Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
How far and assessable should a vacation and/or 2nd home be?
I was talking to a friend and she said that your second home should be in a place where you can fly nonstop from your airport to the airport where it is located. What do you think?
I have a friend who lives in Denver but wants to have a second home in Vermont. But there is similar scenery in the West and in order to get to Vermont she'll have to connect in either Atlanta or Detroit fly to Burlington then drive 2 hours to her Vermont house? Might as well live in North Korea with all that traveling.
Would you do this?
Also, many Coloradans own second homes in Hawaii. Would you do think of this also?
Do I agree with what? Don't understand the poll question.
At any rate, distance and ease of access may not be the requirement for second home in some people's minds. And as a second home, ours was more desire over requirement...just a psychological perspective.
It can also be a matter of how much time one has to spare in transit and what one envisions doing there. A second home in one's 20s and 30s can be different than one in one's 40s and 50s and different again as one gets still older.
The main thing about our second homes has always been that they were located in a very different area naturally than the one we lived in at the time. So, mountains or beach and palm trees or a very handy little place with walk to restaurants and entertainment but still very pretty gardens and town center.
once the novelty wears off we found making the trek was not much fun and in traffic i hated it.. throw in emergencies like power outages in the winter, failed burner parts or other things that can happen to an unattended home and it can be real nerve racking.
we also wanted the kids to use it and they were not going to travel far either.
with really only weekends to use it except for some vacation time the less time spent traveling and the more time there the better.
we finally sold it for many reasons including the fact we always felt compelled to go there since it cost so much and we went little anywhere else..
Last edited by mathjak107; 05-18-2014 at 07:51 AM..
Far enough to be different than your day to day life, close enough to get to easily is case of a water main break, power outage requiring maintenance, etc.
Kind of like when you send a kid to college: close enough to get there quickly in an emergency but far enough away that the parents have to think twice before popping in on a whim.
If we were to buy a vacation home one day- it would be within a 1 day drive. I've done more than enough flying in my life and prefer to travel by road or rail. Plus, since you'll need your car when you get to your vacation home (in most instances) it would make more sense for us to be within 1 days driving distance so, within 12 hours of home.
When the beach house was first purchased, it was 45 minutes away from my grandparents.
Then the house was quitclaimed to my father. Over the years it was 4 hrs away, 35 minutes away and then a combined four hour plane ride and a 25 minute car ride away, back to 4 hours away... and then 35 minutes away.
Now, it takes this city girl about 40 minutes depending upon traffic to become a beach girl again.
Funny... in 1947 it took 45 minutes without an interstate. Now in 2014 time has only been reduced by 5 minutes with the interstate, but heavier traffic.
When we bought our second home 21 years ago, we were 1000 miles away, but it was located "back home" near family (in NC) and we bought with an eye towards retirement. We flew back for many holidays and often stayed several weeks in the summer.
We moved back to NC and relocated about 2 1/2 hours from our second home.
Any further distance would have made it a real hassle for us, especially if heading up on a Friday and leaving on Sunday.
We are relocating once again and now will be about 1 hour from our second home. It is soooo much nicer to have that short drive. Eventually, we may add on to the property and retire there permanently.
I would never purchase a second home in a location where I have to fly to enjoy it "forever." One's health status changes, once's financial status can change . . . flying can become a real obstacle to actually being able to enjoy the property. It is different for every couple . . . some folks are able to stay a full summer at their second home, some plan to only use it for holidays, some want to go to the lake/beach/mountains every weekend possible. In the latter situation, distance becomes a crucial factor.
If you are planning to rent it out most of the time, then that is a totally different situation, as one's allowable time, according to the IRS, would mean a limited amount of days to use it, anyway.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.