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My wife and I love to travel. We try to do one international trip a year. Wherever we go, we always jokingly ask each other if this the place we would want to own a vacation home to enjoy now and live seasonally in our retirement years (many years away). We also like to watch the show House Hunter International together and imagine ourselves with this option. I heard of a few coworkers of mine who has purchased a vacation home with the plans of having it paid off by their retirement. I was wondering if someone has done this and how they felt about it. Was it worth it owning and taking care of two properties at the same time (financial & physical maintenance)?
The other deliemna is whether to own your vacation home or rent a vacation home. Assuming you have a fix amount (example $200,000) set aside. You can spent it all to have your own piece of paradise. A place that you can keep in the family and pass it down to your kids. Or view the fix amount as a "travel fund" account that you can use a portion every year for travel to differnt places. Over 10 to 15 years, you can see many places and not be locked into one set location. These days with Airbnb/HomeAway, you have tons of options in every imaginable city. The plus side is no maintenance costs, taxes or renters to worry about. Any opinion/advice?
I've been debating this question myself. And it appears to me that I can rent a furnished vacation home for several months each year at a much lower cost, without tying up a lot of my cash in purchasing and maintaining a property in one location. Another advantage is I can change the location every year if I so desire.
I have always been on the opinion that it's better to rent the nicest place you can afford and enjoy your vacation and then walk away from it when the vacation is over free of any financial burdens of ownership. I still believe that's generally smarter most of the time. This is what my analytical brain has always concluded.
Having said that, we recently purchased a second home that we may initially occupy one week out of the year. It's in a beach town and I suppose you could call it a vacation home and it may very well be a retirement home.
We rented seasonally for four years and there were always disappointments. The place never looked like the photos in vrbo. Threadbare sheet, towels previous guests took fishing with them, odors and lumpy beds. This year we bought our own place and at least we'll know what to expect when we get there. AirBnB has no appeal to me. I don't want to rent in a piece of someone else's home. I want privacy, especially for long seasonal stays.
I have seen a number of snowbirds get tired of maintaining 2 homes, and end up selling the one in the cold winter country. I had one neighbor tell me that "no matter what you want it is in the other house".
OP, what makes you think your children will want or be able to maintain your vacation home after you are gone (same advice/question for primary residence as well)? Also, if the residence is international, what happens when you are tired of the expense and headache of making the journey there? What happens in 10 years when plane ticket cost 3x as much to get there or terrorist/security challenges make the journey a miserable experience?
I would have to have some local friends I was close with in order to even consider buying the 2nd home. The one exception would be if I could profit from the vacation rental income associated with renting the property out, but not sure I would want to live in a resort area.
I have seen a number of snowbirds get tired of maintaining 2 homes, and end up selling the one in the cold winter country. I had one neighbor tell me that "no matter what you want it is in the other house".
If we sell one, it will be the winter home in Arizona, not the one in Alaska. We can always take trips in the winter if it gets too cold.
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