Vacation homes for the FIRE'd

[tryan]

Yeah, the Hotel Tax is what the state gets for any stay less than 30 days (billed to the renter). Management/cleaning is also paid by the renter.

Happy to say I would get my building and land costs back in a sale (even at todays prices). Not sure about recooping a few years of negative cashflow thou. Hoping not to test the market any time soon (hence the rental income).

[calmloki]

Ya know, you don't have to go all crazy on a second home - if you are in the area you could maybe pick up a little honey of a deal at Cullman's:

YouTube - Painfully Honest and Epic Mobile Home Commercial

Or don't.

[WithAllMyHeart]

At one point we had two vacation homes--a home in St. George, Utah and a cabin in the northern Utah mountains. I loved the cabin; DW did not. She's not a runner, hiker, or mountain biker, and she wanted Internet and telephone, which the cabin could not get (not even cell phone reception). Our children (with our grandchildren) didn't use the cabin much either, because they enjoyed the home in St. George more, which they use constantly.

So we sold the cabin--and haven't missed it for a minute. Cabins in the snowy mountains require a huge amount of maintenance and are difficulty to use during the winter. Many people, like DW and me, who dream about a cabin, end up selling it after a few years.

The home in St. George, however, has been a joy beyond measure.

Upside: We use it not only for our own enjoyment but we also let family and friends use it--sort of our way of showing our love to them. Five of our relatives (3 of them our own children) and their spouses went there for their honeymoon! We have family get-togethers there for many holidays. We take friends there for a weekend getaway. We love the scenery (many state and national parks nearby), the active lifestyle that the town supports (our family members regularly run the St. George Marathon and other road races), and the weather is wonderful. Mostly, our children like to go there because of the swimming pools (one indoor and one outdoor) at the clubhouse.

Downside: It is expensive.

[Kroeran]

never tempted to ask relatives and friends contribute to expenses, when they are using the place in your absence?

[WithAllMyHeart]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kroeran never tempted to ask relatives and friends contribute to expenses, when they are using the place in your absence?

We talk about it--and will probably eventually do that--but for now things are working well. My sister, for example, bought a new TV for us and she always spends several hours deep cleaning when she goes down. When we took some friends down two years ago, they gave us about $100 in gift cards, which came in handy to resupply things at the vacation home. And now way are we going to charge our own kids, who are the biggest users besides us. After all, we bought the home with their inheritance.

[JOHNNIE36]

We're in that quandry right now. Sold our nice house three years ago for a great profit and bought a manufactured home for less than half the sales price of of that one. We've been thinking about building a new home in the $300K range but have second thoughts about that. What we're also thinking about is buying a "summer" home up in the mountains of Georgia or NC and have some place to go to get away from the FL heat in the summer. We could keep what we have and get something up "north" in the $175K range. We are torn. Just can't make up our minds what to do. Anybody been through those concerns?

[Kroeran]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JOHNNIE36 We could keep what we have and get something up "north" in the $175K range. We are torn. Just can't make up our minds what to do. Anybody been through those concerns?

the Canadian tradition is to have the two places and snowbird it, often selling the city house and staying at the lake cottage for the summer. Health insurance tends to tie Canadians down from merging into one house down south, though this can be more of a psychological barrier than a real one. Yet to meet anyone who has done it. The heat of Florida summer and missing family and friends seems to drive Florida year-round Canadians back north for the summers.

This got me wondering where are the locations in the US with good climate year round? California? Some go to the mountains of Central America for year round good climate. I keep meeting people that are in the process of moving to San Miguel.

San Miguel de Allende - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

look at this chart for the weather pattern (wiki is wrong)

http://www.weather.com/outlook/trave...graph/MXGO0501

I am attracted to the historic towns of Mexico, but the percieved lack of reliable institutional infrastructure and corruption always scares me off.