Anonymous wrote:People here often write that second homes are a waste of money and pointless, and that people should rather invest the money and go on vacations. My thoughts about this are different - they are really a financial commitment for the people who buy them, but they offer so much more once they’re paid off. They’re basically a free place to spend extended holidays/vacations, an anchor to explore and travel to other places from, a place where families build memories. Most people I know have vacation homes (1 or 2), where they go every summer with their kids, or spend summer weekends. No one ever complains, everyone really likes and enjoys them. In all instances though, they were bought by their parents or grandparents.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lol at the "once they are paid off..." It's getting to the paid off part that's the issue. Most people I know don't have vacation homes handed down by parents and grandparents and the few that do have needed to sell them to pay for elder care.

I bought my first beach house 18 years ago (upgraded to a bigger one about 10 years ago). It's paid off. We will not need to sell it to pay for elder care.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised weekend places haven't taken off more here considering the high number of midwest transplants in the DMV. Plenty of people without DCUM $$ have 2nd "cabins" in Michigan and Wisconsin. They are great ways to ensure regular family time and outdoor activity. Are they the best possible investment for your money from a strictly financial perspective? Maybe not. But they are usually at least a positive investment too. Comparing a 2nd home where you'll spend a lot of time together to a couple of vacations just isn't valid.

This is us. We live in Chicago and have a lake house in Wisconsin. It's a 55 minute drive door to door so DH and I can run up and tend to things while the kids are at school/camp/daycare, we can shoot up for one day on the weekend if kids have sports on the other day. We both work remotely forever so we bring a grandparent or use a local sitter and we can go for a couple weeks at a time in the summer. Local babysitters are literally $10/hr so we will put the kids to bed, have a sitter come over, and do a date night up there. INSANELY cheaper than date nights in Chicago and often more fun/connecting.

Unpopular DCUM opinion I'm sure, but we are very avid home exchangers. So we can either exchange our lake house or exchange our Chicago house and stay at the lake house if we are dong a non-simultaneous exchange. In this way, it's opened up a WORLD of "free" vacations to us so we absolutey do not have to choose between vacation home or going on trips. Just this week alone we got a request from a family in Iceland that has to be in Milwaukee for a family wedding asking us to swap he last two weeks of July and a family in France asking us to swap over this upcoming Christmas. We've swapped for Germany, Belgium, Spain, Ireland, Czech Republic, Florida, North Carolina, UP of Michigan, and NYC so far. DH travels for work so we use his miles for flights and the home exchanges are free lodging and way way more convenient than hotels- stocked kitchens, laundry, toys/high chair/bikes for the kids, we often swap cars, etc.

PP, can you share where do you get those house swapping interest? We are definitely interested in doing that!!! Thank you!

We use HomeExchange and PeopleLikeUs. Both have been fantastic communities to be a part of. You can see reviews of everyone as both a host and guest, see how many exchanges they've done, etc. I think HomeExhange is $250/year and PLU is $350 for 2 year membership and that fee goes to an insurance policy for both your home and the home you'd stay in (I think it's up to $1M coverage but you can check the websites. Happy to answer any questions- we absolutely love it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can see the appeal for some but we don't want to visit the same place every summer. We do annual trips with my parents, siblings and our families but we pick a different vrbo house or resort so that we can visit different places. It also lets us siblings who are spread across the country each get a turn at a shorter flight.

We visit monthly or whenever we feel like it, plus take vacations further away.

+1. For many it’s a weekend home or getaway. It’s not a vacation home.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised weekend places haven't taken off more here considering the high number of midwest transplants in the DMV. Plenty of people without DCUM $$ have 2nd "cabins" in Michigan and Wisconsin. They are great ways to ensure regular family time and outdoor activity. Are they the best possible investment for your money from a strictly financial perspective? Maybe not. But they are usually at least a positive investment too. Comparing a 2nd home where you'll spend a lot of time together to a couple of vacations just isn't valid.

This is us. We live in Chicago and have a lake house in Wisconsin. It's a 55 minute drive door to door so DH and I can run up and tend to things while the kids are at school/camp/daycare, we can shoot up for one day on the weekend if kids have sports on the other day. We both work remotely forever so we bring a grandparent or use a local sitter and we can go for a couple weeks at a time in the summer. Local babysitters are literally $10/hr so we will put the kids to bed, have a sitter come over, and do a date night up there. INSANELY cheaper than date nights in Chicago and often more fun/connecting.

Unpopular DCUM opinion I'm sure, but we are very avid home exchangers. So we can either exchange our lake house or exchange our Chicago house and stay at the lake house if we are dong a non-simultaneous exchange. In this way, it's opened up a WORLD of "free" vacations to us so we absolutey do not have to choose between vacation home or going on trips. Just this week alone we got a request from a family in Iceland that has to be in Milwaukee for a family wedding asking us to swap he last two weeks of July and a family in France asking us to swap over this upcoming Christmas. We've swapped for Germany, Belgium, Spain, Ireland, Czech Republic, Florida, North Carolina, UP of Michigan, and NYC so far. DH travels for work so we use his miles for flights and the home exchanges are free lodging and way way more convenient than hotels- stocked kitchens, laundry, toys/high chair/bikes for the kids, we often swap cars, etc.

