About to buy second home on Eastern shore

[Anonymous]

OP, are you the kind of person who buys a gym membership and thinks, "Great, now I can go as often as I want?" or looks at it and thinks, "Ugh, now I have to go to justify what I spent on it when I'd rather just run outside in this lovely weather"?

I'm the latter. I will never buy a vacation home because I will feel obligated to go.

[Anonymous]

One of my best friends and her DH bought a waterfront home near Easton three years ago. They had 2 kids in MS and one in HS. My friend’s parents use the house a lot (mostly retired.) My friend uses it an odd weekend here and there and for a week in summer. It is gorgeous and they’re proud of it but with one kid now in college and playing sports there too-it seems more like an expensive hobby than a vacation home. While her parents will be sad to lose a free 2nd home I bet they sell it soon.

[Anonymous]

I have a second home beach place. I slept over only a few days first two summers.

My problem was at time it was too close to my primary. My wife and kids we would go down Sat after lunch. Go to beach for a few hours, go back to place, change shower, go out to dinner and most times just drive back home. I was VRBOing it once in a while and did not feel like making a mess with sheets, towels, kitchens. Now I live too far from it.

I dont regret it I paid cash for it $290,000 and have it rented for $2,350 a month and is currently worth maybe $330,000. Not a big gain, but when I retire I can use it again.

I never once had any management or cleaning crew for place. Frankly I rented it a few times. Usually folks on way out threw sheets in washing machine and ran dishwasher before they left. So all I had to do was run washing machine and empty dishwasher. Everyone vacuumed and swept and took out garbage.

Once a lady left expensive earrings which I found and immediately texted her. If I had a cleaning crew who knows.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would NOT. We have a second home and it's one of the biggest regrets we have.

What is the nature of your regret?

We overestimated how much time we will have on the weekends. Just don't have time to enjoy it. Be realistic about how much free time you really have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would NOT. We have a second home and it's one of the biggest regrets we have.

What is the nature of your regret?

We overestimated how much time we will have on the weekends. Just don't have time to enjoy it. Be realistic about how much free time you really have.

I figure it is an hour and a half away, so even if we have to do something on Saturday morning we could still go up for the rest of the weekend, I was thinking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a second home beach place. I slept over only a few days first two summers.

My problem was at time it was too close to my primary. My wife and kids we would go down Sat after lunch. Go to beach for a few hours, go back to place, change shower, go out to dinner and most times just drive back home. I was VRBOing it once in a while and did not feel like making a mess with sheets, towels, kitchens. Now I live too far from it.

I dont regret it I paid cash for it $290,000 and have it rented for $2,350 a month and is currently worth maybe $330,000. Not a big gain, but when I retire I can use it again.

I never once had any management or cleaning crew for place. Frankly I rented it a few times. Usually folks on way out threw sheets in washing machine and ran dishwasher before they left. So all I had to do was run washing machine and empty dishwasher. Everyone vacuumed and swept and took out garbage.

Once a lady left expensive earrings which I found and immediately texted her. If I had a cleaning crew who knows.

Before we bought a house we rented beach houses and we stopped renting ones that didn't require professional cleaning because they get disgusting. And we were going at the end of August when the accumulate lack of real cleaning had piled up. Depending on the price point if you want to do seasonal rentals you probably need to find a cleaning service.

[Anonymous]

The older I get the more I value weekend time and time off from work and I have no interest in devoting half the weekend just driving to a weekend house. Lives are busy enough as it is. Kids will get bored on the weekends away from their friends.

Rent a weekend house a few times a year. Don't get trapped into owning one.

[Anonymous]

Eastern shore does not have the best second home appreciation. Have you spent significant time down there? I would recommend renting for a month or two and see how you really enjoy it. It’s not great for swimming and there aren’t a ton of things for teens to do. I would love a second home for like getting away, looking at a view, sitting in a hot tub and eating out at good seafood restaurants. Do you like entertaining? Also second the posts about getting cleaning people. Don’t make it a chore.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like a money sink OP. Why not just rent a house and buy after the kids go to the college?

