Should we buy a beach house?

[Anonymous]

Maybe I'm having de ja vu, but OP, haven't you posted on this same exact issue--SAHM who wants to buy beach house a few miles away from beach--several times before? And I recall people replying with the same responses re: kids' sports and whether it's worth it if not really close to the beach. At this point, what new information are you hoping to glean?

[Anonymous]

OP, you post the same question every 6 months and every time you get the same mix of answers:

1) owning a beach house is great
2) I'd never want to own a beach house
3) 5 min drive from the beach is not a "beach house" by definition
4) 5 min drive is not a big deal


Clearly you want the house. Buy the damn house already.

The end.

[Anonymous]

Ask yourself why it's so cheap....

Beach maintenance is a beast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maintenance is an issue and f you don't have a home owners asspciation that deals with it. Kids sports and activities are also a big issue - both cost and time.

We have one and use it a lot. We still vacation other places. Kids schedules are the biggest limiting factor for us. When they aren't busy, we go every weekend. We don't rent ours. We love it.

Parking isn't an issue unless you want to be near the boardwalk. We're in DE and we, like most people we know with beach houses, go to a state park beach. There's almost always parking.

OP here. One plus of the house is very low HOA fees. One negative of the house is that the HOA really doesn't do anything other than maintain the pool. So we are responsible for all maintenance. How difficult would this be? We would have to hire a lawn service for weekly mowing (which we do here now). Get the gutters cleaned once a year, and schedule annual HVAC maintenance. What else am I not thinking about?

You are not thinking that your kids will want to do sports or other activities or go to birthday parties and not want to go to the beach on weekends during the year. If you have 4 weeks to vacation each summer maybe you will eventually want to visit other places like National Parks, Europe, Florida. It seems cheaper to rent a house on the beach each year.

OP here. Kids are 3 and under. So we have awhile before travel sports, etc. Of course we wouldn't go to the beach every single weekend. I'm thinking several full weeks during the summer and every other weekend during beach season, then once a month or so in the off season. That still leaves plenty of time for birthday parties, playdates and other activities on the weekends when we're home. We do a lot of playdates with friends during the week, since I'm a SAHM, and then we do frequent playdates on the weekends as well. In the summer there are very few birthday parties/activities anyways, with so many people out of town.

Thinking back to my own childhood, I loved the vacations where we went back to the exact same spot every year (for my family it was a beach in Florida, same beach, same hotel every year during winter break). I did not like the random vacations that we took as much--a week in a random city, for example. I liked the familiar and that's what I have warm memories of now as an adult. I feel like the beach house would provide that for my kids too.

I love to vacation but I really dislike flying anywhere. I prefer to drive. And I love the beach. And we go to the Delaware beaches a lot now (and stay in hotels). I wish we went more often.

[Anonymous]

It's hard to believe right now, but in a couple of years your world is about to change and weekends aren't really yours anymore. They are your kids time. It's like that for a few years, and then it tapers off.

If your kids are going to play any sports whether they are travel or not, it's going to be very difficult to use the beach house in the fall.

And, I'm in the if you can't walk, don't bother. You really will hit a point where you will want your kids to be able to walk. You can't understand stand it now as you have toddlers, but it changes. And it changes very fast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's hard to believe right now, but in a couple of years your world is about to change and weekends aren't really yours anymore. They are your kids time. It's like that for a few years, and then it tapers off.

If your kids are going to play any sports whether they are travel or not, it's going to be very difficult to use the beach house in the fall.

And, I'm in the if you can't walk, don't bother. You really will hit a point where you will want your kids to be able to walk. You can't understand stand it now as you have toddlers, but it changes. And it changes very fast.

