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Many well to do Long Island married men have apartments in Manhattan for weekend business meetings. But on Sunday he always returns home with an apologetic look on his face (Yes, Gertrude it happened again) he feels secure in that dutch-colonial house, he's at home.
(1) A now-widowed friend of my parents has long been a real estate owner and manager, owning multiple residential properties + a few commercial properties spread around greater metro NYC and Long Island (her parents owned varied residential and commercial properties and she got into it herself via them, I suppose). She has a 3-bedrooom apartment in Flushing, Queens as her long-term primary residence (since around 1963 to the present) that is likely rent-controlled; plus a newer studio apartment in Bayside, Queens; plus she owns a condo in southern Florida (in the greater Miami - Fort Lauderdale area) that she spends months living in (during the winter months). She used to also have a Long Island-based single-family home prior to the 1960s + later also had a long-term bungalow-type home in Woodstock, NY (both of which she & her now-late husband parted with).
(2) A single unmarried professional realtor (now in his late 50s per this writing) that I met & knew in Long Island owns 2 or 3 houses on the North Shore of Suffolk County, Long Island (with one of the houses serving as a combination house & realty office for meeting and working with clients and visitors). Then he also has an apartment in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan. And, if I recall correctly, he owns 3 cars.
The trick is to not own another place outside of the city, it is to know people who do! I go to florida all winter to "visit" friends and family. And the times I don't want to see them I stay in a nice hotel. Ditto for my winter escapes to PR (Grandpa!). During summer, friends out on the shore of LI and upstate make for excellent weekend escapes...and all I need to bring is my winning smile, sharp humor, and premium spirits.
I'll let everyone else deal with mortgage, taxes, insurance, utility bills, pest control, repairs, cleaning, winterizing, the obligation to be there all the time, and all the other reasons why second home ownership blows...I just show up, have fun, and say goodbye. Fortunately for me, I live in a place where nobody wants to stay with me when they visit NYC, so it's doubly perfect!
The trick is to not own another place outside of the city, it is to know people who do! I go to florida all winter to "visit" friends and family. And the times I don't want to see them I stay in a nice hotel. Ditto for my winter escapes to PR (Grandpa!). During summer, friends out on the shore of LI and upstate make for excellent weekend escapes...and all I need to bring is my winning smile, sharp humor, and premium spirits.
I'll let everyone else deal with mortgage, taxes, insurance, utility bills, pest control, repairs, cleaning, winterizing, the obligation to be there all the time, and all the other reasons why second home ownership blows...I just show up, have fun, and say goodbye. Fortunately for me, I live in a place where nobody wants to stay with me when they visit NYC, so it's doubly perfect!
I never been good at doing that. I used to have friends in NYC that I could stay with for a few days, but I always rented a place so I didn't have to rely on other peoples' kindness. I got family in Miami that own a beach house in Miami Beach, but they've never offered it so i haven't asked. I got cousins and uncles/aunts in PR, but I'm not close with them - though that doesn't stop some members of my family from showing up in San Juan hoping to be housed and fed and barely speak a word of Spanish, or know anyone's name. I also got family on Vancouver Island, where they got a cabin in the mountains, but the plane ticket is too damn expensive. Maybe one day, someone in my family will move somewhere cool so I can impose on them.
Many well to do Long Island married men have apartments in Manhattan for weekend business meetings.
What exactly happens in these apartments aside from weekend business?
I remember watching something like this play out in a movie starring Melanie Griffith and a young girl whose father worked in a restaurant. One of the characters was a well to do dad from LI who kept a second family in a Manhattan apartment. I forgot the title of the movie though so I could not find reruns in Youtube.
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