Vacation home, do you regret it?

[NW-Bound]

If I were to sell my 2nd home now, I think I would lose about $75K. And that is after owning it for 11 years. The market for 2nd homes in this unincorporated area is still weak after the housing bubble burst. I told my wife from the beginning that it was a "consumption" item and not an investment.

Nearly all nicer homes are owned by weekenders, as the local jobs do not pay enough for the permanent residents to buy. And not too many people retire up there, as the drive to healthcare facilities is a long one.

[Which Roger]

I would not have purchased a 2nd home while still working, but did so as soon as I ERd and have never regretted it. But I'm one who actually gets enjoyment and satisfaction out of home projects. Lived in the primary home for a long time, and the project list had run dry, so the 2nd home was a blank slate. To me a downside of renting is that you don't have much control with what you do to the residence and can't really make it your own.

If you purchase a home in an area that's fun to visit, and enjoy entertaining and letting friends and relatives enjoy the experience too, be wary of becoming "too popular" and having the 2nd home turn into a revolving door for visitors.

[Ronstar]

We've had a vacation condo in Scottsdale, az for 15 years. 1682 miles from our far sw suburban Chicago home. At first, it was a monthly getaway, with only one trip during the summer. 9 round trip flights a year.

Now 2 trips a year- just a snowbird place now. Now we drive there instead of flying.

I don't think I would want a second home where I would be responsible for maintenance, but the condo is perfect for us - small, no maintenance, and relatively low cost. I never have regretted buying it.

[euro]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeTN I live in the South, but I not particularly like summer weather in the South. I have rented for vacations in Northern Michigan for many summers. Now I'm fully retired. I could rent a cottage for a whole summer. I'm thinking of buying and found a very good deal. I will make an offer in a day or two if I don't get cold feet. I know all the arguments in favor of renting. But we would enjoy having our own place. I can afford it, so it is really the issue of having the responsibility of owning 2 houses. I wonder what others think who have purchased vacation homes?

I have had a small mountain cabin (3 hours away) for the last 20 years and never regretted it. Kids first liked it (ages 3-12), then didn't like it (age 13-15), then hated it (age 16-20). Now they like it again...

Anyway, for me, it was always an island of calm (with marginal cellphone reception, much to my boss's dismay ) and I still love going there just to relax (from all the relaxing I'm already doing since I retired

All that said, it IS a bigger expense than you might think at first. Utilities, maintenance, repairs, etc all do add up. However, if, as you said, you can afford it, I say GO FOR IT!

[Elbata]

Live in Orange County and fell in love with Big Bear my first time seeing it. Did buy a cabin, it was just something I really wanted. Kind of like buying a boat, just seems to make sense at the time.

It did fulfill a "need" at the time, but overall, looking at the grand scheme of things, a wiser choice would have been not to buy. But that's hindsight after all the years owning and now a few years of being rid of the property.

Now we've been offered to use another nicer cabin for free and we haven't done so.

[Danmar]

It's such a personal choice. Bought our first "vacation" home in 1997. It's a lakehouse (called cottage) in Ontario about a 2 hour drive from Toronto. Used it as a weekend getaway place while working. Got a lot of enjoyment out of it. Still do. Family, friends on weekends. Boating, etc. I retired in 2006 and bought another "vacation" property in Canmore Alberta. This became our principle residence. Took up skiing and biking. Winters were long though so bought another place in Arizona. This made 4 places.
Obviously, not something most people would do, but we enjoy it. Need to hire professional property managers and this can be expensive. Still travel a fair bit to international destinations but warm weather trips to the beach not necessary with the Arizona house.

Rent instead of owning? Depends on your personality. Do you want to be in control of do you want to be flexible? I like my clothes in the closet, my car in the garage, my furniture, etc when I arrive. But I can certainly see the other side of the issue. Usually a lot cheaper to rent.

These are lifestyle rather than financial decisions. No regrets.

[Danmar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by calmloki We do about 6 months in SoCal and 6 in Oregon. Own in both places. Every trip we end up trashing a bunch of condiments and partial containers (pickles, coffee, etc.). Have tried to outfit each place completely with the fantasy that I could get on an airplane with just a toothbrush; with the result that, again, the pants or jacket I wanted is 1000 miles away. All that said, I like living with our stuff and our furniture and our design choices. I like owning, not renting.

