I am considering it.

I am not asking if it was worth it from an investment standpoint because it obviously was considering the price of every property in the country has doubled over the last couple of years.

I am asking if the vacation home or second property was worth it from the stand point of personal enjoyment.

Do you feel the personal joy and enjoyment was worth the money you spent on the vacation/second home?

Beckdiesel03 said:

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This is hard to answer because I feel like everyone's work schedule and kids schedule differs and that is going to be the biggest factor as well as income . My family has a coast house that I haven't yet bought. We love it. We don't get to use it nearly as much as we want. School, sports, work and weather stops us. We have a free weekend you can guarantee 30 mph gusts and bad fishing so it's not worth it. Neither one of us is remote so a short weekend is expensive and rushed. The upkeep that my dad mainly handles is unreal. Insurance is unaffordable for every day joe, most our neighbors are cash payers and not insured. We want to stick with it because we are just in the weeds right now with a 10 and 13 yo and their calendar knowing that in a few years it will ease up. But insurance is also just tough pill to swallow

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Yes. I agree. Some of these other states may have much lower property taxes than us but home insurance prices are insane in some of these places.

We have land (50 acres) and a nice house. Its two hours away. We love when we are there, but because of life we were only able to spend 2 nights total over the last 15 months. Thankfully, my sisters family and my parents have been able to go more often and do a great job of taking care of the place.

The monthly nut (small mortgage, taxes, insurance, utilities, etc) is around $2000. If the value of the property had not risen well above that pace, then i'd think a lot harder about selling.

With kids, every "free" weekend ended up having some sort of sport, birthday party, or something else that trumped a trip to the country.

I spent 2-3 weekends a month at our camp at the lake. I wouldn't have traded it for anything. It was in a neighborhood, so we always had friends to play with, etc.

Now we just wouldn't ever use it. One kiddo is 15, the other is 21. We just never have time (doesn't help that I work a second job), and the 15 year old is in travel ball.

I could see it maybe once the youngest is out of the house but honestly would be more likely to get a camper/RV and not actual 2nd house.

Thinking in retirement we may have a winter and summer home. We shall see.

Edited - We did have a Galveston house for about 2 years that we bought with another couple. We went a handful of times but the main goal was for it to generate income. We sold out share in it to the other couple.

cjsag94 said:

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I think proximity to home is a huge factor. Anything over 2 hours away, I just don't think will get the use -

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This. It really needs to be 2 hours away or less.

Otherwise, its just too much of a production to use it.

I forgot to factor in the travel time and that is a great point. We are 2.5 hours away. If it was 2 or less that would be incredibly helpful.

cjsag94 said:

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I bought 1 last year. It's a little over an hour away, and I couldn't be happier. I am in the final 2 years of kids at home (I hope!) and everything fell into place of finding exactly what we were looking for at the right time. The day my 16 year old got her license my life freed up tremendously!

I think proximity to home is a huge factor. Anything over 2 hours away, I just don't think will get the use - and trips to check on freezing temperatures or because you left your wallet are much more onerous. I can go up and back in a day, I can commute if I want, etc. Inviting friends and family to join us actually works out regularly, even last minute.

I will add, unless you want to pay caretakers, it's work. And the less you use it, the more you will work when you do. This, again, ties into proximity to home/work.

With all that said, the get-away relief from the grind of life has been priceless and I couldn't be happier with my purchase (not investment).

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Great to hear you are enjoying it. Yes. I know someone who bought a property out in the country, and they might be about 90-100 minutes away from where they live. It is very convenient for them. They go on the weekends from time to time and really enjoy it.

JMac03 said:

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I spent 2-3 weekends a month at our camp at the lake. I wouldn't have traded it for anything. It was in a neighborhood, so we always had friends to play with, etc.

Now we just wouldn't ever use it. One kiddo is 15, the other is 21. We just never have time (doesn't help that I work a second job), and the 15 year old is in travel ball.

I could see it maybe once the youngest is out of the house but honestly would be more likely to get a camper/RV and not actual 2nd house.

Thinking in retirement we may have a winter and summer home. We shall see.

Edited - We did have a Galveston house for about 2 years that we bought with another couple. We went a handful of times but the main goal was for it to generate income. We sold out share in it to the other couple.

