We bought a condo in Austin last year because my husband spends about half of his time there for work. Previously he was spending only about 10% of his time in Austin and his employer put him up in hotels. Once he got promoted, part of the deal was they would no longer pay for hotels, so we decided instead of lighting money on fire for hotels or a rental, we would invest in a property there. It's been extremely convenient for him and it's a place we can take the pets if we want to get away from Houston for a weekend or a few days here and there. I spend a ton of time driving already, so 2 1/2 hours away isn't that big of a deal for me. The big lingering question is what we'll do with it if his work situation changes. We can't AirBnB it per HOA rules, and we have to go on a waiting list to rent it out to a traditional tenant. My best guess is we end up selling if we can't lease it in a timely manner. It also depends on what work looks like for me once I can start collecting my pension and have my MM completed. I can always commute to Austin during the week for a teaching job or something.

I also just got a cabin out in Milam County I'm rehabbing. I'll probably only use it once a month or so, but it will be more functional than the teardrop RV trailer I normally take out there. Sometimes I really like to get away from all the distractions of home when I need to get some composing or arranging done and it will be perfect for that.

It's very difficult to have both a "second home" and an "investment property." It's either one the other if you want to be happy. The wear and tear (and things that go missing) from renters will drive you nuts and limit your enjoyment.

That said, I agree it needs to be close enough that you can expect and plan to be there a lot and not be bored, because you will find that the number trips to other places will go down. I would say you need to be there a minimum of 60 days a year to be worth it, but I'd be interested in other opinions on that.

rynning said:

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It's very difficult to have both a "second home" and an "investment property." It's either one the other if you want to be happy. The wear and tear (and things that go missing) from renters will drive you nuts and limit your enjoyment.

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Agree 100 percent.

I've said before, you really need to be dispassionate about your place if it's being used by others.

Our beach house was such an important part of our lives, which isn't a good starting point for an investment property. We took everything that happened there very personally. Like Sonny in The Godfather.

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TheWoodlandsTxAg said:

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Great to hear other people are saving for a second home as well. I love the food in Austin. In my opinion, one of the most underrated food cities in America. As someone who doesn't live there I don't know what the locals think about these places but when visiting I loved Jack Allen's Kitchen, Red Ash, Chilantro, Aba, and Home Slice Pizza.

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Never heard of home slice pizza but have had death metal pizza in the early morning back in the early 2000s when a bunch of us would roadtrip from college station.

Currently considering buying a lot at a lake about 45 min away from us and building a barndo. We have an RV and would store it there plus have a place at a lake. Thought is it's so close, we'd use it often.

Whoever said having two sets of stuff makes it easier is correct. On the RV we have a separate set of everything. The only thing we have to bring is clothes, groceries, and ourselves. It is super easy. I currently store it covered but it gets dusty so washing it before we leave takes way longer than loading up.

I've thought about owning a second home for pleasure a lot. However, I've seen people at work own second homes and it almost steers me away. Many reasons, but the main one that would get me is the guilt of feeling like I always needed to be there utilizing it in my time off vs traveling / exploring new destinations / vacation spots. Our family loves to travel and if the second home would minimize that lifestyle, I'll pass. Maybe look at this when I get closer to retirement.

SnowboardAg said:

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I've thought about owning a second home for pleasure a lot. However, I've seen people at work own second homes and it almost steers me away. Many reasons, but the main one that would get me is the guilt of feeling like I always needed to be there utilizing it in my time off vs traveling / exploring new destinations / vacation spots. Our family loves to travel and if the second home would minimize that lifestyle, I'll pass. Maybe look at this when I get closer to retirement.

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yeah I agree with this. This is what kept me from buying a beach house in Galveston or a fishing camp house down in matagorda. I'm the same way...I'd over think how much I'm using that beach house especially if I traveled. My brain is my worst enemy sometimes LOL.

RoyVal said:

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My brain is my worst enemy sometimes LOL.

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Welcome to my world

MAS444 said:

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The property taxes helped seal the deal for us with a place in Colorado. Our effective tax rate is a small fraction of what it is in Texas.

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Where in Colorado are you guys? Im starting down this Rabbit hole. We're looking Evergreen/Idaho springs area. Close enough to DEN, golf, and echo mtn. Was thinking can keep one of our AWD existing cars there and just uber to/from airport or I guess store the car near the airport if uber/shuttle isn't feasible.

