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Does anyone here maintain two separate homes, or residences since they retired and travel between them? What has been your experience exactly? Do the costs of maintaining two homes eat up your retirement income? Is it manageable? Does the driving back and forth bother you?
Our present retirement plan (which we won't carry out for some years) is to spend winters in our home in St. George, Utah. However, I'd rather spend summers somewhere else. We've discussed selling our main home in Northern Utah when I finally retire and spending summers somewhere in either Idaho or Wyoming. Possible locations might be around Island Park, Idaho which is about 70 miles from Yellowstone National Park. We've also considered somewhere around Jackson Hole, Wyoming, but real estate there is very pricey.
Than there's the issue with the kids. Neither residence is particularly close to where I expect they will be living (but who knows?)
I'd appreciate feedback from anyone who has done this with two homes.
As a Florida resident, being a snowbird always appealed to me. My ideal arrangement would be to have a summer home in Chicago, and a winter home in Florida. But having crunched the numbers, I found it was just not economically feasible to maintain two homes.
A compromise that worked for us until my husband became disabled, making the whole travel back and forth thing unworkable, was to keep our home in Florida and rent an apartment up north for the summer, using websites such as vrbo.com to find vacation rentals. It was much less expensive, and we didn't have any worries about taking care of the other property in our absence.
One plan we're contemplating is to have our main home somewhere near the coast (Oregon, Washington), and have a condo in or near a big city with good medical facilities. The idea is to spend most of the time on the coast and use the condo as health issues crop up and for occasional big city life. As health issues override, we'd switch, spending most of the time at the condo. I figure major items and outside maintenance at the condo would be taken care of with condo fees. When we switch, maintenance at the house becomes an issue, causing us to sell or find a property manager who will also rent it out.
My wife goes back and forth on it because she'd like a big house and the plan requires a smaller house in order to afford the condo. I need to make her realize that all of our kids will likely not visit at the same time. If they did, some would probably prefer to be in a hotel.
Good thread. My FIL is a snow bird between Massachusetts and Florida and my DH has talked about doing that. Personally I think I'd rather rent for a month or two down south than to have a fixed place to snowbird. We currently have two homes and I look forward to getting back to only one in the future. Unless is was a great deal, I can't see how financially we would come out ahead with two.
Unless is was a great deal, I can't see how financially we would come out ahead with two.
"if you have to ask how much it costs..."
For most folks two homes would have to mean two very modest properties.
On a practical basis, w/r/t upkeep and repairs and all that, condo apartments are about it.
All in all I call that a big fat "Meh".
Quote:
Personally I think I'd rather rent for a month or two down south than to have a fixed place to snowbird.
Agreed. A summer month or two up north like Canada or the Adirondacks wouldn't go amiss either.
One all paid for house in the Carolina's along with an RV might be the solution.
Enjoy the mild and long spring and fall seasons then hit the road for the hot/cold extremes.
Well, it should work until the driving becomes a problem.
Last edited by MrRational; 11-30-2012 at 05:10 PM..
Interesting question, and one that I consider, too. My favorite example of this is a woman I met in the Bobo Hotel's lounge in BsAs. She spent the summer in Cape Cod, then moved her household, including two large dogs (Boerbels), to spend the summer, again, in Capetown!! If I've ever been truly envious, this has to be it. I believe she and/or her husband were retired diplomatic corps.
I always figured I'd be at least semi-retired by now, and my plan was to be a migrant worker: winter in Miami on my sailboat (which is long gone ), spring in Hot Springs (Racing Festival of the South), summer in the mountains for trail riding in off hours. Home between gigs in rural Kansas. Well, I've got the Kansas part, lol, and so far this year, so good. Haven't had to do my 54 mile commute in a single blizzard yet. Looks like now I might have to retire directly to hospice, but the traveler option I guess is still on the table.
Anyone?
Sure, we do and have quite a few friends here in Fl that do also.
We rented for the first few years in Fl and it cost more for fewer months.
We want entire seasons on both ends.
Financing was done by buying two places with the proceeds from one.....settling for 'less' property-wise.Neither house will ever be featured in Home & Gardens but certainly aren't embarrassing.We did buy after prices fell, which made a big difference.
Most of our friends here (in Fl) didn't have to get rid of their northern home simply because they have more money than we do but do have much more modest houses here.
We still drive back and forth but it's getting tiresome and keep saying we're going to fly.
One big problem with not owning both is that vacation rentals on the Florida end(any snowbird or tourist area) are much easier to obtain and competitive but you can't rely on getting the same place, year after year and where we are up north, they are scarce and impossibly high (for us)due to the scarcity.
I'm not familiar with these issues in the locations you mention so don't know if any of that applies or not.
we had two homes up until july when i sold off the 2nd home.
the worry during the winter when we werent there was just a huge weight.
the storms,the poweroutages,the heat failing were all big issues. the temperature monitor would call us at 2qam and tell us the temperature was 42 degrees.
was it a poweroutage that was local , was it just me? did the heat crap out? beats me. it would take a while to sort it all out.
we found the overall expenses and lost oppertunity costs on all the money tied up in the house that it was very very costly for the amount of time it was used.
all in all it sounded like a great idea but i wouldnt do it again.
We had considered doing it. Winters in FL, Summers in MA. We had decided if we were going to do it we would sell our home and purchase a small condo in each location. I say condo as we felt they would be very easy to just close up and go to the other. Meaning no maintenance concerns. Others living there who could check on it, etc.
In the end we decided against it and we retired to SC.
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), spring in Hot Springs (Racing Festival of the South), summer in the mountains for trail riding in off hours. Home between gigs in rural Kansas. Well, I've got the Kansas part, lol, and so far this year, so good. Haven't had to do my 54 mile commute in a single blizzard yet. Looks like now I might have to retire directly to hospice, but the traveler option I guess is still on the table.
