Not having a second / vacation home makes me feel poor & depressed. Anyone else?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know anyone who owns vacation homes.

I went to a big three and the obnoxious posts of people at their vacation homes is killing me.

especially when the same people who are safely telecommuting from their vacation homes support other, less well off people going back to work in person in order to help the economy while they safely telecommute. worried about their hedge fund bonus being lower! and they probably like the idea of everyone else developing herd immunity while they stay holed up. One posted that she didnt know when it was safe to go back home to nyc in one post and in another post argued that poorer people should feel happy to go back to work so they have jobs. yeah, im sure she'd rather be frying fries for minimum wage with no benefits and inadequate ppe instead of staying home safely and collecting unemployment.... So hypocritical. I'm disgusted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know anyone who owns vacation homes.

I went to a big three and the obnoxious posts of people at their vacation homes is killing me.

especially when the same people who are safely telecommuting from their vacation homes support other, less well off people going back to work in person in order to help the economy while they safely telecommute. worried about their hedge fund bonus being lower! and they probably like the idea of everyone else developing herd immunity while they stay holed up. One posted that she didnt know when it was safe to go back home to nyc in one post and in another post argued that poorer people should feel happy to go back to work so they have jobs. yeah, im sure she'd rather be frying fries for minimum wage with no benefits and inadequate ppe instead of staying home safely and collecting unemployment.... So hypocritical. I'm disgusted.

Do they have a "HOPE" poster right outside of their house?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kind of related but I am going to inherit our family home in SoFla. I am tempted to hold onto it and use as a 2nd home for a month out of the year – it’s really a great house. Not sure how I’ll do that but my head tells me it’s not going to work even though my heart tells me differently. Anyone have something similar?

In my experience, this sort of thing typically rarely ends well from a financial perspective. Sentimentally, it might work but the reality is, it's a drain. YMMV - best of luck.

[Anonymous]

Will you fly there? If you stay very long, you'll need a rental car for a long time. That can be difficult/very expensive. Owners of second homes often 1) get tired of the long drive in order to have their own car with them or 2) get tired of finding a rental car for long stays if they have instead flown. Often, they end up "leaving" a car at their 2rd home, available to them when they visit. But that a problem. They disconnect the battery. You still need someone to look after it, check on your 2nd home once in awhile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will you fly there? If you stay very long, you'll need a rental car for a long time. That can be difficult/very expensive. Owners of second homes often 1) get tired of the long drive in order to have their own car with them or 2) get tired of finding a rental car for long stays if they have instead flown. Often, they end up "leaving" a car at their 2rd home, available to them when they visit. But that a problem. They disconnect the battery. You still need someone to look after it, check on your 2nd home once in awhile.

Yeah, we would fly. Since I am from there, I have siblings, relatives that live there. I also would have a car there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Not at all. I’d much rather travel to different places around the world than have to deal with maintenance of a second or third property.

This pandemic won’t last for ever, so I can be patient.

I hate to state the obvious, but having a 2nd home or traveling internationally arent mutually exclusive.

I just got my a new roof and deck on our vacation home and wasn't there doing it myself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will you fly there? If you stay very long, you'll need a rental car for a long time. That can be difficult/very expensive. Owners of second homes often 1) get tired of the long drive in order to have their own car with them or 2) get tired of finding a rental car for long stays if they have instead flown. Often, they end up "leaving" a car at their 2rd home, available to them when they visit. But that a problem. They disconnect the battery. You still need someone to look after it, check on your 2nd home once in awhile.

Yeah, we would fly. Since I am from there, I have siblings, relatives that live there. I also would have a car there.

NP. The car issue isn't that big of a deal. Our family has kept an old family home in Iowa for 30+ years. My aunt is in charge of it and she lives in NYC. She has the housecleaners come in once a month, whether anyone has been in the house or not, to "clean" but also to run all the appliances, including the dishwasher, washer and dryer. As part of that they turn on the car (garage door open) and let it run for a few minutes. It is NBD. They are there for half an hour in the morning to get everything running and then swing back by at the end of the day to make sure everything turned off safely and nothing malfunctioned. The yard care company does the same thing with the outdoor faucets only they have actual work to do with mowing the lawn and maintaining plantings so the house looks nice.

