Tips for buying a second home
The largest numbers of second homes are in areas with large populations. The most popular locations for second homes are near bodies of water and mountains and second home buyers prefer rural settings to those more urban, but in most cases, second homes are within less than a day’s drive from the primary residence.
Second homes are everywhere, but determining the best location for your second home isn’t easy. In response to the growing demand for vacation homes, resorts and the like here is a list of 10 tips to help shoppers find their second dream home.
1. Define your lifestyle interests. It’s well known that people who buy second homes are primarily looking at areas that have to do with their recreational interests.
2. Determine the ideal travel distance. Ideal traveling time is a matter of personal preference and tolerance, but it’s best to limit yourself to a few hours traveling time. If it’s too far or too expensive to reach within a few hours, you likely won’t use your second home enough to justify its cost. Before you buy, rent in the area for a season. See how often you actually manage to get to your vacation home.
3. Research locations. You may like downhill skiing, but can you really afford a home in a ski town and what happens around town when the slopes close? Okay, you’ve defined your lifestyle but what about affordability, climate, population and all those other issues?
4. Select the desired location - within the destination you have to pick the community. Do you want a new planned development? Do you want a patio home or town home for less maintenance? Do you want it inland or a beach community? Do you also want a golf community near the beach?
5. Make inquiries with locals. How many second home owners are there? Are they true home owners or renters? Too many renters and they might not be keeping the place up. You need community details often available only from the residents.
6. Contact a real estate agent. A real estate agent is your eyes and ears in distance places. You can do a lot of things without a real estate agent, but there is a point when that picture you saw and that virtual tour isn’t enough. A real estate agent can highlight areas of interest. One of the things to remember is that a resort real estate agent is very different from a regular real estate agent in a resort area. You have to rely upon someone who knows the area, rather than someone who merely sells homes.
7. Visit destinations. Most people will visit a destination two or three times before they purchase. You start finding out about the resources, what the travel time is really like if you drive or fly. The other thing is most people buy a second home have in the back of their minds that the property will be their primary residence at some time. Are you really sure this is where you will want to live?
8. Review financing options. Some places deal with high-end purchases that are almost always without loans. Can you use your equity line to buy a second home? Financing for a second home is different, and there are also different insurance criteria. The good news is you still get that mortgage write off (up to certain limits, depending upon how the property is used and its value). Involve your tax professional in the financing part of the deal.
9. Purchase through a resort specialist. People selling in a resort area know more about a particular area and typically take it very serious that business comes from the outside. Outsiders’ questions are quite different from those inside the area.
10. Enjoy the process. This isn’t your primary residence and everything doesn’t have to be perfect. Have a little fun with it.
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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information
