[QUOTE]Originally posted by Fish:
The unfortunate truth is that I'm really boring. Fan can attest or ask my wife.

And Fan you're right....I forgot about the 8 bedroom, 14 bathroom, built in pool, full time kitchen staff, 4 boats, fully stocked bar, un-chaperoned house my friend had on Green Lake.

Well, that covers about half of the homes there !

Maybe I should start my own thread about this, but I was wondering.... When you have a second home do you feel guilty if you travel elsewhere? I always wondered that. Do the boats stay up at the lake house? If so, what do you do in the winter, store them nearby? Sorry for all the questions but you have me thinking...maybe a SMALL cottage located nearby might end up being cheaper in the long run than taking vacations elsewhere every year. Know what I mean? Of course, that assumes it is a modest place, a fixer-upper or something. NOT the Taj Mahal you described (although I'd love that place!). And how did you decide on Michigan instead of Wisconsin or Indiana? I know friends who go up to Door County a lot but it is way to far for us. We don't want to drive more than 3 hours each way.

quote:

Originally posted by motherof3inGE:
Maybe I should start my own thread about this, but I was wondering.... When you have a second home do you feel guilty if you travel elsewhere? I always wondered that. Do the boats stay up at the lake house? If so, what do you do in the winter, store them nearby? Sorry for all the questions but you have me thinking...maybe a SMALL cottage located nearby might end up being cheaper in the long run than taking vacations elsewhere every year. Know what I mean? Of course, that assumes it is a modest place, a fixer-upper or something. NOT the Taj Mahal you described (although I'd love that place!). And how did you decide on Michigan instead of Wisconsin or Indiana? I know friends who go up to Door County a lot but it is way to far for us. We don't want to drive more than 3 hours each way.

I do not feel guilty going other places, but I admit we do not travel for pleasure that often. Boats are winterized and stored near the lake. My pontoon boat is dropped in my front lawn as it does not merit special treatment. We had a place in Rome, Wisconsin (about an hour north of the Dells) before kids. It was about a 3 1/2 hour trip that turned into a lot more when kids came on the scene. We sold that and then moved to Glen Ellyn, so there were no funds left for a cottage after payment of our real estate taxes! When we got back on our feet again, we started looking in SW Michigan simply because we had friends who grew up on a lake there and invited us to stay and hooked us up with a realtor in the area. We've had this place since '01. Hopefully we'll never have to part with it.

Thanks Fish. I will check out properties online at realtor.com. It's ironic because when we lived downtown our realtor friend had a place in SW Michigan. She was constantly telling us what a great deal we could get on a place there. When we saw her last Christmas, she said her place had almost tripled in value over the last 8 years. Now that's an investment I could live with!

What we'd want is a lake that is big enough for my husband to enjoy a boat, but still small enough to be affordable and quiet.

Since when did this become a forum for the ultra-rich?

Clam and I and the rest of us serfs are going to take our hovels to another board if this keeps up.

Yossarian - one income - check
Clam - two small incomes - check
Fan - no income - check
Amy - two incomes but HUGE tuition bills - check
Above - in poverty - check


Fish - two huge incomes - check
Mo3inGE - one HUGE income - check
Above - rolling in it - check

While we are on topic, does anyone know where I can buy gold-plated diapers?

quote:

Thanks Fish. I will check out properties online at realtor.com. It's ironic because when we lived downtown our realtor friend had a place in SW Michigan. She was constantly telling us what a great deal we could get on a place there. When we saw her last Christmas, she said her place had almost tripled in value over the last 8 years. Now that's an investment I could live with!

MO3 -

Forget about using realtor.com to lookup properties in SW Michigan. Realtor.com is notorious for not having updated information and properties that are still on the site that were sold long ago.

Instead, go to SWMRIC.com and you can look at up to 100 properties at a time and the information is updated every few hours. It will even tell you if there is a contract on the property. This is how we found our home in Saugatuck/Douglas.

MO3, When you start looking just make sure you take nothing for granted.Check if the place is really year round or seasonal, Is your Lake frontage all usable? Lake frontage is a BIG part of taxes. Make sure you actually go out on the Lake if you don't know anyone already there.Are there any Lake restrictions on Boat size, motors, Waverunners, piers etc. We have had a couple places over the last 30 years in Northern Wisc. and my parents and brother have homes at Lauderdale Lakes just outside Elkhorn Wisc. The regulations are different depending on the area. My brother also has a place in Pentwater Mich. and there again things are a little different.If you like winter sports make sure and check out the well and water system at the cottage/house. Also see how close you are to a town.
When you find the right place I'm sure you'll be like Fish and never want to give it up. HTH.
Remember. If your lucky enough to have a house on the Lake, Your're already lucky enough.

