Let’s first start with these three financial principles that I espouse for those who are on a retirement glide path and considering purchasing a vacation home:

1. Do not buy a vacation (or other second home) just because it appears to be a “bargain.” (More about this later.)

2. Do not buy a second home just for vacations. If you will use it a lot when you are retired, that’s a different story.

3. Do not buy a second home if you must rent it to make it affordable. That’s just too much risk to take on when you are close to retirement.

I speak from experience. We bought our second home ( a lakefront property) eight years ago. When we purchased it, we envisioned using it for vacations and weekend getaways now and as at least a part-time residence when we retire. That is still our plan.  Therefore, several years ago we paid off the mortgage on our second home. We have never rented it. So far, so good with our plan.

So what about the “8 great vacation homes” featured by CNN/Money? Three (in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Texas are well over $1 million asking price, so those don’t even count as second homes in my book. They are extravagances for the very wealthy.

Five are on the ocean which is nice except I think lake living is better for a retiree.

While that cottage in Myrtle Beack looks like a deal at under $150k, note that the house sits on a land lease at $8200/year. That’ s no bargain at all.

The listing that is closest to my heart is the chalet-style home on a small lake in Kentucky. I’m partial to that style because our second home is on a very large lake in Kentucky (Lake Barkley). There are some serious deals to be had right now on Kentucky lake front property. Kentucky is also friendly to retirees plus the weather is moderate.

Even if you are not in a position to buy a second home bargain right now, it can’t hurt to look!

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There are several important factors to consider when deciding to purchase a different home in which you plan to retire. I hope I am right on some of these, because in the past 8 years we have purchased two homes that we are using now and plan to use in retirement.

What we have done appears to be part of a baby boomer trend. Consider this data from a recent Smart Money article:

In retiree hot spots Palm Beach, Fla., and Hilton Head, S.C., home sales jumped 39.3% and 13.6%, respectively, in 2009. Sales of vacation homes are also on the rise. In 2009, sales nationwide increased 7.9%, according to a 2010 study by the National Association of Realtors. More than one in four vacation-home buyers (54% of whom were 45 or older) plans to use the property as a primary residence in the future, the NAR study showed.

Some issues to consider:

1. Does the geographic location make sense? If the retirement home is not near where you live now, it may be smarter to rent before you buy, to avoid an expensive mistake. Can you use it as a vacation home before you retire? Also, if being near your adult children is important, do you know now where they will be when you retire?

2. Can you weather the storm of long term ownership? The times when real estate was sure to appreciate year after year are gone, perhaps forever. Making a quick exit if money gets tight may not be possible. Thus, a pre-retirement purchase of a retirement home is a long-term decision.

3. Do you really understand market values and trends? Home prices have fallen in most areas, and dramatically so in places considered prime retirement destinations, such as Florida, Arizona, and Nevada. Some experts think that prices will begin rising in later this year in places like Boulder, Colo., Bellingham, Wash., and Napa, Calif.  On the other hand, prices in cities in Arizona and Florida where foreclosures are plentiful may continue to fall.

4. Have you decided on the type of housing? Will your retirement home mean downsizing? Detached single family home? Town home? Condo?  This may present another “try before you buy” strategy.

I think the process of thinking about and shopping for a retirement home brings an exciting reality to your overall retirement plan. Go for it! Even if you can’t pull it off now, the attempt may motivate you to make other changes in your financial planning and lifestyle that will make it possible later, before real estate values escalate.

Here is a link to the Smart Money article: Is Now a Good Time to Buy a Retirement Home?

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First, I wholeheartedly agree with the premise that if owning a vacation home causes stress in your life, that home is not fulfilling its purpose. So what causes this stress and what can be done about it? I have some thoughts.

