[Europeaninusa]

My American husband wants to buy a beautiful ski lodge, 5 miles North of Mount Snow, has the potential to be transformed into a Bed and Breakfast.

Could you please tell me more about the area? Cons and pros, i have never been there.

How are the winters? the summers? The roads, the people? The taxes? property taxes?

Avalanche danger? other nature disaster danger? what about bears, wild animals?

We are right now in California, we would keep and rent our properties here.

thank you

[GeoffD]

That part of Vermont is 100% tourist driven and caters to the metro-New York market. I would guess that more than half of the local population is transplants from that area. That demographic with all the vacation home owners makes for high property prices by Vermont standards. It would look cheap to most Californians.

The roads are mostly rural 2-lane state highways in good repair.

Vermont has a state school tax which makes for very high property taxes compared to California. That part of the property tax is means-tested for residential property.

Income taxes, sales taxes, lodging & meals tax are high by regional standards but a bit lower than California.

You need to consider energy costs. There is no natural gas infrastructure and electricity costs are similar to California so you don't ever want to heat with electricity. People heat with oil or propane and both are very costly. Insulation, doors, and windows have a huge impact on energy costs. An unimproved large 1960's home costs a fortune to heat.

Winters are cold by California standards. Subzero happens in January. It is low elevation so 40F and pouring rain also happens in January. Summers are temperate. You might have a few weeks in the summer of 90F and humid.

Avalanche danger: None. By California standards, Mount Snow is a "hill". It only gets about 150" of snow in a good winter. It is not steep enough or snowy enough to have avalanche issues. Snow at the ski resort mostly comes from their snowmaking system.

Natural disaster danger: Invasion from New Yorkers. Similar to an invasion from Californians. Flash flooding is your only real issue. You do not want to own a house in a flood-prone river/stream bed.

Bears: Black bears eat garbage, not people. You need a bear-proof place to keep your garbage. There are wild animals like fisher cats (badgers) that will eat a cat or small dog. Your biggest risk is being shot by a drunk hunter during deer season.

That corner of Vermont is quite removed from metro-area amenities. Albany, NY is 90 minutes away as the closest real city. It's 45 minutes to even Walmart-level shopping in Bennington or Brattleboro. Any kind of health care issue will be a lot of hours in a car.

[Sierrajeff]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

(GeoffD's response)

Speaking as a California resident who owns property in VT and loves VT - GeoffD pretty much nailed it. When we lived there I frequently felt as though Vermont was, from a government/tax perspective, pretty much a mini-California. [EDIT: To be clear, I say that without malice; I'm a progressive who understands that "taxes are the rent we pay for civilization". I'm just saying that there are more similarities between CA and VT than, say, if you were talking about New Hampshire or Wyoming...]

OP, where are you in California right now? Obviously there's a big variety between, say, the coastal O.C., and the High Sierra or someplace snowy such as Plumas County ... if you're in one of the latter, then the VT winters will be colder, but no more snowy (and possibly less snowy), than what you're used to... if you're in the coastal O.C. (or San Diego, L.A., Ventura County, Monterey -- whatever) then you're in for a shock unless you grew up in Montana, Minnesota, or northern New England...

The key factors are going to be your ability and willingness to deal with winter, and your desire / adaptability to live a rural lifestyle. If you've don't those before and/or are certain that you can do those things, then you should be fine. But if you're in the camp of "we live in San Francisco but gosh it's fun to get up to Tahoe for a weekend of skiing in the snow" well... then you may have some problems adjusting to live near Mount Snow.

It's often said that to make it in Vermont, you have to either love winter (i.e., you get out and enjoy it and take advantage of it - snowshoe, ski, etc.) and/or you have to have a beloved indoor hobby to get you through winter. Of course if you're running a B&B that caters towards the ski (and fall foliage) crowd, then that may be enough to keep you occupied through the winter... and just as that's dying down, it's spring and you can focus on outdoorsy stuff, growing a garden (maybe have a side business), etc.

Bottom line - sure it can work. But don't jump into it unless you have a pretty good idea of what you're getting into...

[GeoffD]

I'd add that a Californian is used to having 300 sunny days per year. Vermont isn't Seattle but 2/3 of the winter days won't have any sun. It starts improving a bit in March and by July/August, it's usually 2/3 at least partly sunny. SADS from lack of sunshine gets to a lot of people. It helps if you're out skiing on most of the sunny days.

I'd also say that there are a lot of rural places in Vermont where it would take an outsider a long time to integrate with the community. Resort towns are mostly transplants and it's easier to become part of the community. Mount Snow is jammed on winter weekends but it's pretty slow midweek. Once the lifts stop running, it's pretty much just the locals in town much of the time.

[Wells5]

By "ski lodge" do you mean the house (large or small) of an individual or family near the slopes or an inn or hotel catering to skiers? If it's the former, how many guest rooms can you carve out of the house and is the number of rooms sufficient to make a profit without charging exorbitant prices?

The ski season in that area is about 3 to 4 months long, which means that for most of the year business will be slow. People do visit in the summer months drawn by drastically reduced prices for hotel rooms, condos and houses. Moreover, during the ski season, most of your business will be on the weekends as previously stated.

During the height of the ski season, many skiers prefer to stay as far away as Bennington or Brattleboro where rates are a bit cheaper. As also stated previously, most skiers are from the New York/New Jersey area. Skiers from the greater Boston area prefer to ski at Mt. Sunapee, NH or at Loon Mountain also in New Hampshire.