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That sounds awesome for retirement. Go up north to escape the brutal summers in the south. Then escape the brutal northern winters by coming back down south for more temperate winters. I believe in this situation you definitely need to hire a caretaker for the home. I know someone else who does this winter and summer home thing and he has to pay a caretaker.

I think our plan if we did this would be to possibly rent it out when we aren't there. We have discussed Florida/Colorado, so potentially good $$ because we would be going opposite of travel season.

EclipseAg said:

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Owned a beach house in Pirate's Beach for eight years.

When we were there, it was heavenly. Small house but a great deck and view of the water. Nothing like arriving Friday evening knowing we had the weekend to relax. We could get there in a little over an hour so it was convenient.

But ... we also had it in the rental pool, and that really kept us from getting more enjoyment out of it. The summer was usually fully booked, and we kept holidays open in case we could generate some income.

I will say the stress of maintenance and the expense began to wear on me after a few years. It was not profitable, and rather than enjoying when it was free to use, I would worry we weren't making enough money.

There were lots of other issues, too, like people wanting to use it for free, damage and wear and tear from renters, etc.

If I had it to do over again, I would:

Not rent it out. Trying to balance a personal vacation home with a rental property is a challenge.

Spend more to get a bigger place. Our place was too small for extended family or friends to join us.

Worry less about intangibles. I was always uptight about something happening to the house while we were gone, or hurricanes, or repairs that needed to made.

Use it more. You really need to make it a home away from home rather than someplace you visit every now and then. If that's the case, you're better off renting at your chosen destination.

If it helps any in your decision-making, our family misses that house terribly, and we often wonder if we made a mistake selling.

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Wow. Absolutely amazing advice. Thanks so much.

Never get a vacation place and rent it out. It's either a business or your place for your use, when you want to use it.

Recognize that there will be a ton of costs associated with it, and you have to manage the problems. I've had property and every time we would go out there, it was work, not relaxing. Now we live on the property and much easier to manage.

A lot of people really complain about timeshares, and they are correct in that it is not a good investment, but if you go into it knowing that, and you want a place that you can go relax and not have to worry about anything, and you like that one particular location, then it works well. We have Disney vacation club and it's not cheap, but we've really enjoyed it. And, if we don't want to use it, very easy to sell the points. We didn't go into debt for it and paid cash.

Every time we think about getting a vacation place, we always come down to the fact that we may not want to always go to that same location for all of our time off. We thought about Pagosa Springs or Bar Harbor, Maine, or up in Montana, Idaho, or South Dakota, but we also like to travel overseas end of the beach (I would not own a beach house) and so owning a particular place just doesn't make sense unless you want to spend a ton of time there during your retirement.

TheWoodlandsTxAg said:

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EclipseAg said:

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Owned a beach house in Pirate's Beach for eight years.

When we were there, it was heavenly. Small house but a great deck and view of the water. Nothing like arriving Friday evening knowing we had the weekend to relax. We could get there in a little over an hour so it was convenient.

But ... we also had it in the rental pool, and that really kept us from getting more enjoyment out of it. The summer was usually fully booked, and we kept holidays open in case we could generate some income.

I will say the stress of maintenance and the expense began to wear on me after a few years. It was not profitable, and rather than enjoying when it was free to use, I would worry we weren't making enough money.

There were lots of other issues, too, like people wanting to use it for free, damage and wear and tear from renters, etc.

If I had it to do over again, I would:

Not rent it out. Trying to balance a personal vacation home with a rental property is a challenge.

Spend more to get a bigger place. Our place was too small for extended family or friends to join us.

Worry less about intangibles. I was always uptight about something happening to the house while we were gone, or hurricanes, or repairs that needed to made.

Use it more. You really need to make it a home away from home rather than someplace you visit every now and then. If that's the case, you're better off renting at your chosen destination.

If it helps any in your decision-making, our family misses that house terribly, and we often wonder if we made a mistake selling.

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Wow. Absolutely amazing advice. Thanks so much.

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Thanks.

To expand on my "don't rent it out" point, I know there are folks on here who use their vacation home AND rent it out and have no issues.

It's definitely easier to do now than it was years ago, with the growth of AirBnB/VRBO and the advent of online management tools.

But for us personally, with a management company that was very old-school, it was difficult. There were a ton of reasons why, mostly related to little things that we overlooked at first but that began to wear us down.

