How We Landed on a Used Skoolie
Thinking about living in a school bus but not into DIY? We added our personal touch, leveraged our strengths to earn extra cash, and bypassed the DIY frenzy. From bus dream to road reality – we delve into our experience of making our bus dream come true.
Table of Contents
Bus Dream Conception
Research Insights
Decision
Before & After Photos
Bus Dream Conception
Buying a Skoolie felt like it went from concept to reality in a quick month, but looking back, it was a journey we were always building up to. Tiny living has always inspired us, and our story isn't unique in that aspect. Just like other nomads finding freedom on the road, we wanted to explore the world without waiting for retirement. With the surge of remote work during the pandemic, we decided that if others can do this with a little bit of temporary sacrifice and commitment, we can too.
In January 2022, our discontent with the 9-5 grind and limited time for hobbies reached a breaking point. While we cherished our home and community, a sense of being "stuck" and uninspired by the lack of hiking trails in our area (no offense Dallas/Fort-Worth), this prompted us to reassess. Hiking, nature, and the outdoors brought us true joy and fulfillment on vacations, we wanted a way to keep that feeling going, permanently. During a spontaneous 12-hour getaway, we pondered what our lives could look like, allowing ourselves to dream bigger - much bigger .
Here's what we asked ourselves:
What type of life do we want to live?
What brings us true joy, how can we incorporate more of it into our daily lives?
What passions do we want to explore in this next chapter of our lives?
How do we define success and fulfillment on our terms?
The answers led us to inspiring places in nature, traveling, hiking, and the pursuit of financial freedom (hello early retirement). Once we settled on a nomadic lifestyle (within the US due to remote work), more questions arose:
How can we make it work for us, our lifestyle, and our pets?
When it comes to tiny living, what sacrifices are we willing to make, and where do we draw the line?
So, there it was – we answered those questions and landed on a Skoolie. With our sights set on financial freedom, the upfront cost of a rig had us a bit concerned. Sure, those vans and fifth wheels look gorgeous, but discovering that we could achieve something similar—customized, off-grid, safer, and spacious—with a converted bus for a lower cost was a game-changer.
Being bus kids in our younger years, we couldn't resist the allure of living in a school bus. The creativity behind it spoke to us, and we were eager to bring that kid-like energy of playing outside, exploring, and discovering new places from the school bus into the next chapter of our lives.
Research Insights
During our Skoolie research phase here is what we discovered:
Building a rig from scratch is a significant undertaking, requiring a ton of energy and a time commitment that often spans several years. A common trend? Many Skoolie owners don't finish their rigs, faced with the immense time commitment and balancing of personal commitments.
Unfinished rigs have created a sizable market for partially converted buses, an option for those looking to shorten the time commitment on the project. In other words something exists for every budget & level of commitment.
Neither of us had a background in building, and these were skills we would be developing along the way. While we had confidence we could build a rig given the time to research and learn, the reality of both of us working full-time jobs made the time investment a significant hurdle. So, we pondered the quickest and most practical way to achieve our goal.
Key discovery: Looks matter. Buses with appealing aesthetics and “updated” or modern interiors commanded prices two or three times higher than seemingly run-down counterparts with similar specs and features.
An "aesthetically challenged" Skoolie, with potential for a new paint job and minor tweaks, and small projects offered cost savings, but more than that, it could allow us to save time focusing on finances and working to make our dream a reality in a different way. The bonus? If your budget allows for it, these adjustments tend to be among the easier aspects of the build process, allowing for hands-on involvement.
Decision
Opting for a fully converted bus in need of touch ups and projects that didn't demand additional time for research was a strategic fit for our strengths—budgeting, paying off debt, side-hustling, and the art of flipping. Plus, we could add our own touch to it, and we wanted it to feel like us. We secured the bus with the assistance of a personal loan, and for the next year, we became dog walkers for two hours a day to fund our Skoolie dream (it turned out to be the best job I ever had!).
Efficiency became our ally. Spending our time more wisely—earning extra money to pay for the bus—outweighed diving into complex components like electrical and plumbing, which would require a significantly longer time investment. This strategy aligned with our one-year timeline.
This slightly unconventional approach not only saved us time and money but also allowed us to focus on projects that resonated with our abilities, making our path towards bus life more joyful and less stressful. Check out the before & after below. Trust me though, there are PLENTY of challenges that come with buying a converted bus and we have lots more insights coming soon.
Before
After
