What are my options? Help!

[Regajohn]

Park City ... A real town, 40-45 minutes to SLC, draws plenty of South Americans with $$$ (it seems as though every fourth car is a Cayenne Turbo), lower altitude, terrific free bus system, so many places are on the bus line.

[Kathy884]

As we are approaching retirement age and would love to be a less hot/humid climate in the summer, I looked into possibly purchasing a condo in a ski area. First thoughts were rent it out in the winter and other times of the year and stay there in the summer. The numbers though just didn't look good at all. I explored a few different options in a few different places. I think the best way to make money would be to be a property manager lol. Property management fees really take a lot of your rental income. And carrying costs are significant for the condos.


And this next point may be obvious, but if you live in your condo for more than two weeks a year or 10% of the rental days, tax advantages are limited. Here is an explanation from another source.


"If you use the home personally for more than the greater of (a) 14 days, or (b) 10% of the rental days, you are using it “too much,” and you cannot claim your loss. In this case, you can still use your deductions to wipe out the rental income, but you cannot go beyond the income to create a loss. Any deductions you cannot use are carried forward and may be usable in future years."


With a regular rental property, depreciation can go against other income you have which can be quite advantageous if you have a high marginal tax rate.


Anyway, I strongly suggest that you crunch the number. Doing that in a few different places with a few different options made it super apparent to me that this was not a good idea for us. // If you are quite affluent and can take a big hit (negative cash flow) and want to do this, sure. // I, though, was really surprised at the size of the negative cash flow projections for options I looked at.