Hey there Fan....just you wait a minute! You must have been doing pretty well as an attorney to be able to walk away from your plush office and your salary & bennies to be go out on your own. Cry me a river! Puh-leez!

I was only inquiring. As of this morning, we have NO boat and NO second home. The idea of a boat turns me off because I think without a place to keep it nearby, we probably wouldn't use it as much. But in the end, my husband will get whatever he wants.

I'll make a deal with you, IF we get a second home OR a boat that holds more than 2 people I will invite you, Fanette and the little ones along first thing. BTW - In all sincerity I wish you the best of luck with your new firm. Your wife must be proud of you.

Arten and GERing- Thanks for that advice. Realtor.com advertised our place downtown for about 3 months after we had sold it. So you're right about that. With this yucky weather, it will be difficult to get excited about any place in the midwest right now. I wish it would either snow or be 70 degrees. Neither seems likely.

Time to log off and take the kids out for lunch. Ciao!

If anyone is interested in spending their extra money on a vacation home...
http://bemidji.minnesota.remax.com/listings/ListingDeta...px?LID=23806220#aTop
My wife's family has been going up to Cass Lake for over 30 years and the time has finally come to sell.
Does ownership (or partial ownership) of a second home stop us from going on vacation to other places? Not at all. But our sitiuation vastly different, sharing a house across 5 families makes a remote locale easy to manage and not feel guilty about going elsewhere on vacation. Each year we are intitled to a minimium of 2 consecutive weeks alone at the house.
Although what makes the situation work is also what is making it no longer fessible. Trying to get all parties to agree on things and still stay friendly has become difficult and the time has come for my inlaws to start looking for a new place of their own.

Our summer home has been one of unbelievable great memories, but it is a lot of work.

Does that listing price say $1.5MM???

quote:

Originally posted by Clamato:
Does that listing price say $1.5MM???

Man, with that type of scratch, he should be living North of Teddy.

quote:

Originally posted by Clamato:
Does that listing price say $1.5MM???

Yes, but it is over 1000 Sq feet (1056 sf) ~ and it has a second bedroom.

That's gotta be the second highest priced listing in Minnesota...right behind Prince's house. There is obviously more to the place than meets the eye. Future good memories or not...that's a lot of cash for a place in the woods.

Just wanted to say, think seriously about what everything involved in owning a 2d home (or boat). IMO, they can be more romantic and appealing in the abstract than in the reality.

The less you use a vacation home, the more it will require in cleaning and maintenance every time you need to open and close it up. And tho folks will generally be glad to be your guests, they will notoriously tend to absent themselves for spring/fall clean up.

Be realistic about how often you will use it. I'll bet you could come up with an equation to predict how much each hour of driving time reduces the frequency with which you visit. IMO, anything over 4 hours makes it tough to use it for a weekend. But you have to figure oit out for yourself.

Depending on the property, it can be subject to theft or vandalism when you are not there. And a simple maintenance problem like a broken window (caused either by vandals or a confused bird) can multiply into a larger problem if no one is there to notice it foe weeks or months.

Bottomline, when you figure what it costs to purchase the property, maintain it, and pay taxes and utilities, you might find that you could rent a whol bunch of weeks at various places in WI or MI for the same or less. Many vacation properties - especially in rural settings - are notoriously difficult to sell, taking a year or more. So the appreciation may not really reflect readily accessible cash.

What do they call boats - a hole in the water into which you pour money?

(Note - we never owned a boat or vacation home, but in the past have had access to family members'. if you share ownership with friends or family, that brings up the issue of scheduling access and sharing costs/responsibilities. Works out for some, but causes tremendous headaches for others.)

Man, that location looks beautiful, but it is hard to believe someone is asking 1.5 mill for a small, pretty barebones home on only 3.4 acres way the hell up in Bemidji. For that price, I'd expect either a much larger, fancier house, considerable acerage, or something a lot closer to Chi. But that's just me.
Good luck getting anywhere near that price.

Jeez, another tersely worded post by Dinsdale! Dins, what's wrong? I'm going to call Clamato to tell him to give you a hug.

Realtor.com has it listed at $1.5MM

I thought it might have been a typo. There is one property listed above it at $2.0MM.

Cass lake must be da bomb or something.

Fill us in, SOT.

Dinsdale is having issues with his dishwasher. Hasn't been the same since he bought that German thing.

I figure they must sell their own brand of dishes and pans to fit into those damn racks! At least I don't take my dishes out for a drive around town...
Man, you'll shill for any Kraut-made piece of machinery, won't you?