PP, can you share where do you get those house swapping interest? We are definitely interested in doing that!!! Thank you!

We use HomeExchange and PeopleLikeUs. Both have been fantastic communities to be a part of. You can see reviews of everyone as both a host and guest, see how many exchanges they've done, etc. I think HomeExhange is $250/year and PLU is $350 for 2 year membership and that fee goes to an insurance policy for both your home and the home you'd stay in (I think it's up to $1M coverage but you can check the websites. Happy to answer any questions- we absolutely love it.

Thank you very much PP. I will look into that. We are a family of 5 and find it increasingly hard to swallow the $1,000+ daily rate for rental homes… I also find the airabnb service fee and Vrbo host fees are such a robbery! meanwhile, we have a lovely 5000 sqft house in McLean VA sitting empty during our vacation. Home swapping makes perfect sense for us~~

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised weekend places haven't taken off more here considering the high number of midwest transplants in the DMV. Plenty of people without DCUM $$ have 2nd "cabins" in Michigan and Wisconsin. They are great ways to ensure regular family time and outdoor activity. Are they the best possible investment for your money from a strictly financial perspective? Maybe not. But they are usually at least a positive investment too. Comparing a 2nd home where you'll spend a lot of time together to a couple of vacations just isn't valid.

This is us. We live in Chicago and have a lake house in Wisconsin. It's a 55 minute drive door to door so DH and I can run up and tend to things while the kids are at school/camp/daycare, we can shoot up for one day on the weekend if kids have sports on the other day. We both work remotely forever so we bring a grandparent or use a local sitter and we can go for a couple weeks at a time in the summer. Local babysitters are literally $10/hr so we will put the kids to bed, have a sitter come over, and do a date night up there. INSANELY cheaper than date nights in Chicago and often more fun/connecting.

Unpopular DCUM opinion I'm sure, but we are very avid home exchangers. So we can either exchange our lake house or exchange our Chicago house and stay at the lake house if we are dong a non-simultaneous exchange. In this way, it's opened up a WORLD of "free" vacations to us so we absolutey do not have to choose between vacation home or going on trips. Just this week alone we got a request from a family in Iceland that has to be in Milwaukee for a family wedding asking us to swap he last two weeks of July and a family in France asking us to swap over this upcoming Christmas. We've swapped for Germany, Belgium, Spain, Ireland, Czech Republic, Florida, North Carolina, UP of Michigan, and NYC so far. DH travels for work so we use his miles for flights and the home exchanges are free lodging and way way more convenient than hotels- stocked kitchens, laundry, toys/high chair/bikes for the kids, we often swap cars, etc.

PP, can you share where do you get those house swapping interest? We are definitely interested in doing that!!! Thank you!

We use HomeExchange and PeopleLikeUs. Both have been fantastic communities to be a part of. You can see reviews of everyone as both a host and guest, see how many exchanges they've done, etc. I think HomeExhange is $250/year and PLU is $350 for 2 year membership and that fee goes to an insurance policy for both your home and the home you'd stay in (I think it's up to $1M coverage but you can check the websites. Happy to answer any questions- we absolutely love it.

Thank you very much PP. I will look into that. We are a family of 5 and find it increasingly hard to swallow the $1,000+ daily rate for rental homes… I also find the airabnb service fee and Vrbo host fees are such a robbery! meanwhile, we have a lovely 5000 sqft house in McLean VA sitting empty during our vacation. Home swapping makes perfect sense for us~~

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised weekend places haven't taken off more here considering the high number of midwest transplants in the DMV. Plenty of people without DCUM $$ have 2nd "cabins" in Michigan and Wisconsin. They are great ways to ensure regular family time and outdoor activity. Are they the best possible investment for your money from a strictly financial perspective? Maybe not. But they are usually at least a positive investment too. Comparing a 2nd home where you'll spend a lot of time together to a couple of vacations just isn't valid.

This is us. We live in Chicago and have a lake house in Wisconsin. It's a 55 minute drive door to door so DH and I can run up and tend to things while the kids are at school/camp/daycare, we can shoot up for one day on the weekend if kids have sports on the other day. We both work remotely forever so we bring a grandparent or use a local sitter and we can go for a couple weeks at a time in the summer. Local babysitters are literally $10/hr so we will put the kids to bed, have a sitter come over, and do a date night up there. INSANELY cheaper than date nights in Chicago and often more fun/connecting.

Unpopular DCUM opinion I'm sure, but we are very avid home exchangers. So we can either exchange our lake house or exchange our Chicago house and stay at the lake house if we are dong a non-simultaneous exchange. In this way, it's opened up a WORLD of "free" vacations to us so we absolutey do not have to choose between vacation home or going on trips. Just this week alone we got a request from a family in Iceland that has to be in Milwaukee for a family wedding asking us to swap he last two weeks of July and a family in France asking us to swap over this upcoming Christmas. We've swapped for Germany, Belgium, Spain, Ireland, Czech Republic, Florida, North Carolina, UP of Michigan, and NYC so far. DH travels for work so we use his miles for flights and the home exchanges are free lodging and way way more convenient than hotels- stocked kitchens, laundry, toys/high chair/bikes for the kids, we often swap cars, etc.