Also, vacation homes in some locations -- like the beach -- tend to attract multiple families vacationing together and that adds to the wear and tear. A vacation home somewhere like Round Top or Brenham would be mostly older couples and women's groups and would probably require a lot less expensive maintenance/repairs.

harrierdoc said:

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owning a particular place just doesn't make sense unless you want to spend a ton of time there during your retirement.

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This is what ultimately drove our decision to sell.

We loved the house, but it wasn't a place we could retire to, for lots of reasons. That's when we decided it was time to move on.

I would ask you the following:

1. What do you expect to get out of the property? Do you want total relaxation, or a place to shoot, fish, and do fix it repairs?

2. You say you don't want to hear about the financial side, but that is a HUGE part of the equation. Do you want someplace that you don't care if it doesn't appreciate much in value? Or, do you want an investment that you can enjoy?

3. Will you go into debt for said property?

4. How much time have you spent in the area in question, to ensure that is THE place for you?

5. Are you ok with getting a place and, after life circumstances change, you and your spouse/family are fine with getting out and doing something else? You'd be surprised how many spouses think that they're OK with that, but then realized it is a huge pain to buy and sell properties where you don't live and you do get emotionally invested in property.

We are saving for a small place in Austin, and we live in Temple now (hour or so north). We lived in Austin for 5.5 years, and miss a lot of aspects. I've been wondering about many of these things mentioned, so I'm glad for the thread and to hear people's experiences with a second home.

We got ours over 20 years ago. It gets used about 6-10 weeks a year. It's over 10 hrs away, and we love it. Our most important memories over the years are largely from that place. 20 years ago real estate wasnt what it is today.

I don't know if I could fork over the type of money require do this today.

That is wonderful. I hope to have grandkids one day that I can make that kind of commitment.

We have a camp house on 30 acres about 1.5 hours from home in Houston. It is perfect for getting away for a weekend (or even a night) and fishing, riding dirt bikes, etc. And we have a lake house in the Ozarks of NW Arkansas that we primarily go to in chunks during the summer and a little less in late spring and fall.

Never regretted either. We only wish we would had bought them earlier. I also consider them investments because I expect the value to only increase. And if there is a real estate slump in either areas (unlikely because of how hot they are) I will just ride it out.

My biggest recommendation is to find a handful of people you trust to take care of certain things when you can't get to them. For the camp house, I have a handyman that lives near by to take care of land management, winterizing house, mowing/shredding, etc. For the lake house, I have a nice old lady that cleans, checks on hot tub, receives packages, etc. And a handyman that winterizes the house for the winters that can have extended hard freezes (lows were in the single digits and even below zero a week or so ago).

Oh, and having thermostats that I can control remotely is a big stress reducer as well.

We have a fractional interest condo in a ski town and love it and don't think we'll ever get rid of it. It's also appreciated close to 3x since we purchased 6 years ago. Now building a house about an hour away. It's a long way from home, but the plan is to use it for as much of the summer as we can, Spring Breaks while kids still in school, Christmas/New Years break and probably a few random weekends/year. And then once kids out of the house, probably move there more permanently.

TheRatt87 said:

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We bought a second home 2 yrs ago that's less than 2 hours away. Bought at the peak & overpaid, but we did it for one reason - it's down the street from our two grandkids. We spend most weekends there.

It won't be our forever permanent home, and guessing we will unload it in 10 yrs or so once the grandkids are older. But wouldn't trade it for anything given the time we get to spend with them and memories we are making.

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That is amazing to hear about. Congrats on the grandchildren and enjoy those precious memories.

You cannot put a dollar amount on that.

Great advice. So much stuff I didn't even think about.

Wow. That is amazing to hear. Those ski towns and the mountain states in general have such great weather during the summer. Great to get away from the Houston hot humid summers.

Great to hear other people are saving for a second home as well. I love the food in Austin. In my opinion, one of the most underrated food cities in America. As someone who doesn't live there I don't know what the locals think about these places but when visiting I loved Jack Allen's Kitchen, Red Ash, Chilantro, Aba, and Home Slice Pizza.