What're some things to consider as far as winterizing and leaving the home vacant for a month or two at a time (esp curious about winter)? Do you pay a repair or management company or just someone to look after the place when you're gone? What about ins? Im on the coast so have windstorm but up there I imagine its prob diff just home owners, what about flood/fire?

Its prob something we'd use 4-5 times a year but try and stay a week or longer eventually transition to being winter texans when I can get the work flexibility for that.

Let me know your thoughts. Thanks !

Ridgway...about 15 minutes north of Ridgway actually up on Log Hill (30 minutes south of Montrose where we fly in/out and has box stores, bigger grocery stores, etc). We just love the Western Slope and have had a fractional place in Telluride for years so we know the area very well. I could tell you some of the reasons we love it there - but sounds like you're focused more on the Front Rage area, which is understandable. I looked at Evergreen for a while myself way back but obviosuly shifted gears a little. It seems like a great place and proximity to Denver has lots of advantages obviously. We just wanted something different.

We're still in our first year in the home so I'm probably not the best to answer some of your questions...

Regarding winterizing...I turned our water off where it comes in the house in mechanical room, but our contractor said he didn't think that was totally necessary, but is certainly the safest move. We have heated floors - I left the thermostats at 55 and have one of them monitored remotely. I also installed a SimpliSafe alarm system and included a temperature monitor and water monitor that I placed in the mechanical room. If the temp inside gets below 55 I'll get a notification from Simplisafe. Same with any water detected on floor.

I also made sure to disconnect any water hoses from the spigots when we last left. The hose bibs are insulated and protected, but not when they;re still connected to hoses. I actually made it a practice to disconnect them any time I was done using a hose while there. Several contractors warned us this was a common thing people miss and have issues with.

The other big thing is landcspaing irrigation. We don't have any yet. But those need to be blown out and turned off before winter.

We don't have a management company yet. I had my contractor who built the house go do something we needed once and I paid him a trip fee. He doesn't really want to do too much of that though. We also have some really good neighbors we've had help us when we needed something simple...but I don't plan on overdoing that (although they're retired and kind of like it I think). I've talked to another contractor some friends of mine have used and he'd do a monthly management type deal for us....but holding off for now.

Insurance was a little tricky as some carriers have some fairly arduous requirements re wildfire protection. For example, we're at the end of the street surrounded by canyon on 2 sides and once major carrier required 2 seperate ways to access the property, which is not possible at our place. But we found several carriers that had decent rates...surprisaingly good actually. We also have 2 fire departments relatively closeby, which helps. Another carrier also required a regular management/maintenance company for second homes....and supposedly they had to be just that, not just a contractor or neighbor...but an actual property management company. We obviosuly didn't go that route.

I'm happy to help and answer any other questions you may have. It's still early - but it's been a great deal for us so far. Feel free to PM also...

Great info. Thanks ! Short of cutting off the water and having monitors do you have to worry about snow piling up if you're not there? Do you have cable/dsl or have to do starlink?

I suppose if you stop in for a ski trip you may be shoveling driveway and patio snow upon arrival if its shortly after any significant snowfall.

Our road gets plowed when needed (HOA), but I'm told that's no more than a few times/year. We get quite a bit less snow than Telluride. We have a pretty long driveway to our house that is not included in that but I'm assuming we'll be able to pay the plow guy extra for that when needed.

We have fiber.

We really enjoy our second home in Colorado. Our children are grown, spread across the country and have kids of their own. They love to come visit and that's what makes it special. SW has cheap flights and the shuttle from Denver runs every 30 minutes.

We live there about 5 months out of the year. We ski for about a month but the home is shut down for most of the winter. We get a little over 300 inches of snow per year. Hire a guy when we are not there that shovels the decks and driveway every time snow accumulates. He walks thru the house once per week, flushes toilets and checks temps. Housekeeper cleans the house every 2 weeks to keep iit fresh and is another set of eyes on the place. We have Flo by Moen that monitors the water pressure, detects any leaks, has emergency shutoff, etc.. We have Ting that monitors electricity with notifications to the phone. Set in-floor heating to 55, fireplaces to 50 and hot tub to 80.

Expenses to run the Colorado house are a fraction of maintaining our Texas home. Taxes are cheap, a lot less energy to run the home, less lawn maintenance,

We bought a 2nd home/lake house in 2008 intending to retire full time there & we did about 5-6 years ago.