I know the feeling. We have basically completely outfitted 4 places. The clothes we keep at each place meet the needs of that place and are all quite different. I know where everything is (mostly). We often move to another place with hardly anything, certainly have a tooth brush everywhere😃 Sometimes we will have an issue when we travel internationally picking the right clothes which could be in different homes.

I am an owner type of guy too, for better or worse.

[O2Bfree]

We had a little vacation place on a nearby island for five years. We had some extra cash to invest, and real estate prices were down, so we decided to pick up a place partly for investment and partly for pleasure. The island is "the shortest distance to far away", as the tourism ads tout, we can get there in about an hour, and we were lucky to pick up a cute place on a short sale.

We did enjoy it, but it was quite a bit of extra work making repairs and keeping up the yard (it was a small place on 3/4 acre, so lots of mowing and weed/brush control). We probably would have kept it longer anyway, but the HOA was planning some large assessments for repairs and upgrades at the marina. Much of the work was hotly protested by members who had less expensive places not on waterfront property.

Also, some of the planned improvements were unnecessary and/or overly-expensive. Some wealthy people on the HOA board were from the mainland's east side and wanted a more upscale look. We're talking improvements such as a $30K card-lock gate for the parking lot at the fishing beach, where a simple chain with a padlock had worked fine for decades. Or $500K to replace a very short bridge that could have been replaced for half that. This, on a local island paradise with charm largely attributed to its funkiness.

So we bailed and sold the place last year. Made a nice little profit, and no more weekends spent mowing and bushwhacking over there, but we do miss the place from time to time.

[HadEnuff]

Quote:

Originally Posted by H2ODude Have spent years considering this. Just cannot get comfortable with owning two places; maintaining one is enough headache.

I'm with you.

[kcowan]

I think the key factor is whether the OP loves maintaining properties. For cottage properties, expect to spend 5-8 days of hard work before you can enjoy it each year.

For rentals, be prepared to be frustrated that certain things should be done.

For HOAs, expect to be frustrated if you are out-voted for improvements.

There is no universal perfect solution. Only something that fits you for some period of your life. And consider it a lifestyle expense. If it makes money, consider yourself very lucky!

[W2R]

As you all probably know by now, I am quite a homebody and do not have any desire to travel. I also have no desire for a second home, but if I did then I'd buy one of those lock-n-leave condos in a multistory building, that I wouldn't have to maintain or be too concerned about when gone.

But for me, it's just not anything that would add to my life. I would always feel obliged to go travel to the property and check on it at least once or twice every single year. I have more that I want to do with my retirement time. Obviously others feel differently about having a second home.

[Fedup]

I was debating about buying a place in UK this year but the design of the bedrooms were just weird. So I didn't. I go to Hawaii yearly and usually rent at the same luxury place. So it feels like home. They have the same decor so it's not a problem. But very glad I backed out of a timeshare years ago, even though it's in Hawaii but the timeshare is not as luxurious as the one we normally rent. Both of my brothers bought timeshares in Hawaii, they are now regretting. They are now bored with Hawaii.

[Gumby]

For the past 16 summers, the young wife and I have rented the same house on a beautiful lake in mid-coast Maine. It is usually a family affair, with mother in law, sisters in law and nephews coming to stay for varying amounts of time. By now, it really does feel like home, and we quite enjoy our time there. But I'm sure glad I don't have to worry about busted pipes or furnaces or painting or landscaping or any of the other obligations of ownership. Having one house of our own is hard enough.

[Meadbh]

Some years ago, during a very stressful period of my life, I had really wanted "my" vacation home. But I was not interested in the upkeep and maintenance, nor did I feel that the cost was justifiable, given that most vacation homes are occupied for weeks, not months, per year.

Enter fractional ownership. No, it is not the same as a timeshare. It's like owning a piece of a condo. You have a schedule, and you always get to use your own condo. You pay a fraction of the condo fees, the owners' association fees (covers insuite maintenance, upgrades, marketing) and property taxes. Just like a regular condo, you can be on the HOA. If you need ~4 weeks per year, you might purchase a 1/12 fraction (which I did). If you can't or don't want to use your time there, you can send close friends, put the time in a rental pool, or exchange it with other properties.