PP, can you share where do you get those house swapping interest? We are definitely interested in doing that!!! Thank you!

We use HomeExchange and PeopleLikeUs. Both have been fantastic communities to be a part of. You can see reviews of everyone as both a host and guest, see how many exchanges they've done, etc. I think HomeExhange is $250/year and PLU is $350 for 2 year membership and that fee goes to an insurance policy for both your home and the home you'd stay in (I think it's up to $1M coverage but you can check the websites. Happy to answer any questions- we absolutely love it.

Anonymous wrote:Lol at the "once they are paid off..." It's getting to the paid off part that's the issue. Most people I know don't have vacation homes handed down by parents and grandparents and the few that do have needed to sell them to pay for elder care.

Anonymous wrote:Lol at the "once they are paid off..." It's getting to the paid off part that's the issue. Most people I know don't have vacation homes handed down by parents and grandparents and the few that do have needed to sell them to pay for elder care.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised weekend places haven't taken off more here considering the high number of midwest transplants in the DMV. Plenty of people without DCUM $$ have 2nd "cabins" in Michigan and Wisconsin. They are great ways to ensure regular family time and outdoor activity. Are they the best possible investment for your money from a strictly financial perspective? Maybe not. But they are usually at least a positive investment too. Comparing a 2nd home where you'll spend a lot of time together to a couple of vacations just isn't valid.

This is us. We live in Chicago and have a lake house in Wisconsin. It's a 55 minute drive door to door so DH and I can run up and tend to things while the kids are at school/camp/daycare, we can shoot up for one day on the weekend if kids have sports on the other day. We both work remotely forever so we bring a grandparent or use a local sitter and we can go for a couple weeks at a time in the summer. Local babysitters are literally $10/hr so we will put the kids to bed, have a sitter come over, and do a date night up there. INSANELY cheaper than date nights in Chicago and often more fun/connecting.

Unpopular DCUM opinion I'm sure, but we are very avid home exchangers. So we can either exchange our lake house or exchange our Chicago house and stay at the lake house if we are dong a non-simultaneous exchange. In this way, it's opened up a WORLD of "free" vacations to us so we absolutey do not have to choose between vacation home or going on trips. Just this week alone we got a request from a family in Iceland that has to be in Milwaukee for a family wedding asking us to swap he last two weeks of July and a family in France asking us to swap over this upcoming Christmas. We've swapped for Germany, Belgium, Spain, Ireland, Czech Republic, Florida, North Carolina, UP of Michigan, and NYC so far. DH travels for work so we use his miles for flights and the home exchanges are free lodging and way way more convenient than hotels- stocked kitchens, laundry, toys/high chair/bikes for the kids, we often swap cars, etc.

PP, can you share where do you get those house swapping interest? We are definitely interested in doing that!!! Thank you!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised weekend places haven't taken off more here considering the high number of midwest transplants in the DMV. Plenty of people without DCUM $$ have 2nd "cabins" in Michigan and Wisconsin. They are great ways to ensure regular family time and outdoor activity. Are they the best possible investment for your money from a strictly financial perspective? Maybe not. But they are usually at least a positive investment too. Comparing a 2nd home where you'll spend a lot of time together to a couple of vacations just isn't valid.

This is us. We live in Chicago and have a lake house in Wisconsin. It's a 55 minute drive door to door so DH and I can run up and tend to things while the kids are at school/camp/daycare, we can shoot up for one day on the weekend if kids have sports on the other day. We both work remotely forever so we bring a grandparent or use a local sitter and we can go for a couple weeks at a time in the summer. Local babysitters are literally $10/hr so we will put the kids to bed, have a sitter come over, and do a date night up there. INSANELY cheaper than date nights in Chicago and often more fun/connecting.

Unpopular DCUM opinion I'm sure, but we are very avid home exchangers. So we can either exchange our lake house or exchange our Chicago house and stay at the lake house if we are dong a non-simultaneous exchange. In this way, it's opened up a WORLD of "free" vacations to us so we absolutey do not have to choose between vacation home or going on trips. Just this week alone we got a request from a family in Iceland that has to be in Milwaukee for a family wedding asking us to swap he last two weeks of July and a family in France asking us to swap over this upcoming Christmas. We've swapped for Germany, Belgium, Spain, Ireland, Czech Republic, Florida, North Carolina, UP of Michigan, and NYC so far. DH travels for work so we use his miles for flights and the home exchanges are free lodging and way way more convenient than hotels- stocked kitchens, laundry, toys/high chair/bikes for the kids, we often swap cars, etc.

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised weekend places haven't taken off more here considering the high number of midwest transplants in the DMV. Plenty of people without DCUM $$ have 2nd "cabins" in Michigan and Wisconsin. They are great ways to ensure regular family time and outdoor activity. Are they the best possible investment for your money from a strictly financial perspective? Maybe not. But they are usually at least a positive investment too. Comparing a 2nd home where you'll spend a lot of time together to a couple of vacations just isn't valid.