I’ve written other blog posts about our motivations to purchase our “vacation home”. To summarize – it was strictly financial. The goals were to (1) have a positive monthly cash flow through short-term rentals and (2) have another income-producing asset for retirement. Sure, I was hoping we could use the property while it wasn’t rented out. So far, this sweet home has fulfilled its duties… and so much more.
“I’ve made so many sweet memories at this house with people I love, and it’s not even costing me anything.”
We have been able to host our parents, friends, and siblings. We have celebrated holidays, anniversaries, and birthdays – and still made a profit! All of the photos I used for this post are actual photos of our house and our family and friends enjoying it. One day I was sitting on the deck celebrating one of my best friend’s birthdays and thought to myself, “I’ve made so many sweet memories at this house with people I love, and it’s not even costing me anything”.
Now – to be clear – this post is not to applaud some sort of brilliant decision-making on our part. Honestly, we were really nervous going into it. Prices had already gone up… a lot. We had never owned a vacation rental. And, we had never owned a house in that market. But, we did as much research as we could and committed to making it work. I wanted to write this post so that anyone reading it would see that it is an attainable goal. We put 10% down (which is typically the minimum down payment to purchase a vacation home). And then we hustled like crazy to start getting it booked on VRBO to cover the monthly carrying costs.
The fun parts are obvious – we’ve made a ton of great memories and it’s performing well financially. However, there have also been some hard parts which are worth mentioning because those need to be considered as well:
(1) It’s a lot of work. The house is almost completely booked from spring time until the end of the year. We do not use a property manager so I coordinate with all of our guests. It takes a lot of time – and just like with any business – you get some customers who are great to work with… and some others who aren’t. I will say though, most of our guests have been very nice.
(2) We aren’t local. I have a few great people who help me keep the house up and running who I rely on heavily. I’ve been lucky to find great people to work with but this has definitely been one of the most challenging aspects. Having a network of people that include cleaning team, handyman, task helpers, etc. is crucial.
(3) Surprise costs. Keep in mind – I estimate costs of owning a home for a living and I STILL got a few post-closing surprises. This was the first house I owned that required extensive landscaping maintenance. This was much more expensive than I anticipated. This was also the first home that I owned with a septic tank and having it pumped was way more expensive than I would have guessed. Several costs ended up being higher than we expected because of the rapid rise in inflation after we closed (which was during the pandemic). These kinds of things happen so you just need to be conservative with the numbers you are running and leave some cushion for “surprises”.
I hope this sparks excitement in someone reading to look into owning a vacation home that maybe you didn’t think was possible before! Always feel free to reach out and I’m happy to get you started on the right path.
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