About to buy second home on Eastern shore

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

We also have a River House (our name for it until we come up with a better name) on the Potomac down in Charles County and are so happy with it. The key is that it is just 1.5 hours away, and only that time on Friday afternoon in bad traffic, so it doesn't stress us out to sit in traffic to get there. There are days during the week when my spouse or I will go down for 2 days to work in peace. We have a boat and will eventually build a pool. Since we aren't there as often, it doesn't get as dirty and it doesn't take long to clean. It is a much bigger house than our DC house and 5 acres, and we have it set up with fun indoor activities and fun outdoor activities and we don't pressure our kids to be outside all the time. We find ourselves much more relaxed there. A view of a wide river is a great way to relax. We haven't been able to be there much lately, but it doesn't bother us, we just know that we can make it down whenever we want. I do think the short distance is key, though. Our realtor told us to do less than 2 hours if you want to be able to just pop down.

We really like Charles County due to the proximity to DC. Are you directly on the Potomac or a tributary creek/river? Has it been easy and affordable to find local help for maintenance and repairs? What’s your situation with owning a boat?

We are directly on the Potomac, right where it curves. There are some nice wide tributaries that have pretty homes too though, and we boat to them often. We like Nanjemoy Creek. We have a lawn service and we have signed up for NextDoor Nanjemoy to find other services we might need. Our place already had a dock, and it was nice to have that built into the mortgage. We got a large pontoon because our house is large enough for multiple families and we wanted a boat large enough for all to go out together. The reason we chose the Potomac over the Chesapeake was because it appears to be much easier to have dock access on your property. And the proximity is really really nice.

Very cool. We nearly bought a waterfront house a few years ago in Bryan’s Road, MD. It’s super close to the city, but it ended up not being the right timing for us. We just rented on the other side of the Bay Bridge this past weekend (on the Tangier Sound), it was gorgeous but the drive was 3 hours on a non-holiday weekend. We want something closer and with Airbnb potential.

Do you have sunset or sunrise views? The sunsets are magnificent, but one needs a west facing view. It would be great to be on wider parts of the Potomac, facing west.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

We also have a River House (our name for it until we come up with a better name) on the Potomac down in Charles County and are so happy with it. The key is that it is just 1.5 hours away, and only that time on Friday afternoon in bad traffic, so it doesn't stress us out to sit in traffic to get there. There are days during the week when my spouse or I will go down for 2 days to work in peace. We have a boat and will eventually build a pool. Since we aren't there as often, it doesn't get as dirty and it doesn't take long to clean. It is a much bigger house than our DC house and 5 acres, and we have it set up with fun indoor activities and fun outdoor activities and we don't pressure our kids to be outside all the time. We find ourselves much more relaxed there. A view of a wide river is a great way to relax. We haven't been able to be there much lately, but it doesn't bother us, we just know that we can make it down whenever we want. I do think the short distance is key, though. Our realtor told us to do less than 2 hours if you want to be able to just pop down.

We really like Charles County due to the proximity to DC. Are you directly on the Potomac or a tributary creek/river? Has it been easy and affordable to find local help for maintenance and repairs? What’s your situation with owning a boat?

We are directly on the Potomac, right where it curves. There are some nice wide tributaries that have pretty homes too though, and we boat to them often. We like Nanjemoy Creek. We have a lawn service and we have signed up for NextDoor Nanjemoy to find other services we might need. Our place already had a dock, and it was nice to have that built into the mortgage. We got a large pontoon because our house is large enough for multiple families and we wanted a boat large enough for all to go out together. The reason we chose the Potomac over the Chesapeake was because it appears to be much easier to have dock access on your property. And the proximity is really really nice.

Very cool. We nearly bought a waterfront house a few years ago in Bryan’s Road, MD. It’s super close to the city, but it ended up not being the right timing for us. We just rented on the other side of the Bay Bridge this past weekend (on the Tangier Sound), it was gorgeous but the drive was 3 hours on a non-holiday weekend. We want something closer and with Airbnb potential.

Do you have sunset or sunrise views? The sunsets are magnificent, but one needs a west facing view. It would be great to be on wider parts of the Potomac, facing west.

Because we are right where the river curves, we actually face south. It takes a while to remember that your view isn't east or west, but looking directly south across to VA. There is a state park directly across the river from us. The moonlight is amazing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Near Easton. Waterfront.

I think we can afford it. Two middle-schoolers, so I am not sure we will get there too much in the Spring and Fall when they have games, but hoping we can use if for much of the summer with vacations and working remotely. Plus, in a few years they will be gone and maybe we can spend more time there.

Are we making a terrible mistake?

Do you have four years of private college tuition for each of them tucked away? Ypu’d Be looking at $70k + per year NOW for some of the top 50 or so private’s, maybe $60k for to 100 schools.

[Anonymous]

This article seems timely:

https://wtop.com/dc-transit/2019/09/drivers-face-heavy-traffic-on-route-50-before-bay-bridge/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This article seems timely:

https://wtop.com/dc-transit/2019/09/drivers-face-heavy-traffic-on-route-50-before-bay-bridge/

Holy sh#t that sounds brutal. We drove west over the bridge yesterday and we were commenting on the miserable bridge back up in the east bound lanes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What a waste of money. I would never do that.

Everyone has different priorities. Perhaps instead of declaring “What a waste of money” you could explain WHY you would never do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a waste of money. I would never do that.

