time it arrived in port.

Thank god we made the right decision to abide....Lesson learned!