The house part is really low cost, like maybe $75 to $100 a month, and you get a lot of bang for your buck. The lawn care is a little more. It is important to my aunt that the house's gardens have a good proximate look to when her green thumb father was alive so she spends a lot on that part of the upkeep. You obviously would make a different choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will you fly there? If you stay very long, you'll need a rental car for a long time. That can be difficult/very expensive. Owners of second homes often 1) get tired of the long drive in order to have their own car with them or 2) get tired of finding a rental car for long stays if they have instead flown. Often, they end up "leaving" a car at their 2rd home, available to them when they visit. But that a problem. They disconnect the battery. You still need someone to look after it, check on your 2nd home once in awhile.

My brother has a house in Charleston are beaches he spends time at (is actually there since the pandemic broke out). He takes an uber from the airport to his house where he keeps a car.

I do know this time he drove down, but normally doesnt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will you fly there? If you stay very long, you'll need a rental car for a long time. That can be difficult/very expensive. Owners of second homes often 1) get tired of the long drive in order to have their own car with them or 2) get tired of finding a rental car for long stays if they have instead flown. Often, they end up "leaving" a car at their 2rd home, available to them when they visit. But that a problem. They disconnect the battery. You still need someone to look after it, check on your 2nd home once in awhile.

Yeah, we would fly. Since I am from there, I have siblings, relatives that live there. I also would have a car there.

NP. The car issue isn't that big of a deal. Our family has kept an old family home in Iowa for 30+ years. My aunt is in charge of it and she lives in NYC. She has the housecleaners come in once a month, whether anyone has been in the house or not, to "clean" but also to run all the appliances, including the dishwasher, washer and dryer. As part of that they turn on the car (garage door open) and let it run for a few minutes. It is NBD. They are there for half an hour in the morning to get everything running and then swing back by at the end of the day to make sure everything turned off safely and nothing malfunctioned. The yard care company does the same thing with the outdoor faucets only they have actual work to do with mowing the lawn and maintaining plantings so the house looks nice.

The house part is really low cost, like maybe $75 to $100 a month, and you get a lot of bang for your buck. The lawn care is a little more. It is important to my aunt that the house's gardens have a good proximate look to when her green thumb father was alive so she spends a lot on that part of the upkeep. You obviously would make a different choice.

This is where my head is at. Actually, my biggest concern is theft/break ins. Iowa is quite different than sofla, sadly. I guess Ring/cameras/etc would help, but that would be my biggest concern especially if I hire someone to come in to do as you recommend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will you fly there? If you stay very long, you'll need a rental car for a long time. That can be difficult/very expensive. Owners of second homes often 1) get tired of the long drive in order to have their own car with them or 2) get tired of finding a rental car for long stays if they have instead flown. Often, they end up "leaving" a car at their 2rd home, available to them when they visit. But that a problem. They disconnect the battery. You still need someone to look after it, check on your 2nd home once in awhile.

Yeah, we would fly. Since I am from there, I have siblings, relatives that live there. I also would have a car there.

NP. The car issue isn't that big of a deal. Our family has kept an old family home in Iowa for 30+ years. My aunt is in charge of it and she lives in NYC. She has the housecleaners come in once a month, whether anyone has been in the house or not, to "clean" but also to run all the appliances, including the dishwasher, washer and dryer. As part of that they turn on the car (garage door open) and let it run for a few minutes. It is NBD. They are there for half an hour in the morning to get everything running and then swing back by at the end of the day to make sure everything turned off safely and nothing malfunctioned. The yard care company does the same thing with the outdoor faucets only they have actual work to do with mowing the lawn and maintaining plantings so the house looks nice.

The house part is really low cost, like maybe $75 to $100 a month, and you get a lot of bang for your buck. The lawn care is a little more. It is important to my aunt that the house's gardens have a good proximate look to when her green thumb father was alive so she spends a lot on that part of the upkeep. You obviously would make a different choice.

This is where my head is at. Actually, my biggest concern is theft/break ins. Iowa is quite different than sofla, sadly. I guess Ring/cameras/etc would help, but that would be my biggest concern especially if I hire someone to come in to do as you recommend.

What would people steal? TVs? Most breaking people are looking for prescription drugs, money, jewlery, guns, laptops...not hauling out $300 used TVs, sofas, and mattresses.

