Second home ownership

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think what you’re missing is that it’s not an ‘or’ proposition for some people with second homes? We are based in Tribeca, have a second home in the Hamptons, and we use it a ton. Move out there for the whole summer, use it at least once a month during the year, spend a week there in the winter while kids are on break. It’s wonderful for us to not have to pack anything, to have a spot to host friends and family, and that ease can’t be duplicated by a rental.

We have also taken 6 international trips this year (some for long weekends, some for a week) and a few domestic. It’s just not always a situation where you do trips or go to some musty cottage.

+1 This is exactly what many posters don't understand. It's not either or - we have a nice primary home, a nice beach house, and take multiple international and domestic vacations to other places.

Yep. The second home is just that---a second home. It's not a substitute for vacations.

You need to have time to spend in more than one home, plus go on vacations. It’s definitely something plausible for people who work remote or don’t have to work at all and also do not have school aged kids.. It’s a stupid idea for people who have to work in person, have limited time off and have kids not only doing school but also enrolled in various activities/sports (many of which cannibalize summertime break).

We have a second home and go on vacations. Our second home is more like a weekend getaway. We opted out of travel sports because it sucks up your family time, weekends, summers, and you travel to dinky places you don’t want to go. Our kid does sports that don’t require above (ski, tennis, golf)

Our kid is going to middle school and can do all clubs, activities, and sports there. We have pulled our kid to miss a few days or week to travel in elementary and NBD. Will see how middle school goes and how well kid does.

Also I’m self employed so plan my work schedule around my family schedule and can travel when I want. The limiting factor is the school schedule. Travel is a high priority for us.

But yes, if you are chained to a 9-5 office job with limited vacation or are a slave to the activities and travel sport schedule, it’s not going to work.

We are not, but I find it difficult to find time to spend enough at a second home to justify the expense. We are still beholden to school schedule and with a few missed school days it’s still not nearly enough time to enjoy second home AND go to other places. We also hve to visit family far away which requires airline travel. It sucks up a lot of time. I had even started going by myself to get a break as kids got older, but it’s lonely. Also some of our old friends moved away and this community you build in a second home is as likely to fall apart as anywhere else, don’t count on ppl staying forever. I think if you have tons of disposable cash and it’s not a hardship to pay someone to maintain your homes and you can have it for the exclusive use then it’s great. But life is great for people who are loaded for the most part and problems OP is worried about is really money problem.

If you have money coming out of your ears you might as well own multiple homes that can sit empty and suck up your cash flow (taxes, maintenance, staff salaries).

You people are just poor. My Shenandoah valley cabin is on 7 private acres and had $4300 in taxes last year and zero maintenance except a new $400 fridge. I don't have a cash flow problem with 660k in HHI. The cabin also appreciated ~500K in the last 15 years.

Are you trying to convince me I made a mistake by making ~500k on a house we got to use, for free essentially, for the last 15 years? Because you won't convince me.

If your new refrigerator cost only $400 the place is probably a dump lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have staff that live on the property (not in our house) to maintain our houses. For our flat in Paris, there is an on-site guardian and we call in people to prepare it for our arrival.

If this is the level of life you're living, what on earth are you doing here on DCUM?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have staff that live on the property (not in our house) to maintain our houses. For our flat in Paris, there is an on-site guardian and we call in people to prepare it for our arrival.

If this is the level of life you're living, what on earth are you doing here on DCUM?

The French aristocrat lady is a long time poster. I think it’s all a fantasy she cooked up in her head to live vicariously through this alternate reality. There are hundreds of posts by her about her many houses and staff and upbringing. Always mentioning Paris and Europe.

It’s best to ignore.