My fiance and I are in the market for a house. We're pretty sure we found the one we really like. Our goal is to be able to put a 15-20% down payment on any of the houses we look at. I own an 05 Tacoma which is paid for. I got an extremely good deal on it, and looking at the market, I could probably sell it for what I paid for it if not a tad more. My question is this. Have any of you sold a current newer vehicle, used the money you got from the sale, and purchased a lesser $$ vehicle, then utilized the money retained from the difference towards something else? I have always wanted a full size pickup. I want more cab room than my AC gives, but I want a wider/deeper bed that can haul full sheets of plywood (I have several remodeling ideas already planned for the house). I don't like the idea of a bit worse gas mileage, but I think it won't be too terribly different than my 05 Tacoma. I may be able to pocket an additional $5K-$7K in savings if I can sell my truck and buy an 04-06 F150 or maybe and 03-04 Tundra, or even an 04-05 Titan (I like this truck the best, but the gas mileage on these is absolutely terrible). With those additional savings, I could put that as additional money toward the house down payment. Suggestions? Is this rational, or no? Anyone done anything like this before? Basically, I would be taking advantage of the fact that my truck has great resale, and then buying one that...well...doesn't.
Keep your truck, buy a single axle trailer to haul plywood etc. I'm a believer in the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" principle.
