Do you think a vacation home is a good investment?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The negative naysayers who jump on here making vacation homes seem like such a drag to own are transparent airbnb vrbo grifters. Or poor people who hate that they know owning a second home is a signal you've made it. And lacking one makes you feel poor.

You sound crazy.

I’ve owned two houses before. It’s a pain in the ass.

I grew up with vacation homes and we have owned one for over 20 years. Pain in the butt sometimes…..sure. But wouldn’t trade it and the experiences for the world. It’s like Range Rover owners complaining their truck is always at the dealer for service issues……but they trade in for the new one when it comes out. Or private school parents complain about tuition……but their kids are private school lifers. People complain. Rich people complain. End of the day vacation homes are awesome. And every investment portfolio should have some real estate. Only owning a primary house is very abnormal past a certain income level.

As if investment properties (e.g. rentals) don't exist You can invest in RE and have a sizeable portfolio of rentals, while still renting our primary residence and someone else's vacation homes. RE investment is independent of the places you live.


If you want to invest into a vacation home, then you must target the areas that are likely to appreciate because they are not underrated and still relatively affordable, but areas around them (customers of these properties) are getting wealthier. This signals more future demand for vacation homes from new money coming into the surrounding areas and also more demand from renters. this is what happened to DE beaches, DC metro and others got wealthy in the last 2 decades and this area being rather limited in size exploded with demand. Even though DE towns are just meh.. as far as beach towns and beach quality is concerned, their location is key, serving affluent metro area without much other access to beaches. People who bought long ago just got lucky that it became "the hamptons" of DC affluent. Or they were smart and understood the signals and growing demand.

Above is spot on. I’ll also add that the affluent are buying homes in DE beaches mainly as a weekend getaway home too because of proximity and access.

It’s not where they are going for vacations. It’s not like they are not going to the carribean in the winter or Europe/international in the summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a foolery for the rich. Those with unlimited time they can spend in different places (not your worker-bee type tethered to a specific location due to J.O.B. or kid's schools). Those with enough NW that they do not need to worry about making rental income to break even. Those with funds to pay the locals to maintain their home when they are away and prepare it for them and maintain it while they are vacationing there.

Those here who claim to have made millions or hundreds of thousands off their vaca homes were already loaded to start with, bought already expensive homes in areas of high demand, and didn't rely on these homes making income or appreciating to keep them. Or this is just BS.

Water is wet. In real estate, you have to spend money to make money.

RE investing is not for those without cash.

But the point of this thread a lot of times they don't make much money--or don't make as much money as comparable investments of cash after expenses in a basic stock index.

And another point here if OP is asking about vacation home as investment she isn't likely swimming in cash to afford to risk it or to make a bad move. People who are experienced RE investors doing this as a business would not be starting these threads. Those who have tons of cash would not be agonizing whether their vacation home will appreciate or pay for itself with rental income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a foolery for the rich. Those with unlimited time they can spend in different places (not your worker-bee type tethered to a specific location due to J.O.B. or kid's schools). Those with enough NW that they do not need to worry about making rental income to break even. Those with funds to pay the locals to maintain their home when they are away and prepare it for them and maintain it while they are vacationing there.

Those here who claim to have made millions or hundreds of thousands off their vaca homes were already loaded to start with, bought already expensive homes in areas of high demand, and didn't rely on these homes making income or appreciating to keep them. Or this is just BS.

Water is wet. In real estate, you have to spend money to make money.

RE investing is not for those without cash.

But the point of this thread a lot of times they don't make much money--or don't make as much money as comparable investments of cash after expenses in a basic stock index.

And another point here if OP is asking about vacation home as investment she isn't likely swimming in cash to afford to risk it or to make a bad move. People who are experienced RE investors doing this as a business would not be starting these threads. Those who have tons of cash would not be agonizing whether their vacation home will appreciate or pay for itself with rental income.

People who have “tons of cash” didn’t get it by not caring about appreciation.

The idea that people with a lot of money just waste it and don’t care have clearly never been around people with a lot of money. They’re some of the most tight fisted around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a foolery for the rich. Those with unlimited time they can spend in different places (not your worker-bee type tethered to a specific location due to J.O.B. or kid's schools). Those with enough NW that they do not need to worry about making rental income to break even. Those with funds to pay the locals to maintain their home when they are away and prepare it for them and maintain it while they are vacationing there.

Those here who claim to have made millions or hundreds of thousands off their vaca homes were already loaded to start with, bought already expensive homes in areas of high demand, and didn't rely on these homes making income or appreciating to keep them. Or this is just BS.

Water is wet. In real estate, you have to spend money to make money.

RE investing is not for those without cash.

But the point of this thread a lot of times they don't make much money--or don't make as much money as comparable investments of cash after expenses in a basic stock index.

And another point here if OP is asking about vacation home as investment she isn't likely swimming in cash to afford to risk it or to make a bad move. People who are experienced RE investors doing this as a business would not be starting these threads. Those who have tons of cash would not be agonizing whether their vacation home will appreciate or pay for itself with rental income.

People who have “tons of cash” didn’t get it by not caring about appreciation.

The idea that people with a lot of money just waste it and don’t care have clearly never been around people with a lot of money. They’re some of the most tight fisted around.

Doesn't mean that they don't buy luxury purchases like vacation homes without worrying about appreciation.

[Anonymous]

No easy answer to this one OP. Too many variables.

I thought I wanted a beach house and set up an account so I could buy it outright. But once I got there, I realized I'd rather add that money to my retirement accounts. This is partly because I find home ownership and the associated maintenance a huge hassle, and partly because I like financial freedom more than I like the beach. For me I think the dream is more fun than the reality would be (I still like looking through Redfin) but YMMV.