Second home??

The old model of Airbb where you would rent a bedroom in someone's house or an apartment above the garage is still a cool concept but the whole free for all thats killing small towns all over definitely needs more regulations. To me its simple, if its not owner occupied or rented year round it has to be zoned commercial (which will never happen in most residential neighborhoods).

Levi Goldmanwrote:

Awesome idea or big mistake? I’m thinking of a second home to bring the family. The idea being I could climb and at the end of the day still hang with family. It’d also be nice to spread out, our home in SF feels a bit boxed  in.

One of the downsides to this idea is that you will feel "obligated" to take all your climbing trips/vacations to the same area, so as not to "waste" the ongoing costs.  Will you, your wife and kid(s) all be on board to going to this same area all the time, with all their free time?  Perhaps your kid(s) are not yet at an age where they want to spend their time with their own friends, on their own activities, but they will end up at some point resisting the idea of traveling with you. In the short term, you may actually end up climbing less since you will certainly be climbing only every other day so that your wife can have a day free while you watch the kid(s), to balance out the day you have spent out climbing.  

While the second home may well end up being a reasonable capitol investment long term, If you make a spreadsheet so you can compare taxes and maintenance costs, you may find that it costs you less annually to rent a nice airbnb or residence inn in a variety of places, with a variety of climbing. The variety in places to go might convince your wife and kid(s) they actually want to travel with you.

James Woods wrote:

Lol at some tone deaf baby boomer who doesnt understand that 2nd homes / airbnb investments are a big part of the reason upward mobility for the next generation is going away. That mobility is going away for hard working folks of all ages, not just "27 yr old guys," who would like to build some wealth while actually being a contributing, full time member of the overall community where the home is. 

I sincerely hope that airbnb gets fucked by regulations so that more people can buy 1st homes, which is the true route to accumulating any sort of wealth. Because, and it is already happening, corporations and mini-corporation-esque people like the OP are going to start buying up all the properties (in my town, one "person" owns twenty two airbnb's) for investment purposes and then what we'll have is a nation of rentors and we'll all be fucked.

To the OP - Good job realizing the American dream, please have some perspective instead of going full on greed.

To k r - no one loves America more than me and if you can't discuss things that need help in America, to uplift everyone in America, put your maga hat back on and gfy, boomer. 

Not a boomer, definitely not maga, and not a fan or airbnb. I think a well regulated short term rental market can be positive for a community but the current state of most airbnb hotspots is unsustainable and will soon face strong and warranted local regulations in most places. A guy trying to buy a second home to climb is not "full on greed". You need to seriously rescale the antagonist in your view of america. The guy who works for 20 years at an office job in sf and has enough money to buy a small second home with some debt that he wants to spend most of his free time in is hardly the same as blackrock or zillow.

I mentioned that guy because I think it's ridiculous to be annoyed with the OP for not being to afford a home in a desirable area at 27. I also really disagree with the idea that owning a home is "the true route to accumulating any sort of wealth" but that's besides the point. Houses are shitty investments for most people. The guy who says it's easy upthread sounds like a clown.

I live in a shoebox apartment in a big city, work a lot, and pay a shitload in rent but make more money than I would living in a town next to climbing. Hopefully in ten years I'll have paid my dues so I'm free to climb more often and wherever I want. If I can buy a home I might.

Back to thread I think the message cautioning about going in to debt for a second home is worth listening to. I wouldn't assume that the past decade of home price trends will persist.

Ryan Never climbs wrote:

txted the details 

Oh boy … ;)

M Mwrote:

The old model of Airbb where you would rent a bedroom in someone's house or an apartment above the garage is still a cool concept but the whole free for all thats killing small towns all over definitely needs more regulations. To me its simple, if its not owner occupied or rented year round it has to be zoned commercial (which will never happen in most residential neighborhoods).

100% agree here - wasn't the original concept as a couch-surfing type of experience?  Getting to know a place by interacting with the people who own the home you're staying at?

Airbnb is more expensive than hotels in a lot of places now - a sign of things to come, that people have over-leveraged on the idea of being able to buy a ton of homes with 1% down and trying their best to live like the other half?  I'll just stay in the hotel - I'm not getting some "experience" by washing linens and taking the trash out myself when I stay somewhere.

Thanks so much to everyone who chimed in!

I do appreciate the points about renting instead and the banes of home ownership, the psychological effects of sunken cost and the draw to stay at a second home vs new places, as well as the idea that it can be a poor investment given maintenance/taxes/market downturn - I guess renting/hotels always feels like money lost but I shouldn't look at it that way. Matt's point about Airbnb is funny, I feel the same way sometimes, a hotel is a bit easier. Eric thanks for the cautionary tale and the point about debt ratio. 

And to Phylp Phylyp the points about my children having interests, and the family being happy traveling to different places, really helpful as I guess I hadn't thought that through. Trevor Puppy you make a good point, I can probably get enough climbing even living in the Bay Area, and my challenges getting out climbing will follow me to a second home. Having all your voices, and talking to Ryan, really helped sort this through so I really appreciate it - I heard all the comments and thought about them. I've got more work to do in terms of hard math, research on the various areas (btw I like the foothills west of Yosemite), and making sure I know what it is that I want, that we know what it is we want. 

I'd like to point out that I'm not rich, I grew up in poverty, dropped out of high school to make $6 an hour, and have only managed to claw my way into a low level civil service job. I moved to SF for family, not for some awesome tech job.