Second/Vacation Homes

[XXX-er]

up narth they used to build the second homes, the inuit called them iglu and they would melt away

[Core Shot]

Yeah, well I’m a fucking maniac

https://www.amazon.com/Saving-Family.../dp/141331841X

Halfway through the book.
As a retired dentist I skimmed through the dentistry.
But as a third or fourth generational owner of a lake property I must say this is a good read. I’ve been more concerned about fighting with my brother about expenses once my mom passes on. But suits of partition are real. And families don’t always agree.

Reading this inspired me to get my bro to go LLC with a fair operating agreement. It’s a three way ownership with him and my mom. Soon to be just he and I in a decade or whatever. But shit gets complicated. I’d like to think his kids and my kids can enjoy the same memories. And grand kids and so on.

Maybe that’s a separate thread. But the generational thing tugs at my heartstrings.

[singlesline]

Michigan taxes differently for one or the other. The dude pays $60k a year due to it not being his primary (non homestead).

The mountain states need to figure this out…

But unlike Michigan where the properties were historically lower value and plentiful, there’s too many ultra wealthy owners with high dollar homes and ranches who will pour money into politics to make sure it never happens.

Maybe Michigan wouldn’t be able to pass it today either, but I think Michigan voters are a little better at telling some options trader from Chicago that he’s welcome to buy a 3.5m vacation home but he can fuck right off if he wants the local residents to vote to lower his taxes.

[TStriker]

And in terms of buying a place up North, that still exists in plenty of places. I can buy a cabin in Maine right now for between 1-200k, which is the equivalent, or even cheaper comparatively, to 50k in the 70's when minimum wage was 2 bucks an hour.

Agree with your overall points, but it was never the min wager earners. It was the middle class, who's relative spending power has shrunk dramatically.

I really think this is more of a cultural change where an off grid cabin or basic one room place in the woods is not what people are willing to buy or want.

Not only the cultural change of people wanting these properties to be turnkey, but the idea of monetizing them. If you told someone in the 70s that you could rent a house/condo/cabin anywhere in the world in a few minutes with a supercomputer everyone carries in their pockets, their head would explode. Same goes for living in $100k vans.

[plugboots]

Reading this inspired me to get my bro to go LLC with a fair operating agreement. It’s a three way ownership with him and my mom. Soon to be just he and I in a decade or whatever. But shit gets complicated. I’d like to think his kids and my kids can enjoy the same memories. And grand kids and so on.

Yes, I started a thread about goofy wives, but mine is a veeerrry good attorney.
My MIL owned a cabin, it’s been an LLC since the 90’s, she died, now the 3 kids get to decide what to do.
None of the 6 grand kids want anything to do with it, so it’s gonna be sold in a few.
The end.

[AdironRider]

Agree with your overall points, but it was never the min wager earners. It was the middle class, who's relative spending power has shrunk dramatically.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]501587[/ATTACH]


Not only the cultural change of people wanting these properties to be turnkey, but the idea of monetizing them. If you told someone in the 70s that you could rent a house/condo/cabin anywhere in the world in a few minutes with a supercomputer everyone carries in their pockets, their head would explode. Same goes for living in $100k vans.

I don't know man, a 225k lake house in the 80s like EasyRdr posits was always an upper class purchase. Median household income for the US was 27k in 1988. No middle class person was buying a quarter million dollar lake house (all in once you close and furnish the joint) in the 80s. Its easy to look at that number and be like yeah a middle class guy should be able to afford that, but people forget just what middle class was in the 80s.

I certainly think monetizing the family cabin has certainly become much easier compared to days of yore. I don't think it was impossible to do so back in the day but it certainly wasn't a couple clicks and some iphone photos and shake the money tree either.

[frorider]

These flat pack prefab homes — free shipping!1!! — https://www.amazon.com/Barn-Bathroom...b6c51da3f29866

— perfect for that little mountain parcel you bought for $25k.

[Core Shot]

Yes, I started a thread about goofy wives, but mine is a veeerrry good attorney.
My MIL owned a cabin, it’s been an LLC since the 90’s, she died, now the 3 kids get to decide what to do.
None of the 6 grand kids want anything to do with it, so it’s gonna be sold in a few.
The end.

Sad ending.
Hopefully my story ends better.
I’m third generation in the cottage. Fourth generation in the community. With an LLC it has a better chance of surviving. Particularly if I can help fund a trust for upkeep and expenses.
I am fully aware of what a suit for partition is. But reading that book made me realize how ugly it could be. LLC operating agreement can have lowball buyout terms for anyone that wants out. Way better than the nuclear option.

