Sunny Isles vacation condo...buy or rent? (bank owned, sale)

[AvidCyclist]

I currently live in California, but once every few months I head up to Sunny Isles and rent an ocean-view highrise condo. Usually, I make the trip about 4x a year and stay about 2 weeks each time. I'd say on average I spend about $20-25k/year on my four 2-week stays.

Recently, I started toying with the idea of just picking up a condo out there. I do love the area, and I like the idea of having my own place out there where I wouldn't have to go through the hassle of finding a place to rent, renting a vehicle, packing and unpacking clothes, etc. Where I could just jump on a plane and be at my own place.

The thing thats kept me from doing it up until now is the price (~$1.5 million), upkeep, taxes, HOA fees, storm damage worries, etc. I know that if I spend the next 15-20 years just renting there I'll still spend a fraction of the cost than if I buy, but this isn't really an "investment" purchase for me either. As I get older, I'm not really sure what I even need to save the money for.

So my question is this, hassle being the number one criteria and finances being important or less so. Can I justify buying a condo out there, or am I better off continuing to rent for the next 15-20 years since it's only about 8 weeks out of the year.

[hurricaneMan1992]

Plenty of vacation rentals in the area. Unless you're planning to rent it out yourself as a vacation condo, it's worth it for you to rent. Especially since condo HOAs can be a huge PITA--and if a hurricane comes, you can just rent a condo in another part of FL until they rebuild in SIB.

[steveklein]

If you plan to rent it out when you aren't there it probably makes sense to buy. If you don't, then it probably makes sense to keep renting.

[Sun&Peace]

You should think of buying with Condo-Hotels. You can stay there as an owner for the time you need and then to enroll in hotel program and make some money. Sometimes yo owners are not obligated to enroll, and can manage units on their own. It is very popular way of owning a vacational property for foreign or out of state investors. Hope this info helps, ( if not you , then may be somebody else

[elliotts]

Hello based off your information you should buy. Definitely you need a off market sale to keep price less then half of what you mentioned. There a lot under $350k.

[LifeIsGood01]

In this case it's cheaper to rent, but if you have the extra money and want it as an investment property now might be the time to find something as prices have not gone back up yet. Since you have no rush you may be able to get a good deal on a foreclosure or bank owned property.