We drew a circle on the map & picked it because it was right at 2 hours from work & both sets of elderly parents - all in different directions, but we could get anywhere we needed to go pretty quickly. We were self employed & could schedule longer weekends most of the time & spent that time working on the house - it was definitely a fixer upper.

Flash forward & it was the best, smartest decision we could have made. We are lucky to have bought before the 2008 crash or we might not have done it. We & our extended families have really enjoyed it. We always looked at it as our eventual home & never rented it out. It was never an investment to us but it has appreciated wildly since 2008, so that's a bonus for our heirs, but they all talk about never selling it & that's such a compliment.

I assume most Colorado towns have business that offer these services like the shoveling and the house sitting?

About five years ago, I purchased a lake cabin, and really, if it is "worth it" depends on how you use it and what you want. For us, it made sense because we use it often, we keep it simple, and we can take outside income from short rentals to offset the price. I was surprised to see how much ongoing costs there are - property taxes, maintenance, utilities, travel, etc. These can add up quickly.

Our value came in less from financial value and more from lifestyle value. It has become a family gathering place, a place to connect and a chance to unplug. If you plan on going only a few times a year though, renting may make more financial sense. The break-even is higher than most people think when you consider repairs and maintenance.

Overall, it is "worth it" if you plan on using it consistently and can afford the extra costs comfortably. Otherwise, in my opinion, short rentals will give about the same experience with less responsibility.

I noticed you mentioned owning a fractional interest in Telluride for a number of years. My wife and I are retired and love SW Colorado. We'd love to have a second home there but have doubts about being able to go very often due to family obligations.

We've wondered about fractional interests which we see occasionally offered at Purgatory. I'm not sure about being 30 minutes from town, but maybe it would be workable. My wife and I don't ski but have family members that do, so I could see winter weeks being used, or easily renting those weeks out. We prefer summer months to escape Texas heat.

What was your experience - did you find it easy to use your designated weeks? How were the monthly fees? It sounds like you no longer own it - did you have any problems selling your interest? Any other thoughts positive or negative?

Thanks!

We still own ours and love it. We're never selling unless **** really hits the fan. Ours is a smaller property and not a typical corporate run "timeshare". It's a true fee simple interest and we can sell it on open real estate market if we wanted. If we did want to sell, it would sell immediately for about 3 times what we paid as there's a long waiting list of people wanting to buy.

Our annual fees are reasonable, especially in light of the benefits. The biggest benefit is membership in the Telluride ski and golf club…which includes 2 ski lift passes while there.

We don't have designated weeks every year, but are in a rotating pick system, which we like. It allows us to use it at different times every year. I can understand how this wouldn't be ideal for some people. And it's not necessarily ideal for us in the winter as we have young kids and don't get spring break every year. However, we have had our fair share of spring breaks there and have also done presidents week, MLK, etc. But overall, we really like the flexibility of rotating picks every year. We also are able to get extra weeks/days for relatively cheap. Before our Ridgway deal we typically stayed at least 2 weeks during the summer and one summer were there for a month.

I could go on and on but we really love the place and our kids have sort of grown up there and love it too. Since we've bought, 3 other families in our neighborhood have bought in and they all feel the same.

Feel free to ask any other questions or even PM.

lazuras_dc said:

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I assume most Colorado towns have business that offer these services like the shoveling and the house sitting?

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These services are available. I pay a guy to keep my driveway cleaned off. Otherwise it would be unusable with all the snow accumulation.

TheWoodlandsTxAg said:

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I am considering it.

I am not asking if it was worth it from an investment standpoint because it obviously was considering the price of every property in the country has doubled over the last couple of years.

I am asking if the vacation home or second property was worth it from the stand point of personal enjoyment.

Do you feel the personal joy and enjoyment was worth the money you spent on the vacation/second home?

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We bought a river house on the San Bernard during covid just to have somewhere to go. less than an hour door-to-door so we used it a lot. My niece had the place next to us and my brother-in-law has the next adjoining house so we had a family compound vibe. Always someone there on the weekend and my son spent his high school years down there with family. My niece starting having kids and sold her place and we're now selling ours because my son is out of state at school. Our personal joy was worth it as long as we had family around. Now that it's just me and my wife going, the river and Lake Jackson don't offer enough personal joy to keeping it vs. the spend. Insurance has gone through the roof.