Anyone bicoastal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live on the west coast in an area with a lot of transplants. Our summer weather isn’t great. There are a decent amount of families from our school that go back east and stay at family summer homes or move back with their kids to their childhood homes for the summer- enough that it’s hard to schedule playdates and get-togethers. They put the kids in summer camps and sports out there. The trick seems to be to make sure that both places have the same school schedule. For example, in the Pacific NW, most school schedules match traditional post-Labor day school start schedules in NY or MA. But matching up a CA life with an early August school start with an east coast schedule would make summer awkward for camps/sports/socializing in the other place.

The only people I know who maintain two homes are doing it on the coast and in the mountains. Not on both coasts. But I’m not in LA or Sam Francisco so it might be more common there?

Thanks for sharing! I can imagine play dates and social calendars could be tough. I’m thinking we’d go west for summers, long breaks, etc. But, would also have to factor in the fact that we enjoy traveling and would spend a good amount of spring breaks and at least a week or two in the summer in other places. Sigh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I’m a current bicoastal family who’s already posted in this thread. In our case my spouse’s job requires us to maintain two residences, so we fly back and forth by necessity.

Since you mentioned having multiple kids, keep in mind that your children’s school schedules may not align as they get older. This is now a problem for us, as my kids’ vacations now only overlap during Thanksgiving, Xmas and summer. Thus, we can no longer travel to the west coast as a family during February or spring break.

Thanks PP. How often do you travel west as a family? Does your DH otherwise just go on his own?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are the process of figuring this out. I grew up in California and we want to retire near the beach. We’ve been looking at buying now in cheaper beach community and renting out as a corporate rental (14-30 day rentals). The location is very good. We’d use the house for school holidays, our family lives a few blocks away. So we are targeting a very specific neighborhood.

We would retire 20 years from now. Ideally house would be paid off and we could then gut renovate. We’d keep our DC rowhouse.

This is our tentative plan. We are really committed on executing this in the next year or two. I think home prices will soften more. We really should’ve bought 2-3 years ago but we didn’t have a second down payment saved up yet.

OP here. Thanks for sharing. Your plan is helpful to us as we try to navigate this! Another option I’m thinking of is buying a home on the west with our family (my parents) that lives there. We stay with them in the 4 bedroom home that they rent when we visit. Haven’t stayed for more than a month at a time. Could purchase a larger home together and share the mortgage…

Also thought about purchasing a home and Airbnb-ing it while we’re east. I also like the idea of long term rentals that another PP shared. Thanks again for your input.

No problem. I’m not a fan of Airbnb so would probably have a pretty strict two week rental minimum. I’d probably allow pets, as that would help secure corporate tenants who have a work assignment in the area. Homes in this neighborhood frequently get $400+ per night on Airbnb during summer & holidays, so I think I can make the math work. We’d probably use the house for a few weeks in the summer, Xmas, and maybe one week in the spring. The rest of the year I want it as a nicely furnished corporate rental.

[Anonymous]

We lived in the Bay Area and owned a vacation rental in Fl when my son was 6-11. Having one 1 child made it easy to travel and he was in private so more flexibility with days out. We probably went 5x a year. Then we moved into our FL house FT because my son got into the lottery for a great charter middle school in FL and we rented our Bay Area house (airbnb). We would go back to SF in summer and rent out our FL house. Renting out both houses was a little nuts, but very lucrative, and it really helped us declutter and become less attached to "stuff" . We had a lock-off owners closet in each. We finally sold our CA house, and now go back and forth to FL from DC. So much easier when you aren't losing a whole day traveling. It's a bit tougher to get away with a high schooler, as he is working and has EC, but he will hopefully be driving in Oct and then my husband and I will be able to get out of town more (we both work remotely). LMK if you have specific questions.

[Anonymous]

Do you have kids, pets? then I don't recommend having second homes at all where you plan to spend any significant amount of time. Even if your kids are homeschooled and you are flexible, it can be a drag to travel far as a family and try to make friends and life for your kids in different places. It's not impossible, but it takes work. It's really a great lifestyle for people who have money and whose kids are grown up, and who don't have pets. Otherwise, you will be trying to balance kid's social lives, activities, making travel not a drag and doable (especially if having pets), making sure someone maintains your homes when you are away in proper condition (can cost you), and having issues traveling outside of your two homes (being compelled to always go to your second home vs. exploring other locations) etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We lived in the Bay Area and owned a vacation rental in Fl when my son was 6-11. Having one 1 child made it easy to travel and he was in private so more flexibility with days out. We probably went 5x a year. Then we moved into our FL house FT because my son got into the lottery for a great charter middle school in FL and we rented our Bay Area house (airbnb). We would go back to SF in summer and rent out our FL house. Renting out both houses was a little nuts, but very lucrative, and it really helped us declutter and become less attached to "stuff" . We had a lock-off owners closet in each. We finally sold our CA house, and now go back and forth to FL from DC. So much easier when you aren't losing a whole day traveling. It's a bit tougher to get away with a high schooler, as he is working and has EC, but he will hopefully be driving in Oct and then my husband and I will be able to get out of town more (we both work remotely). LMK if you have specific questions.

How do you get to FL? Driving is a huge PITA, and that's the only option if you have pets like larger dogs or more than one cat, etc. You must not have pets, and you must not have kids in a lot of ECs either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are the process of figuring this out. I grew up in California and we want to retire near the beach. We’ve been looking at buying now in cheaper beach community and renting out as a corporate rental (14-30 day rentals). The location is very good. We’d use the house for school holidays, our family lives a few blocks away. So we are targeting a very specific neighborhood.

