2nd home/cabin etc. How'd you decide to pull the trigger?

[napili50]

Watching real estate market, go in with eyes wide open as to what might come. We closed on second home Oct 2007, everyone in this forum can imagine what happen next. Property values did not recover for more than a dozen years. My advice is make sure worst case still palatable.

[meridiver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by skyking1 Congrats, that sounds like a total move rather than a second home. We dream of a place at about 1500 feet elevation in Kona, for a temperature we can tolerate. We loved the houses there with a couple of garage doors to just let the breezes through. It is out of our budget. We will continue to visit.

Our land is up on the North Kohala coast. It's pretty hot and dry. If you don't mind being farther from Kona, have you looked at Waimea? It's much cooler there and a nice, fun small town. We considered it and you can still find slightly cheaper places there. Our problem is that we are divers and after dives we are supposed to stay below 1000 ft for at least a few hours so the elevation in Waimea (2500+ ft) is too high for us.

We may end up selling our current house and moving there permanently, but we decided to defer that decision until we get the house built and actually live there for awhile.

[skyking1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by meridiver Our land is up on the North Kohala coast. It's pretty hot and dry. If you don't mind being farther from Kona, have you looked at Waimea? It's much cooler there and a nice, fun small town. We considered it and you can still find slightly cheaper places there. Our problem is that we are divers and after dives we are supposed to stay below 1000 ft for at least a few hours so the elevation in Waimea (2500+ ft) is too high for us. We may end up selling our current house and moving there permanently, but we decided to defer that decision until we get the house built and actually live there for awhile.

Thanks for the reply. We have vacationed there a half dozen times and know the Kohala well. I take it your land is lower?
Years ago a rafting company did a trip "flumin' the Ditch" where they took inflatable kayaks down the irrigation canals and tunnels on the North Kohala. That was a blast.
We liked Waimea too.Heck, the only two places we would not settle in are the lava houses on the south coast, and in Hilo proper. I've had enough rain here in the Seattle area.
I looked at Waimea, and there was a leasehold plot of 1.76 acres for 299K. That is at the top limits of my land budget, and building costs there would break our proverbial bank.
The more affordable lots there are too small for our liking. We have been on 1.25 acres for too long now.
Our current plan is about 200K cash in land, HELOC to build, then sell the old place and pay off everything. Hawaii is out of our $$.

[The Onceler]

We had a town we knew we wanted to retire to. We bought a cottage there in our mid 30s. We sold that after 4 years and bought a country house (to which we could retire) in our late 30s. This year (we both will be 60) we sold our main city place and are making our second home our principal residence. Has worked out great. 90 minutes away from the city and work. But since Covid there has been no need to show up at work more than 2x per month. The biggest benefit over 24 years of ownership— the melting away of stress at 3pm on a Friday afternoon when we left for the weekend. That never wore off. And now it is our home and we love it. Find the right spot and it can really be transformative. Not a financial decision if you can make it work. Meaning that I wouldn’t look at it as a monetary investment so much as a psychological one. How much is your well-being worth? To us it is worth a good bit. Good luck in your search and decision.

[Groovy]

This might be a bit of a tangent, but maybe there's something of value for you in this reply.

I was thinking about a "condotel" or such in Florida, but it looks like those prices have gone way up of late, and HOA dues are crazy. I'm not as concerned about the 2021 housing bubble, because I don't think the same bad mortgage assets exist as 2008. I suspect you're more likely to see a "leveling off for a while" than a 2008-like crash.

Personally, I want to travel and not be stuck in one or two places. So, I got a campervan. I'm not a fan of the high gas prices right now, but I'm getting a solar system, and I have an instant pot pressure cooker, a small fridge, a Planet Fitness membership for showers, etc., so I'm quite set. I'm young enough and don't have things that might tie others down, so I can adventure a bit. Although I'm only slightly concerned about high inflation impacting a comfortable retirement, the other benefit of this kind of lifestyle is that I can live cheap for a while if I really need to. Another thing is that I have friends in various parts of the country that I'd get to see along the way. My van does pretty well on gas mileage, and I'll aim not to be a burden on friends, the environment and my fellow drivers on the road.

Vanlife or RV life isn't for everyone, of course.

[Dash man]

We bought two vacation homes. A beachfront condo on the beach in Florida and a house two blocks from the beach at the Jersey Shore. We were fortunate enough to pay cash for each of them. The condo has been expensive to maintain due to special assessments and a remodel. Thanks to Covid and an 87 year old father-in-law that now lives with us, we haven’t been able to use the condo enough to make it worth it. The Jersey Shore house we rent a few weeks each high season to pay the taxes and insurance.
I don’t regret buying either since I hope we will get the use out of them we want. The Jersey house has appreciated quite a bit.
Bottom line is we didn’t buy anything we couldn’t afford. If we had mortgages and struggled to pay the bills, they would be bad investments.

[Live Large]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KrisS A lot of very sensible replies here, but also a lot of agonising over something pretty simple. If you have the money and it is something you want, why hesitate? We actually purchased our "second home" before we purchased our primary residence. It's just how it worked out at the time and we don't regret it at all. It's a 1.5 hour flight and 5-6 hours door to door (London to rural France). We used it as a secondary for about 6 years, but it's been our primary since covid lockdowns started in Feb 2020. Once we can move freely again, we'll start looking for a new "second home". Life.Is.Short.

I also saw a response or two compelled to act on the thought of second hm because Life Is Short - I write this post while relaxing at our 2nd Hm of the past 19yrs purchased out of a super commute circumstance in 2002. Our SFH was purchased in the Central Valley of CA in 1991 and was quite affordable. Over time, the commute to the San Francisco Bay was a bit much. Found a great turn key 1br/1ba on the Hill behind a local 4yr college.
Three airports near San Jose, San Francisco Oakland
15-25miles depending where we are going. This works well for “vacations/ domestic/international.
75 miles from our larger ranch hm (2500sqft).
Prior to ER, I used almost weekly the entire time.
During Covid also stay often DW can chose still wo*k
but remotely past year. Two of everything? We’ve maintained two homes this long it’s been a luxury we have become accustomed too. Expense? We feel it has been a great use of our money - RealEstate.
We also had two rentals big on other post for streams of income - we downsized to 1 rental.

If it fits your lifestyle & funding sources are there?
Go for it! I still ER’d at 50 DW chose to continue a couple more years - FIRE calc? Not scared to spend money ~ Life is Short, I concur ~ It’s why saved $

[dingo]

I bought a house on the lake when I was 27 and lived there for a year. It was one of my goals to own lake property even though I was not wealthy by any means. I took a job about 70 miles away and decided to rent it out until I had it paid off.

It is an 1100 sq ft brick home on an awesome lot. When I purchased it years ago it was next door to homes of similar sizes. Fast forward to today and now the small homes in the area have been replaced by much larger ones. The home that I purchased has had some upgrades , but still is a small home now compared to most. I probably couldn’t afford one of the homes in the area now.