[Anonymous]

We have a second home in Rehoboth and love it. However, we specifically bought in a place with a lot to do. The kids love it and while we enjoy sitting on the beach, sometimes we just do other stuff too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a second home in Rehoboth and love it. However, we specifically bought in a place with a lot to do. The kids love it and while we enjoy sitting on the beach, sometimes we just do other stuff too.

I think there will be a lot to do. We enjoy cycling - we can cycle down to Bellevue and get a ferry to Oxford for lunch. Kayaking and boating. Good restaurants. There is a pool. Crabbing/fishing.
Easton has a cinema, shopping etc.

I think we are going to go ahead and put in the offer. I hope I don't regret it. At least some people here seem to love their second homes, and hopefully we will be like them.

I will come back in two years and report.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eastern shore does not have the best second home appreciation. Have you spent significant time down there? I would recommend renting for a month or two and see how you really enjoy it. It’s not great for swimming and there aren’t a ton of things for teens to do. I would love a second home for like getting away, looking at a view, sitting in a hot tub and eating out at good seafood restaurants. Do you like entertaining? Also second the posts about getting cleaning people. Don’t make it a chore.

We aren't worried about appreciation. as long as we don't take a big hit when we sell I will be happy. We do like entertaining and the place is big enough to accommodate another family if we have guests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a second home in Rehoboth and love it. However, we specifically bought in a place with a lot to do. The kids love it and while we enjoy sitting on the beach, sometimes we just do other stuff too.

I think there will be a lot to do. We enjoy cycling - we can cycle down to Bellevue and get a ferry to Oxford for lunch. Kayaking and boating. Good restaurants. There is a pool. Crabbing/fishing.
Easton has a cinema, shopping etc.

I think we are going to go ahead and put in the offer. I hope I don't regret it. At least some people here seem to love their second homes, and hopefully we will be like them.

I will come back in two years and report.

Go for it. We have friends in Easton and it's a charming town and lots to do on weekends.

[Anonymous]

I am in the "DO IT" camp. We have a 2nd home on the Northern Neck that we share with my sister and her family. It was probably one of the best purchases we've ever made. Our "river house" is about 2.5-3 hours away, which is just about right for us. We can go down on a Friday night and come back early on Monday, and feel like we had a wonderful weekend. We also can go down just for a day trip. Our place isn't in a community and we pretty much never leave our property once we get there. When we're there we totally disconnect. We boat, swim, fish, crab and hang out. The kids have a ton of sports gear down there, too, so it isn't like they are cooped up inside if it is too cold to swim or we don't want them in a boat because of wind/waves.

As others pointed out, we use it more some years and less some years depending on what is going on with the kids. In the high school years we actually picked up a bit because the kids didn't have weekend sports anymore (yahoo!) unless they were on a travel team. Visits during the tween years were fewer because of rec league sports like soccer or lax and those games are all on weekends.

One PP is correct that you need to know what type of buyer you are - will you be okay if you don't use it or will you beat yourself up about it? We like our property so much that we don't care if we don't use it all the time. We know there is an ebb and flow. And we also don't feel crushed if we decide to go somewhere else on a whim. And you need to know if your family can handle that much togetherness. Some can and some can't.

We outsource cleaners, yard maintenance, boat upkeep and septic. They all come on a regular schedule. The boat people also will take any boats in the water or on lifts to the marina and pull them in case of an impending major storm. Other than that the property is pretty self-sufficient. The basic costs aren't that much for electricity and internet, and we use well water. Oddly, I think it is actually less expensive for us when we're at the river house because we don't go out at all once we're there. Anyway, our actual house is modest but the lifestyle itself is quite grand to be able to just get away from it all. We wouldn't trade it for anything. I don't think we'll ever retire there. We like just going there to get away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a second home in Rehoboth and love it. However, we specifically bought in a place with a lot to do. The kids love it and while we enjoy sitting on the beach, sometimes we just do other stuff too.

I think there will be a lot to do. We enjoy cycling - we can cycle down to Bellevue and get a ferry to Oxford for lunch. Kayaking and boating. Good restaurants. There is a pool. Crabbing/fishing.
Easton has a cinema, shopping etc.

I think we are going to go ahead and put in the offer. I hope I don't regret it. At least some people here seem to love their second homes, and hopefully we will be like them.

I will come back in two years and report.

PP here. Good luck OP - I hope you get the house!