I could not agree more with Eclipse Ag on all the points presented, we faced all of them as well. After 9+ years with a place in Perdido Key, FL, we sold this past summer. Bittersweet for my wife, we thought we were going to retire there but learned a lot. As you get older, less stairs would be a requirement, less people, less insurance/HOA assessments (on the coast in FL, insurance & HOA increased 4x rate over 9 years), no renters and the less than 2-hour drive is critical if using on monthly basis. Going to need to change username to "TBD 2029"....able to knockoff a year for target retirement date with the profits from sale.

Through the early part of our marriage (really forever) I wanted a lake house. My best friend's family have a place on Lake LBJ and we would meet down there - further fueling my desire. Generally, by the time we drove back to Frisco I would realize that unless you have a significant amount of disposable income it just didn't make financial sense.
About 20 years later I took a job near Lake Palestine and expected my wife and daughter to eventually move out there with me. They never did and after 6 years of seeing each other only 3 days a week, I moved back home. The best thing to come from it was the lake house I bought to live in while I worked there. When I moved back to Frisco I had enough equity in the place - even though we don't have a significant amount of disposable income - that we are comfortable with keeping it even though we don't use it as much as I would like. It has probably close to doubled in value in the 10 years we've had it.
We love going out there and the weight of the world falls off my shoulders as I cross the Pine Curtain.

We choose not to rent it when we aren't using it - though I have considered making it available to Snow Birds - because, for some reason, I enjoy purchasing 2 of everything so when we go there we don't have to take anything with us and don't have to pack anything away when we leave.
We probably only use it maybe 8 weekends a year and less than 15 other days throughout the year and there are always "work weekends" before the summer starts. We might retire there and we might not.

I love having it, but if I hadn't lived there for 5.5 years we wouldn't have it.

TMfrisco said:

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for some reason, I enjoy purchasing 2 of everything so when we go there we don't have to take anything with us and don't have to pack anything away when we leave.

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This sounds like such a simple thing but over time, it really does become an issue.

When you use your house one weekend, and know that the next guests will be renters, you have to do so many little things to prepare. Every single time.

And if you use a hands-on management company, there are costs involved.

EclipseAg said:

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TMfrisco said:

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for some reason, I enjoy purchasing 2 of everything so when we go there we don't have to take anything with us and don't have to pack anything away when we leave.

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This sounds like such a simple thing but over time, it really does become an issue.

When you use your house one weekend, and know that the next guests will be renters, you have to do so many little things to prepare. Every single time.

And if you use a hands-on management company, there are costs involved.

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This was our downfall of our Galveston rental. I would spend all day Sunday preparing it for the renters instead of just enjoying and leaving.


Our lake house growing up - we had the 2 sets of everything someone mentioned. We just brought our clothes and some groceries, that was it.

Completely worth it. 110 acre ranch on the Colorado river when the first kid turned three. Once we eradicated mesquite, built new fences and barn, the kids were too old to enjoy it. Back when itemized deductions allowed you to leverage real-estate instead of funding fiscally irresponsible politicians. Sold it and paid off the house with some of the proceeds about the time the government made itemized deductions not worth it financially. Living in the city paying massive taxes, it's good to claim a piece of the rural subsidies you pay your entire life. Loved the ranch, great times.

This post has been a great read (and very good timing).

My wife and I are empty nesters now (mostly except when my daughter comes home from college) and we've been south of Houston in the clear lake area (aka the burbs) ever since I graduated from college. I never got to to live "in town" but my wife and I enjoy the hell out of going into Houston to try restaurants and check out new bars and drive around and look at real estate (I've had my real estate license for 25 years even though I don't do real estate for a living), etc.

I'm trying like hell to decide between moving to a new home with an open floor plan (our current house is 3000 square feet, but not open floor plan at all so it feels small) or just buying a a condo in town and keeping our home. We've put in $150k in upgrades/upkeep over the last 20 years so we have it mostly the way we want it, plus I only owe 5-6 more years on it.....at a 2.5% interest rate so I'm in no hurry to pay it off.

Hearing all you guys talk about the enjoyment of a 2nd home REALLY has be considering pulling the trigger on a town home I've looked at 3-4 times very close to downtown Houston, close to a lot of things we enjoy and just keeping my current home! Driving into town has just become such a pain in the ass with traffic...I think we'd do even MORE in town if we had a town home.

We originally thought about making a town home a weekend getaway PLUS part time Airbnb, but some of your posts confirmed some of my thoughts about the hassle and stress of doing both...so thanks for sharing your thoughts.