Buying a Vacation House
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Buying New Construction Vacation Home Out of State
–Jun 24, 2024We’re seriously considering buying a new construction vacation home in Verdi, Nevada. We’ve purchased an older home in Oakland in 2013 and sold it in 2023 so we only have experience purchasing older homes and are pretty clueless to the new construction process. We live in Alameda and plan to live here for 3-5 years before permanently moving to Nevada. We’ve already asked for a timeline from our sales agent, but we wanted to hear from others who have gone through this especially if you bought out of state. What is the typical timeline, some tips, things you wish you did or didn’t do in the process, and any other helpful information you’d like to share!
Regarding owning a vacation home, this is also a first for us. We don’t plan on renting it or as an airbnb because we’d like the freedom to stay there whenever we’d like. Any advice/tips on owning a vacation home in the sierra? We plan to stay in our home during spring, summer, and winter breaks, and periodically on the weekends.Jun 24, 2024Rent in Bay Area + buy vacation rental elsewhere?
–Dec 13, 2022Advice sought! My husband and I cannot afford to buy a home in the Bay Area. Well, we may be able to stretch and get a small condo or a fixer, but it doesn't make financial or practical sense to us at this time (we have a good, stable rental in a nice neighborhood, and anything we'd be able to buy would likely be significantly more expensive AND in a less desirable area). We have managed to save a small chunk of money and one of the things we have considered is buying a vacation rental that we can use as a family and also rent out as an AirBnB. Our goal would be to own a (hopefully) appreciating asset that we can also enjoy, and at the very least break even or come close in terms of the rental income. We'd even consider relocating there permanently down the road. We'd be looking in the Sierra foothills most likely, where we'd have an easy drive to the snow. Has anyone done this? If so, any advice for what we should be thinking about? I don't really know where to start thinking through the financial, tax, and other implications of a decision like this. Curious if anyone else has considered something like this, or done it, and how the experience has gone for you. Thanks!
Dec 13, 2022Vacation rental investment - where's a good location?
–Jul 29, 2019We are in the very fortunate position to be receiving a sizable chunk money in the near future ($225k), but it will need to be invested via an IRC 1031 exchange in order to defer a huge tax hit. We are hoping to find a rental property that checks the following boxes:
1. the funds cover at least 75-80% of the initial cost of the home;
2. the home is in a desirable enough area (recreation-wise) that we could rent it out part time to help defray some of the costs associated (taxes, insurance, mortgage, maintenance, property management); and
3. it's within a 2-3 hour drive of the bay area, so that we might be able to use it some weekends too.
So far, we've identified the Murphy's/Arnold area, but would love to hear any other thoughts or ideas about places that fit these criteria. . .if there are other criteria that we should consider, we'd love to hear those too.
Thank you!!!
Jul 29, 2019
I lived in the Sierra for several years, here are some things I saw that you may want to take into account.
If you have a second home in a place that gets a significant amount of snow, you must hire someone to do snow removal. Snow accumulation will damage the property and prevent access to your entranceway or driveway. When snow comes down people get out of their houses and furiously shovel because within a few hours it may become heavy like concrete. A season of plowing service can be $2500 or more. If you don’t book with a service early enough, they might run out of spaces and you can’t hire plowing for the year. you may separately want to hire someone to shovel your entryway and/or garage, the plow will not cover those. in big years, you may also need to hire someone to shovel your roof and propane tank, which may explode if sealed by snow. If you have no experience purchasing a house in a place with big winter snow, find a realtor that will tell you the truth. Some of the neighbors I’ve seen had very unfortunate flat roofs that required a lot more hands on maintenance compared to a steep A-frame. North facing driveways will be caked in ice for half the year, and cause family members to smash their hips and wrists. These kind of things you only think of with live experience so find a realtor who actually lives there. You will undoubtably be purchasing in the spring and summer when things look super simple and nice only to be surprised once winter comes about. two winters ago the Sierra had a record-breaking snow year, so a lot of houses receive significant damage, especially second home is where owners were not monitoring the situation. beware that any sales happening now maybe people trying to dump their structurally compromised second homes.
Single-family home or condo. In a single-family home, you will have to arrange all of the maintenance yourself. if you buy a condo, there will be exorbitant HOA fees, some places $1000 or more per month but the maintenance of snow and otherwise will be taken care of for you. for example, many places won’t have trash or recycling pick up. You must drive stuff to the dump yourself. An HOA may have a system in place for this. however, they may have strict rules, such as parking limits. In my experience, if you are rarely going to spend time there, the HOA management may be worth it.
Despite the hard work, I loved the Sierra. if you can, I would maybe rent for a year or more to experience each season and get your preferences figured out before buying, lived experience is so important. Hope you find something you enjoy!