bgoldstein wrote:
geoffreydean wrote:
dktxracer wrote:
Personally, I would rather rent a summer home for 3 months rather than own it and have to deal with it being rented out the rest of the year. I realize you can hire a management company to largely handle this, but I think it would be awesome to live in different places every summer via renting.
Or maybe rent a home in the area you think you want to buy. By living in the area first, you can confirm that you truly like the area and you’ll get a better sense of the pulse of the community.
I totally get your point. Renting has big advantages but I'm looking to move some retirement funds out of the stock market. It occurred to me a highly desirable vacation real estate investment would be a good hedge against a market collapse plus offer myself and my grown children a place to visit.
If you're looking for a real estate investment, compare cap rates for the markets you're looking at (net of your own use, and the tax implications of that). If you don't know how or why to compare cap rates, don't pretend it's a real estate investment.
If you're looking for investment advice, this is probably not the best place. The fact that you're asking here suggests you're looking for vacation home advice.
You can create a retirement portfolio that will meet your needs without buying a glorified vacation home. My advice is to be honest with yourself about what you want.
There's nothing wrong with buying a vacation home that you've earned after years of hard work. If you want to do that, and it's within reason, you can and you should. But don't fool yourself into thinking it's an investment if it's not.
Great advice above. I'm 1.5 hours out of Truckee, CA and did the - Buy a condo at a ski slope, rent it out and then sell it to pay for college for the kid X years down the road.
Reality was:
1: the wife really likes going up on a whim and enjoys being there no matter the season.
2: it's nice to stash stuff there so a trip up is get food and go.
3: We did xmas for family almost every year for the last 18 years and that would have been prime rental time but we don't see family much.
4: My son grew up on ski team and is a way better skier than I am and more importantly enjoyed that phase of his life.
5: We never did rent it because we put stuff we liked in and #1
6: We never sold it for college money because 2008 knocked the price out. If we would have sold it before 2008 we would have gotten an insane profit but again, #1
So the reality didn't work out and it was tough during the depression or whatever they call that adjustment but life is like that.
Good luck in your decision.
I would sell it today and buy a motorhome but #1 is more important to me.