OP here. Can you elaborate on this please? Right now our weekends are completely our own. We have no local family, so no family obligations (we see family twice a year). We have no work obligations on weekends. Chores/errands mainly get done during the week so none of that on weekends either. We have the occasional birthday party but if I don't know the parents or my child isn't friends with the other child then we skip those and only go to parties for good friends. So birthday parties maybe once every few months. So basically our weekends are completely free. Part of the appeal of the beach house (especially in the off season) is deciding last minute that it's a good weekend to head to the beach and just going, knowing that all our stuff is there so we don't have to pack anything.

[Anonymous]

+1 to the rent, don't buy camp. Do you know any friends with older children (say, 2nd grade on up)? I would say that 85% of our weekends from September through June are taken up by sports--often times with both kids having games--or birthday parties or school events. And our kids aren't particularly sporty, either. They each do one sport a season (fall, winter, and spring).

I also agree with the walkability factor. Have you ever rented a house or stayed at a hotel ON THE BEACH? It is a totally different, super fun, extremely convenient vacation. I would try that and see how you like it. For $260K you can rent a very nice house for many summers directly on the beach.

Also, you're not factoring in upkeep and insurance. Painting is a once a decade deal, if that, and its cheap. But, you need to factor in things like replacing appliances, fixing toilets, replacing roofs, plumbing leaks, etc.etc. Also, you don't get tax benefits from a vacation house the way you do with the mortgage for your primary residence.

FWIW, we have friends with a beach house they try to use every weekend and every summer, and their sons, in particular, have suffered socially. Most boys bond over sports, and being away every weekend and not being able to play on a team has really hampered the boys' social life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:+1 to the rent, don't buy camp. Do you know any friends with older children (say, 2nd grade on up)? I would say that 85% of our weekends from September through June are taken up by sports--often times with both kids having games--or birthday parties or school events. And our kids aren't particularly sporty, either. They each do one sport a season (fall, winter, and spring).

I also agree with the walkability factor. Have you ever rented a house or stayed at a hotel ON THE BEACH? It is a totally different, super fun, extremely convenient vacation. I would try that and see how you like it. For $260K you can rent a very nice house for many summers directly on the beach.

Also, you're not factoring in upkeep and insurance. Painting is a once a decade deal, if that, and its cheap. But, you need to factor in things like replacing appliances, fixing toilets, replacing roofs, plumbing leaks, etc.etc. Also, you don't get tax benefits from a vacation house the way you do with the mortgage for your primary residence.

FWIW, we have friends with a beach house they try to use every weekend and every summer, and their sons, in particular, have suffered socially. Most boys bond over sports, and being away every weekend and not being able to play on a team has really hampered the boys' social life.

OP here. It's really hard for me to understand the sports thing. I did not play any sports in my whole childhood, and spent my weekends watching TV indoors while my parents did yardwork (not that this is a good thing, but I don't really understand the appeal of filling up weekends with sports). I do know a few friends with older kids, I will ask them about this. Honestly from what I've heard from one friend who has older kids, her weekends sound absolutely exhausting and sort of miserable with all the waking up early, driving and shlepping around to sports games.

Yes, we have stayed at hotels within walking distance of the beach (usually 2 or 3 blocks). I don't really see much of a difference though, we still have to lug a ton of beach gear to the beach by walking from the hotel to the beach which is annoying, when you're walking with a huge beach umbrella, beach cart full of chairs, toys, towels, etc. How is it less annoying to walk with all that stuff than loading up the car with beach gear, finding a parking spot, and walking a short distance to the beach? I see these two situations as comparable. Finding a parking spot can be tough if you go at prime time, but usually we're ready to be at the beach by 7:30 am, so parking isn't usually an issue.

I will make a list of all the upkeep and insurance issues, that is more of my concern. However, this is a newer built house (2008) so hopefully most systems should be in working order.

[Anonymous]

My kids are 5 and 6. When soccer season starts in the Fall, they will have a game every Saturday morning. Same thing during the Spring soccer season. They are also about to start CCD. Those classes are on Sunday mornings. Granted, my church also offers them during the week so if you had a beach house, you'd obviously choose (and hope you got into) the weekday class. Both girls will be in girl scouts in the Fall and one troop currently meets on Sundays. Don't know when the 5 year old's troop will meet yet but it will likely also be the weekend. Two weekends ago, we had 3 birthday parties in one weekend. The weekend before that we had "fun fairs" for both preschool and elementary that we attended.