1. Financial Stress. You absolutely should not “stretch” your budget and cash flow to the max to purchase or own a vacation home. Every time you write a check for a mortgage payment, operating expense, or maintenance cost for that weekend home, you will feel it emotionally. Some people attempt to handle a cash flow problem by placing their vacation home into a rental program. That strategy comes with a set of problems of its own. You might end up merely converting financial stress to landlord stress. To avoid this, do not purchase vacation or weekend property unless you can easily cash flow all of the costs without a need for rental income. Don’t compound the stress by forcing yourself to rent and then having to worry about tenant problems and damage.

2. Guilt and Pressure. Many owners of vacation homes have difficulty finding time to get away to their property. This creates guilt and pressure because a significant personal asset is not being used much. There are two ways to handle this problem. First, buy property that is only a short drive from your primary residence. By short drive, I mean 1 to 3 hours, so that it is easy to get away on a Friday afternoon, including on the spur of the moment. Lots of folks want to buy beach homes or ski condos, then find that getting in the car or plane to actually use the home requires advance planning and significant investment of time and money. As a result, the vacation home is not used much at all.

Our lake house is only a 90 minute drive so we can use it even for day trips. More typically, we are there for 3-4 days at time, with the longest stay being ten days (when we host family). If you have to fly or spend a full day driving to your “getaway”, you will likely find that you aren’t “getting away” very often.

3. Poor Environment. The article discusses problems with “neighbors” at vacation home locations. A related problem is understanding if you will have neighbors at all and what they will be like. If your vacation home is in an area that is primarily a tourist destination, you can probably forget about having real neighbors at all. Most of the people around you will be tourists. If you don’t like this concept (and we didn’t), find property in an area where there are (or will be) other retirees – people you can get to know and spend time with. That’s the situation we have. Although we are in a rural area, there are a number of homes around us on the water. Many of the owners live there year-round. We have made some good friends in that group.

A bonus benefit of choosing a vacation home in a good “people” location is that it gives you the opportunity to transition that vacation home to an actual retirement home and destination.

Here is the link to the full article.

If It Causes Stress, Is It Really a Vacation Home?

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I’ve thought about these reasons because I’ve spent many family vacations on the beach. These are some of the negative factors that have turned me against the dream of ocean front living:

1.  The threat of natural and ecological disasters.  Powerful storms and hurricanes, beach erosion,  and now, oil spills are a serious threat. These are events that you cannot 100% protect or even insure yourself against loss, even total loss. I have stayed in “beach front” vacation homes where the beach disappeared at high tide. By now, those homes have completely disappeared.

2.  High Acquisition Costs. The adage that “they are not making anymore ocean front property” definitely applies.  To actually be on the water in almost any U.S. coastal area is practically unaffordable for most of us.

3.  High Maintenance Costs. The salt air is corrosive and the winds can take their toll as well.  The maintenance stories I hear from former beach front homeowners are scary.

4.  Noise and Traffic. It is hard to find a coastal residential community that is quiet and peaceful during the “nice weather” seasons. If you like that environment, fine. Many retirees don’t want to be in traffic jams caused by vacationers just to buy groceries. The opposite can be true in low seasons, when some oceanfront communities are mostly deserted.

So should you be permanently discouraged from your dream of waterfront living? No. You just need to re-orient your view toward affordable lake property. That’s what we did when we decided to search for a lake house as a vacation home.  We are planning on keeping that home in retirement as well.

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Using a Lake House as a Vacation Home

As you might imagine, the design preferences can differ depending on how you intend to use your lake house. Most folks think “vacation home” first and that makes sense, particularly if you purchase the lake house pre-retirement.

In no particular order, these are the design features I would think about before buying or building a lake house for use as a vacation home:

1.  Sleeping arrangements. A lake house that is to be used for vacation gatherings needs to have plenty of places for folks to sleep. I’m not referring just to open floor space for air mattresses. For large gatherings, you need to have some real beds, etc., that people can tolerate for a week. This can involve a combination of smaller bedrooms, a bunk room, futons, day beds, trundle beds, and sleeper sofas. We use all of the above. Our bedrooms are not large but they make efficient use of the space. One of our bedrooms is dedicated as a bunk room, with two sets of vertical bunk beds and a fifth bed as a trundle. Our upstairs loft area has a day bed/trundle bed combination with extra floor space as needed for inflatable beds. The basement living area has another day/bed trundle bed combination, a comfortable futon and a sleep sofa. We have two other bedrooms with queen beds and the master with a king size bed. Altogether we can sleep 18 people in our lake house on actual beds with room for at least three more on inflatable beds. We’ve used them all.