I made great use (close to 100%) of my fractional ownership for 5 years, and it was an absolute lifesaver. Then I decided I really liked the area, and moved there. Now I put high season weeks in the rental pool (which covers most of my expenses) and I put low season weeks in an exchange program. The result is that for the past decade I have had access to luxury vacation properties worldwide at a fraction of the cost I would normally incur to stay in them independently. The accumulated savings easily cover the initial cost of my vacation property, which I still own. It has been an excellent lifestyle investment for me. No regrets! I think the key is that I always understood it to be a lifestyle investment, not a financial investment. People who bought larger fractions than they needed have discovered that over the years.

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronstar We've had a vacation condo in Scottsdale, az for 15 years. 1682 miles from our far sw suburban Chicago home. At first, it was a monthly getaway, with only one trip during the summer. 9 round trip flights a year. Now 2 trips a year- just a snowbird place now. Now we drive there instead of flying. I don't think I would want a second home where I would be responsible for maintenance, but the condo is perfect for us - small, no maintenance, and relatively low cost. I never have regretted buying it.

My daughter's first home is a townhouse next to a large resort, and was built by the resort original developer. Hence, it has very nice surroundings, and one can walk to the resort for golf or to dine in its restaurants.

The upkeep is minimal, as the exterior is all maintained. The HOA fee is $300/month for a 1,000-sq.ft. home, which seems high but you never have to worry about exterior painting, roof leak, etc... In fact, the home insurance policy she has to get is about the same as that for renters, which only covers the home content. I suspect that many of the owners are snowbirds. Prices are about $150-175/sq.ft.

Adjacent to these town homes are larger homes from 1,700 sq.ft. to 4,000 sq.ft. These larger homes are more traditional, requiring the owners to maintain the exterior.

[imoldernu]

Regrets? I've had a few, but then again, too few to mention...

We lived between our campground home and Florida from 1990 to 2004, when we bought into our Liberty Village CCRC in Peru Il

Our Woodhaven Lakes campground home... 25 miles away in IL. Total annual costs including campground fees, utilities, insurance and taxes...
Less than $2500/yr.


Our Lake Griffin Harbor - Florida home. Total annual costs - lot rent, utilities, off season maintenance, taxes and basic utilities about $6500/yr. We'll sell after our kids use it while their new FL home is being built this summer.



Our current home in Peru...We'll keep our Woodhaven Lakes place for summer "vacation" trips... 35 minutes away.



Wouldn't trade the past 28 years of moving around for anything, but the trip to Florida and the prep work before coming and going has become too much to handle.

[Out of Steam]

We've never owned a vacation house, though wouldn't say we never will. I could imagine owning a city condo and a vacation house, but can't imaging staying in the workforce long enough to pay for both.

One thing I am certain of is that I wouldn't ever want to own two houses requiring exterior maintenance. One or the other would need to be a condo or something similar.

[RAE]

Our situation is somewhat similar to yours, only in reverse - we live in northern Michigan, but rent a house on the Gulf Coast during the winter to escape the long winters here. Everyone is different, but renting is clearly the best way to go for us. No maintenance on a second house, no insurance (including flood insurance), no property taxes, no worrying about the house being broken into when we are gone, etc, etc.. Plus, we can always decide to rent in a different location some day if we want to. We love the house we rent, and have rented it for 5 straight years now. We bring a lot of our own stuff with us, so the rental home is very comfortable to us while we are there, and almost seems like home. Anyway, renting works very well for us, and we have no plans to buy a house down south.

[Dash man]

We're snowbirds owning a condo in Florida right on the Atlantic coast north of two major cruise ports and couple hours drive both to another. We're finishing up our first winter season here and will head back to our PA home in a few weeks. A major remodel will be done while we're up north, so we'll be coming south to an almost new place next fall. We'll fly down to check the progress as it occurs. We've loved it this year with the beautiful ocean view and sounds of the ocean.

[Done]

We have owned a small mountain home for many years and initially enjoyed the adventure of visiting it on weekends. We have fond memories of the early days we spent there and the care we put into renovating. Over time, however, the maintenance became a burden and we slowly tapered off our trips. Each time we would visit, we would need to clean, rake leaves or shovel snow, exterminate, restock supplies, paint, repair, etc. We felt that we had become landlords to a mostly-vacant home. The upkeep, insurance and taxes cost thousands per year which I could no longer justify when I FIREd, so we decided to find a paying full-time tenant. Now we have a slightly positive cash flow after employing a local property manager, but if the opportunity arises, we will sell. Unless you're planning to relocate to the property later, I would recommend renting or using hotels or airbnb to allow for more variety and less commitment, leaving the work and expense of maintenance to someone else.