Deciding to jump full on into purchasing a vacation home for your family is a major decision. At first, the idea is exhilarating as you're constantly imagining yourself escaping every weekend to enjoy the splendor of your own personal sanctuary. However, as further investigation transpires, it can quickly become overwhelming and frustrating. To avoid the disruption of joy in purchasing your second home or vacation home, there are five tips you should consider before purchasing.
1. Considering Your Family's Interests and Needs for a Vacation Home
This is the fun part of the process. Each family considers vacation something different, but what does your family want to accomplish when leaving town? For some this may mean a nice stroll down the beach, casting out into their favorite creek, or simply being inside to relax next to a cozy fire.
Many families make the mistake of purchasing a home with intentions of picking up new hobbies and interests when they move there, but this is a terrible mistake. To avoid a frustrating purchase and gamble on an area that you MIGHT like, consider purchasing a vacation house in an area that you already know will compliment the tastes of your family's leisure time.
By grasping a full understanding of your family's need for a vacation, it will transition into how you can find a location to fit those needs.
2. Finding Others Interested in Occupying or Sharing the Costs of a Vacation Home
After you consider your family's needs first, then consider through your friends and family if any of them would like to help share the cost of the vacation home or CONFIRM that they would be willing to use it. Having financial help from other people can increase the budget while looking for a second home. It's recommended that you find people that will CONFIRM they will be interested because with purchases like a second home, more often than not you will find people that “say” they'll be interested but when push comes to shove they back out.
Another suggestion is to consider putting your vacation home in classified ads so that you can lease it during the year when you're not using it and receive funds that will help cover the mortgage of the home.
Based on the interest drawn from your investigations, this also may help you decide on a proximate location to maximize smooth ownership operation.
3. Location – Critically Considering the Effects of Your Location
At first this seems like a no-brainer- But this is where a lot of people end up losing the battle of searching for a vacation home.
Just like understanding your family's needs, it's very important to critically and realistically (not optimistically) assess how often you will be able to visit your vacation home and how much you will rent or have friends occupy it. The IRS is providing tax breaks for people that can stay in their vacation homes for up to 14 days or 10% of the time that it was rented to others. Meeting these standards should be the first priority when looking for a home to ensure that your home has the proximity to be able to occupy it for the required time to earn a tax break from it.
4. Consolidating Second Home Responsibilities with an All-In-One Real Estate Company
Assuming that you have found “THAT” house that is going to make all of your vacation dreams a reality, consider what it is going to take to maintain your vacation property. Let's face it, owning a first home is practically a full time job, a full time job that you're trying to get away from.
What many real estate company and vacation home developers are doing is consolidating their services. This evolution of real estate service is giving buyers the option to use multiple services under the same roof such as purchasing, construction, financing, insurance and more depending on the company. This gives second home owners the chance to not scatter all over the place trying to just maintain and pay for their second home. When you're considering purchasing a second home or even having one built for you, consider seeking out one of these stellar real estate groups that can make owning a vacation home easy.
5. Don't Forget to Have Fun
Many times second home owners will forget why they are purchasing a second home in the first place, get frustrated and turn around to sell it. It's crucially important to take time and enjoy the reasons why you bought the home.
Don't forget to have fun!
Martin Wynn