We would retire 20 years from now. Ideally house would be paid off and we could then gut renovate. We’d keep our DC rowhouse.

This is our tentative plan. We are really committed on executing this in the next year or two. I think home prices will soften more. We really should’ve bought 2-3 years ago but we didn’t have a second down payment saved up yet.

OP here. Thanks for sharing. Your plan is helpful to us as we try to navigate this! Another option I’m thinking of is buying a home on the west with our family (my parents) that lives there. We stay with them in the 4 bedroom home that they rent when we visit. Haven’t stayed for more than a month at a time. Could purchase a larger home together and share the mortgage…

Also thought about purchasing a home and Airbnb-ing it while we’re east. I also like the idea of long term rentals that another PP shared. Thanks again for your input.

No problem. I’m not a fan of Airbnb so would probably have a pretty strict two week rental minimum. I’d probably allow pets, as that would help secure corporate tenants who have a work assignment in the area. Homes in this neighborhood frequently get $400+ per night on Airbnb during summer & holidays, so I think I can make the math work. We’d probably use the house for a few weeks in the summer, Xmas, and maybe one week in the spring. The rest of the year I want it as a nicely furnished corporate rental.

Don't bank on Airbnb. You re beholden to the whims of the government and hotel lobby that are banning or restricting vacation rentals in many places, these rules tend to change. Also, your local community may have rules even if there are no current airbnb rules restrictions. Plus, airbnb charges high fees and what you see places go for (as a guest) is not what the host gets, hosts get on avg. 30% less, plus this is taxable income, not money in your pocket. Do your calcs carefully and don't bank on being able to easily rent it via apps like airbnb or vrbo unrestricted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

How do you get to FL? Driving is a huge PITA, and that's the only option if you have pets like larger dogs or more than one cat, etc. You must not have pets, and you must not have kids in a lot of ECs either.

I have 2 largish labradoodles and yes, I drove back and forth with them while DH/DS flew. This is because I enjoy driving and listening to audiobooks for hours on end and my family does not. Agree, it can be a PITA and I wouldn't recommend for most. For me, being disconnected from my phone/ laptop for 4 days and binging on podcasts and books was heaven. My DC played tennis and was able to play with teams/ coaches on either end but not sure bicoastal would work for many other team sports. My brother has 2 multi-sport boys and they have a very difficult time navigating a vacation around both boys schedules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

How do you get to FL? Driving is a huge PITA, and that's the only option if you have pets like larger dogs or more than one cat, etc. You must not have pets, and you must not have kids in a lot of ECs either.

I have 2 largish labradoodles and yes, I drove back and forth with them while DH/DS flew. This is because I enjoy driving and listening to audiobooks for hours on end and my family does not. Agree, it can be a PITA and I wouldn't recommend for most. For me, being disconnected from my phone/ laptop for 4 days and binging on podcasts and books was heaven. My DC played tennis and was able to play with teams/ coaches on either end but not sure bicoastal would work for many other team sports. My brother has 2 multi-sport boys and they have a very difficult time navigating a vacation around both boys schedules.

If OP works FT and has limited vacation time, she would probably not love the idea of spending vaca days on driving pets, I wouldn't. Also, I am wondering how you can make it work if kids are in school and you also want to spend their breaks going to other places or seeing family. It's the competition for kid's school breaks (and also sports teams breaks) and adult vacation time that makes 2 home living tough. It may work for families where parents are remote workers and kids are homeschooled and aren't doing competitive sports. Still, I would want to be somewhere drivable, ideally no more than a day of driving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re bi-coastal with kids. Kids attend school in the DC area. We travel back and forth to the west coast as a family several times a year and maintain residences on both coasts.

Do you have a specific question?

OP here. Thanks for chiming in! Do own on both coasts? When do you travel west and how long do you stay? How does it work with sports, etc.?

Yes, we own on both coasts. We used to travel four times or so a year but now with kids’ school schedules it’s down to 2-3 times a year, over school breaks (and depending on my spouse’s work schedule). My kids don’t do sports. My kids identify with both coasts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I’m a current bicoastal family who’s already posted in this thread. In our case my spouse’s job requires us to maintain two residences, so we fly back and forth by necessity.

Since you mentioned having multiple kids, keep in mind that your children’s school schedules may not align as they get older. This is now a problem for us, as my kids’ vacations now only overlap during Thanksgiving, Xmas and summer. Thus, we can no longer travel to the west coast as a family during February or spring break.

Thanks PP. How often do you travel west as a family? Does your DH otherwise just go on his own?

My spouse travels back and forth regularly without us — minimum of once a month, sometimes more frequently, and at times for long stretches. We travel out as a family as often as we can, though school schedules (and my full time job) make it challenging.

It’s a long flight, especially with kids. I don’t like to do it if we can’t stay at least a week. But sometimes we come for shorter periods as a family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you have kids, pets? then I don't recommend having second homes at all where you plan to spend any significant amount of time. Even if your kids are homeschooled and you are flexible, it can be a drag to travel far as a family and try to make friends and life for your kids in different places. It's not impossible, but it takes work. It's really a great lifestyle for people who have money and whose kids are grown up, and who don't have pets. Otherwise, you will be trying to balance kid's social lives, activities, making travel not a drag and doable (especially if having pets), making sure someone maintains your homes when you are away in proper condition (can cost you), and having issues traveling outside of your two homes (being compelled to always go to your second home vs. exploring other locations) etc.

I’m one of the current bicoastal families on this chain. I agree with most of this.

We do take time to visit my family. But we rarely travel to new destinations.