^^ that was just in response to your curiosity about how weekends can get busy once your kids get older.

All that being said, I would love to be able to afford a beach house and if it's a dream of yours and something you want to do, then DO IT. Just go into it eyes wide open understanding that it might be a little difficult to upkeep if you're long distance home owners and that you might not be able to go as often as you originally anticipated as your kids get older.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. My husband has 6 weeks of vacation each year to use (and he uses all of it) and I'm a SAHM. So we have flexibility to use the beach house both in summer and in the off season. We are thinking 4 weeks each summer, every other weekend from April-October, all holidays, and one long weekend per month in the winter. We have family all over the country and are hoping that we can host a lot of family reunions there too.

how old are your kids? I find that leaving town every other weekend is fine when they are younger, but as they get older and are involved in sports/activities it just isn't possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also, you don't get tax benefits from a vacation house the way you do with the mortgage for your primary residence.

OP, I am team beach house, and fwiw this poster is incorrect about the mortgage deduction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How is Parking by the beach? If it's a pain, then it's not worth it if you have to drive.

This is my concern with beach houses not walkable. If you rent on the beach you may not appreciate how much of a pain parking can be

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It needs to be walking distance. Period.

Driving is impractical. Beach parking is a ginormous PITA.

+1. My in-laws have a home on the sound side of the OBX. The house itself is beautiful and relaxing, with a pool in the neighborhood and a fishing dock off the back, but in addition to the insane traffic to try and get there during the summer season, going to the actual beach is exhausting because it involves a drive, packing/unpacking, we can't the toddler back for a nap expediently, etc. It's just not very 'vacation-y', and I would never rent (much less buy) a beach house without walkable/golf cart-able beach access.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I don't get why you all are so hung up on the walkable/not walkable issue. Our regular house here in this area is in a completely non-walkable area (no sidewalks even), we have to drive absolutely everywhere so I am completely used to the idea of packing up the car, finding parking and driving places.

Re: the beach, when we go to stay there (in a hotel) we have to drive to the beach, pack up the car with beach stuff, find parking and then get back in the car. I really don't see what the issue is. I'd rather not buy a property that's so close to the beach--it's out of our price range for one, and the newer/updated/modern places are a further drive from the beach. We want a completely updated place where we don't have to do anything other than paint. It's only 2 miles from the beach but not walkable given the roads, etc. but only a 5-6 minute drive.

The place we are considering is in Lewes, by the way.

The issue is that beach traffic SUCKS, and beach parking is even worse. You say the drive is 5 minutes, but that's in the off season. A 5 minute drive can easily turn into a 40 minute drive in peak season.

But do whatever you want. It's your time and money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I don't get why you all are so hung up on the walkable/not walkable issue. Our regular house here in this area is in a completely non-walkable area (no sidewalks even), we have to drive absolutely everywhere so I am completely used to the idea of packing up the car, finding parking and driving places.

Re: the beach, when we go to stay there (in a hotel) we have to drive to the beach, pack up the car with beach stuff, find parking and then get back in the car. I really don't see what the issue is. I'd rather not buy a property that's so close to the beach--it's out of our price range for one, and the newer/updated/modern places are a further drive from the beach. We want a completely updated place where we don't have to do anything other than paint. It's only 2 miles from the beach but not walkable given the roads, etc. but only a 5-6 minute drive.

The place we are considering is in Lewes, by the way.

The issue is that beach traffic SUCKS, and beach parking is even worse. You say the drive is 5 minutes, but that's in the off season. A 5 minute drive can easily turn into a 40 minute drive in peak season.

But do whatever you want. It's your time and money.

this is a bit of an exaggeration....