Buying Second Home / Vacation home

Buying Second Home/ Vacation Home

Having a vacation home is a great way to relax. It gives a great place for you and your loved ones to spend time away. It’s some people’s dream to have their own second home. Especially when it’s summer, vacation time or even special gatherings we often think of spending our time in a vacation home to have a great and relaxing time either alone, taking our family with us or with friends. It could be a wise long time investment.

Here are some things you need to consider first before buying a second home.

• Try renting a vacation home first. If you are planning to own a second home, you may try renting a place first near the area for a couple of months where you are planning to buy it. This will help you discover what are the helpful things you might consider of doing, improve, adding or avoid when you have your own second home. This will also help you realize if you are ready to maintain two properties at the same time.

• It could be a good investment or a vacation property, or both. It would be better to figure out first what you really want to do when you get a chance to have your own second home. You can use it for personal use where you can bring just family and friends. And it can also help you earn some money if you rent it out.

• Buying a second home as an investment. It could be a good investment and serves a good source of retirement income. You can also sell your investment home and use the profit of buying another investment home. Another thing is, you can pay the mortgage using the rental income to pay off the mortgage.

• Buying a second home as a vacation home. The advantage is you can go to your vacation home anytime you want where you can spend time relaxing alone or with loved ones without booking a place and pay rent. The disadvantage is that you might pay double expenses for having two homes at the same time. However, it’s a big relief at the end when you finally own two properties.

• You have to consider the budget. You definitely have to think first if you can afford to buy a second home. Think about the total cost you can spend if you own a second home. You will not only spend money on how much the price itself of the vacation home that you plan to buy, but you might also have to spend money on paying other expenses such as a second home mortgage, utilities, taxes, insurance, and other expenses. If you don’t have the time to manage your own property, you might need to consider hiring a property manager to look after your rental property while you are away and to assist you with the issues of your tenant if you plan to rent it out.  Remember that if you are not done yet paying off your first property it will more or less double your expenses, so make sure that you think about this first and see if you are ready to get a second home.

This whole article is for informational purposes only should not be taken as professional advice. This is the author’s personal expression of the topic.