I have a vacation home in a popular location and breakins are wayyyy less than DC (like a fraction) and I cant think of anything worth stealing. All my valuables are kept in my primary home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will you fly there? If you stay very long, you'll need a rental car for a long time. That can be difficult/very expensive. Owners of second homes often 1) get tired of the long drive in order to have their own car with them or 2) get tired of finding a rental car for long stays if they have instead flown. Often, they end up "leaving" a car at their 2rd home, available to them when they visit. But that a problem. They disconnect the battery. You still need someone to look after it, check on your 2nd home once in awhile.

Yeah, we would fly. Since I am from there, I have siblings, relatives that live there. I also would have a car there.

NP. The car issue isn't that big of a deal. Our family has kept an old family home in Iowa for 30+ years. My aunt is in charge of it and she lives in NYC. She has the housecleaners come in once a month, whether anyone has been in the house or not, to "clean" but also to run all the appliances, including the dishwasher, washer and dryer. As part of that they turn on the car (garage door open) and let it run for a few minutes. It is NBD. They are there for half an hour in the morning to get everything running and then swing back by at the end of the day to make sure everything turned off safely and nothing malfunctioned. The yard care company does the same thing with the outdoor faucets only they have actual work to do with mowing the lawn and maintaining plantings so the house looks nice.

The house part is really low cost, like maybe $75 to $100 a month, and you get a lot of bang for your buck. The lawn care is a little more. It is important to my aunt that the house's gardens have a good proximate look to when her green thumb father was alive so she spends a lot on that part of the upkeep. You obviously would make a different choice.

This is where my head is at. Actually, my biggest concern is theft/break ins. Iowa is quite different than sofla, sadly. I guess Ring/cameras/etc would help, but that would be my biggest concern especially if I hire someone to come in to do as you recommend.

What would people steal? TVs? Most breaking people are looking for prescription drugs, money, jewlery, guns, laptops...not hauling out $300 used TVs, sofas, and mattresses.

I have a vacation home in a popular location and breakins are wayyyy less than DC (like a fraction) and I cant think of anything worth stealing. All my valuables are kept in my primary home.

You make a good point. I fear was more ransacking the place but you're right. Stock the house with relatively inexpensive kitchen stuff, maybe have 1-2 inexpensive flat screens, etc.

[Anonymous]

Do people generally keep homeowner's insurance for 2nd homes (inherited)?

[Anonymous]

We can't afford a vacation home, but our family has a small RV on a seasonal campground. Our lot is on the lake and the RV functions like a cottage. We bought the RV used and it cost us $9k. The campground fees are $2k/year, including electricity and water. We go every weekend and it's lovely. The kids can swim at the lake, there are 2 playgrounds, a baseball diamond, a soccer field, a volleyball court, horseshoe pits, and a recreation rooms for crafts/events/etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do people generally keep homeowner's insurance for 2nd homes (inherited)?

Uh, yes? Why wouldn't you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will you fly there? If you stay very long, you'll need a rental car for a long time. That can be difficult/very expensive. Owners of second homes often 1) get tired of the long drive in order to have their own car with them or 2) get tired of finding a rental car for long stays if they have instead flown. Often, they end up "leaving" a car at their 2rd home, available to them when they visit. But that a problem. They disconnect the battery. You still need someone to look after it, check on your 2nd home once in awhile.

Yeah, we would fly. Since I am from there, I have siblings, relatives that live there. I also would have a car there.

NP. The car issue isn't that big of a deal. Our family has kept an old family home in Iowa for 30+ years. My aunt is in charge of it and she lives in NYC. She has the housecleaners come in once a month, whether anyone has been in the house or not, to "clean" but also to run all the appliances, including the dishwasher, washer and dryer. As part of that they turn on the car (garage door open) and let it run for a few minutes. It is NBD. They are there for half an hour in the morning to get everything running and then swing back by at the end of the day to make sure everything turned off safely and nothing malfunctioned. The yard care company does the same thing with the outdoor faucets only they have actual work to do with mowing the lawn and maintaining plantings so the house looks nice.

The house part is really low cost, like maybe $75 to $100 a month, and you get a lot of bang for your buck. The lawn care is a little more. It is important to my aunt that the house's gardens have a good proximate look to when her green thumb father was alive so she spends a lot on that part of the upkeep. You obviously would make a different choice.

This is where my head is at. Actually, my biggest concern is theft/break ins. Iowa is quite different than sofla, sadly. I guess Ring/cameras/etc would help, but that would be my biggest concern especially if I hire someone to come in to do as you recommend.

There are plenty of services in SFL that will come in once a month to check your home.