Everyone has different priorities. Perhaps instead of declaring “What a waste of money” you could explain WHY you would never do that.

+1 For our family, having a second home in the Tidewater region has been a wonderful choice. We love it because we have a place close by where we can escape the every day frazzle and bustle to relax, where we can explore new things, where the kids can learn new skills like sailing and boating, and where we can all enjoy a simpler life style. It has made us much closer as a family. I also like it because we've chosen a place that is close enough to get to on a whim but we also don't need to beat ourselves up if we don't go there for a few months. Different strokes for different folks!

[Anonymous]

I own a house outside Cambridge, MD and I absolutely adore it. Bought it about 3 years ago--best purchase I've ever made. We rent it out, which pays for ownership. And we regularly bring 3-4 couples/families out with us when we go. Happy to answer Qs offline, if useful.

[Anonymous]

Hey OP - report back! Are you happy?

(We're considering the same so would love to hear)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Are there other things you do on the weekends that you can’t do if you’re at your second home? Grocery shopping, do laundry, pick up laundry, etc? One issue I found is that you get back into town on Sunday night, and have to go to work on a Monday, and all that stuff you’d normally get done on the weekend still needed to be done. If you’re a SAHM, it’s not as big an issue.

We’ve had several second homes over the years, and they’ve been great when we were in a position to spend weeks at a time there, or were close and we didn’t have weekend commitments. However, as others have mentioned, if you don’t hire help, you’ll spend all your time at the house cleaning and doing maintenance and never feel as though you get a place to relax. Second homes take up a lot of mental space — managing the landscaper, the house cleaners, figuring out how to get the appliance repairman in the house, etc. Unless you have a full service management company, and even then you still need to make decisions.

After we sold our last second home, we rented a place, and I had such an epiphany when we locked up to leave and dropped the key in the box. If the pipes broke, a tree crashed on the roof, etc — it wasn’t our problem. It was very liberating.

[Anonymous]

Yay, op! We were on the fence about a beach house but decided not to fonit. Im kind of sad. Kids are 10 snd 14 and honestly dont have too much going on in the wkds and summer/- a few weeks of camp, not camp for 7-8 weeks. This year we traveled a bit but not enough to fill in the doldrums. My parents have both passed on, and i have only one sibling overseas. I want to create a new tradition in my own family for thanksgiving, Christmas and other holidays. Instead of buying a place, we figure we’ll do bigger trips now that the kids are old enough to get a lot out of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This article seems timely:

https://wtop.com/dc-transit/2019/09/drivers-face-heavy-traffic-on-route-50-before-bay-bridge/

This article is 4 years old and the toll booths have been removed altogether. When we drive over the bridge in mid August it wasn’t too bad. Of course construction or an accident will cause long wait times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hey OP - report back! Are you happy?

(We're considering the same so would love to hear)

OP here. I had totally forgotten about this thread and began reading it not even realizing that I was the one who started it! And I promised to report back two years later...I guess now it is almost 4 year later. Time flies.

We did put in an offer and closed in November 2019. It was one of the best decisions we have ever made. We spent almost the entire pandemic there, which was ideal as it was away from everyone. It felt a lot less weird being there, where you are always pretty isolated, than in DC, where things felt very uncanny.

Now things have normalized we get out there less, but still quite a bit. Being only 90 minutes away (with no traffic) you can go after a kid's soccer match and it is still worthwhile. WFH also makes it much more practical to get there while avoiding traffic, so that has been great. We can go e.g. Thursday to Monday in the summer. We haven't rented it out because we use it so much.

Our one regret is that we haven't made many friends there yet, partly because we bought it during the pandemic. But quite a few dc friends have come out and enjoyed it with us.

Cycling, kayaking, swimming, going for walks or meals in St Michaels or Easton are all great. We installed a sauna, which I love. But the best part is just sitting on a chair in the yard with a drink watching the sunset. We live on a busy road in DC so it makes a very nice change. It can be quite expensive to maintain a second home, but definitely worth it for us.

[Anonymous]

Vacant house is the worst thing you can have. I’d never do it again

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey OP - report back! Are you happy?

(We're considering the same so would love to hear)

OP here. I had totally forgotten about this thread and began reading it not even realizing that I was the one who started it! And I promised to report back two years later...I guess now it is almost 4 year later. Time flies.

We did put in an offer and closed in November 2019. It was one of the best decisions we have ever made. We spent almost the entire pandemic there, which was ideal as it was away from everyone. It felt a lot less weird being there, where you are always pretty isolated, than in DC, where things felt very uncanny.

Now things have normalized we get out there less, but still quite a bit. Being only 90 minutes away (with no traffic) you can go after a kid's soccer match and it is still worthwhile. WFH also makes it much more practical to get there while avoiding traffic, so that has been great. We can go e.g. Thursday to Monday in the summer. We haven't rented it out because we use it so much.

Our one regret is that we haven't made many friends there yet, partly because we bought it during the pandemic. But quite a few dc friends have come out and enjoyed it with us.

Cycling, kayaking, swimming, going for walks or meals in St Michaels or Easton are all great. We installed a sauna, which I love. But the best part is just sitting on a chair in the yard with a drink watching the sunset. We live on a busy road in DC so it makes a very nice change. It can be quite expensive to maintain a second home, but definitely worth it for us.

😄Definitely was a good time to have made that purchase and probably a good financial decision.