Buying Your First Vacation Home

The smaller home can often be upgraded (or not), but the neighborhood can never be changed - at least, not by you.Baby boomers are now entering their prime wage-earning years, and many of them are thinking (or have already thought) of buying a second home. Often a couple will choose a retirement home for 'part' of the year, thus still retaining their family home and familiar home town base.

If you yearn for a vacation home, the first thing to decide is: where will it be? Here your hobbies will come into play; are you a skier, shopper, fisherman, hiker, golfer, beach-comber or sun worshipper? Are you a country mouse or a city mouse, etc.?Another factor to take into account is perhaps one that you have not thought of: Many people think that having a vacation home means they will never want to travel abroad again. However, it is quite possible that you may still want to fly off and take vacations in foreign lands sometimes. Think about this and choose accordingly.

If you are the type of person who would still like to travel abroad, you may want to choose a small, secure home (like a condo). Alternatively, you could opt to buy a larger home so that your children can also enjoy it in your absence.Finally, if you think you could be a future traveler, consider the option of buying a second home that you could also rent out to others for vacations. This may pay for your trips abroad!You must consider whether or not you want to be able to drive to your second home, so that you can escape at weekends. If your chosen place is a long way off, remember that you will always have to pay the air fare and do the airport trip etc.

If you have no clue where you would like to buy a vacation home, cast your mind back to some memorable vacations you have had. Think about making it a project to drive off into the wild blue yonder on sunny weekends and check some places out.Price is a critical factor. Waterfront is always priced higher. Do you really want it? An ocean or lake outlook can be very pretty when the sun is sparkling on it, but it will accentuate the grayness on a dull day.

Are you looking at old timer homes? Are you taking in the cost of renovations? Remember, if you remodel a bathroom or kitchen it is supposed to increase the price of your property by around 80% of the remodeling costs. Roofs are also a viable improvement that will increase the value of your property.