[TStriker]

I was thinking more of my grandparents buying (with a group of friends) a large cabin in northern WI during the 1950s wave of middle class prosperity. And that was on top of having two young kids and owning their own home. My parents couldn’t have even dreamt of that in the 70s & 80s. Money was just too expensive. So yeah, that ship had sailed by then.

[TAFKALVS]

Towns in the mountain west are too accessible now between airports that go to meaningful locations, paved roads, and cars being way more comfortable for long drives. Add on remote work…

And also public lands are not developable anymore. Around my area there’s a lot of grandfathered cabin leases on state/fed land that they are either now auctioning off the properties or not renewing the lease. Good luck building a new cabin on public lands these days.

I think to have equivalent BFE location to what Montana or Idaho or whatever was in the 1960s, you’d be looking at far north BC, the Yukon, interior Alaska, etc.

Thanks boomers.

[ncskier]

I don't know man, a 225k lake house in the 80s like EasyRdr posits was always an upper class purchase. Median household income for the US was 27k in 1988. No middle class person was buying a quarter million dollar lake house (all in once you close and furnish the joint) in the 80s. Its easy to look at that number and be like yeah a middle class guy should be able to afford that, but people forget just what middle class was in the 80s.

I certainly think monetizing the family cabin has certainly become much easier compared to days of yore. I don't think it was impossible to do so back in the day but it certainly wasn't a couple clicks and some iphone photos and shake the money tree either.

That chart posted about incomes tells the story though. In the 70's you competed with 30% being upper income from a pool of 150M americans so maybe 45m people, now at 50% of nearly 330M americans you have 165 million people gobbling up a finite amount of woods and water spots. Hence higher prices everywhere.

[MarcusBrody]

That chart posted about incomes tells the story though. In the 70's you competed with 30% being upper income from a pool of 150M americans so maybe 45m people, now at 50% of nearly 330M americans you have 165 million people gobbling up a finite amount of woods and water spots. Hence higher prices everywhere.

That's not what the chart is showing. Aggregate income is the share of total combined income that goes to each group. Upper income individuals receive 48% of total income, but don't make up nearly 48% of the population. It's a consolidation of income in the upper parts of the income distribution.

But the story still stays kind of the same. The upper income group may not have changed much in size, but they have relatively more money, so goods that are targeted at them can become even more expensive and so further out of reach of the middle income group.

[Mazderati]

The number of goods within reach to upper income groups also increases with a similar effect. See new thread: Third Vacation Homes.

[TAFKALVS]

The number of goods within reach to upper income groups also increases with a similar effect. See new thread: Third Vacation Homes.

Gotta have your lake house for summer and ski condo for winter. And pimped out sprinter for traveling between.

[fastfred]

Gotta have your lake house for summer and ski condo for winter. And pimped out sprinter for traveling between.

hey I resemble this thought

this is a great thread been reading but haven't had time to comment
been a long day and instead of finishing it like I should I'll finally comment on trg cause I got the goods

Part One:

I had an issue a few years ago and wanted to buy a second home in some podunk town no one has heard of. Then some life changes happened, pretty much it was like taking a stick and putting it in my ass. So I decided that buying a Sprinter Van would be much more reasonable than buying a shit hole house for pennies on the dollar. Somedays I feel like I missed the boat and made a bad decision because the houses I was looking at are now double in price. I have a million projects in life and having a house project hours away seemed dumb. So I took on a van project. Over all I'm beyond stoked about the van and what it has given me in return. Saturday night we were parked a few steps from a thousand foot cliff, our chairs set up on the edge, proceeding to get hammered, no one was around for miles, and the La Sal's were magically illuminated at sunset like the curves on a beautiful woman almost a hundred miles off in the distance. The ability to go anywhere and see everything is amazing. Soon enough I will purchase the second home with the purpose of moving there fully someday. Would not trade the freedom of the van for a second home at all.

Part Two:

I grew up with second homes. Mkay. The main second home was a lake front property, it was more of a shack, three season cabin on a lake than a "second home." It has been in my family for some time and my old man is the third generation owner of the place. He did tear it down years ago to build the god awful house many years ago. Growing up we spent every weekend there in the summer and it was a blast. By middle school it was take it or leave it because I had friends and activities I didn't want to miss out on. By high school I spent less and less time there unless we were having a party. My Dad has very strong ties to the place and it means the world to him. The problem is the suburbs have moved in hard and what was once an isolated place is now a zoo. I mean it is quiet and peaceful, but a five or ten minute drive away and you are in the middle of what I'd consider hell. My brother and I both would rather sell the place and buy something peaceful in the Adirondacks, for example. There is no charm to the place anymore. What my great grandfather once saw is long gone. The other house is sucky also in some ways, I'd dump it in a heartbeat too, if I was faced with the decision. Too bad they freaked and dumped the condo in the virgin islands after hugo, now that would have been a win.