2.  Outdoor living areas. When you have large groups at your lake house/vacation home, you need at least one large area where everyone can socialize. To me, the best location for socializing is a large outdoor deck. Our deck extends across the entire back of the house, overlooking the lake. There is room for a full dining table and chair set, a large grill, a deck box, a large swinging sofa, two chaise lounges, and numerous other outdoor chairs. One thing I’ve noticed with most of my neighbors is that their outdoor living areas are smaller. They seem to prefer a smaller screened porch. I think that is a mistake. When we have large gatherings here, the deck is where we hang out. We have a smaller screened porch extending from the basement level toward the lake which gets used also by smaller groups.

3.  Kitchen size. This is an interesting issue. Our lake house kitchen is small. It has all of the basic appliances including a dishwasher but it is nowhere near as large as kitchens you would see in modest homes not on the lake. On the other hand, it is big enough and works fine for us. For one thing, it is open to the dining area and family room which helps. Second, when we have large vacation gatherings, we do most of the cooking on the outside grill. Elaborate kitchens are expensive. Think carefully about how much time and money you want to spend on your lake house kitchen compared to more living area or even more bathrooms.

Using a Lake House in Retirement

Using a lake home for more permanent living alters your design priorities. Some examples that apply to us:

1.  Bathrooms. Many of the lake homes I have been in around this area, including hours, have very modest bathrooms. The showers and tubs are small and not adapted for senior living. We are already planning to enlarge the shower in our master bath.

2. Water Supply. A related lake house design issue is where the water comes from. In many lake home areas, water is taken from a well or even the lake itself. That is not conducive to using the lake house as a permanent place to live. For example, what happens in the winter, in freezing temperatures? We are on a municipal water supply system which is excellent.

3.  Orientation of the house. How to optimally position your lake home on a building lot is an issue that many people don’t think through. For example, our lake house is on a bay that extends eastwardly from the main lake. Many folks want to look toward the main lake so they position the rear of their home (and their main outdoor living area) facing west. The problem is that they are brutalized by the afternoon sun in the summer. For a good part of the day and the year, they cannot use their deck and must pull the shades on their beautiful windows. Our deck faces north, toward the bay. Also, the deck area is under a tree canopy. Therefore, we can be outside enjoying water views without melting from the western sun. It’s a great combination of lake front living with views and shade. We have a small outdoor balcony from our master bedroom that faces west. In the fall and spring we can enjoy that space for the western views.

Final Thoughts on Lake House Design Considerations

As I’m sure you can tell, I’ve barely scratched the surface of all the different factors to consider when designing a lake house. I will be writing more about this in the future. I encourage you to consider what I have said but also to speak to other lake home owners.

Photo credit: Camknows

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This is our seventh summer owning our second home on Lake Barkley. During the summer, we are up here most weekends and at least one full week – a “vacation” week for me. For the past six summers, our vacation week has been when we invite extended family to the lake. We have been gratified by the response. Although the attendance varies, we have had as many as 23 family members join us for the week. This weekend marks the beginning of this summer’s “Family at the Lake VI.” We are here all week. Different family members will be arriving at different times, culminating with the full group being here for the long Independence Day weekend.

I think there are some things that baby boomer owners can do to improve the “vacation” experience at their vacation home.

1.  Complete all Maintenance Items Ahead of Time. One of the aspects of conventional travel vacations that people look forward to is escaping the drudgery of home maintenance tasks. Vacation home owners don’t have that luxury. However, you can improve your vacation mindset by planning and working ahead so that during your designated vacation week, you are not doing yard work or other routine tasks. It’s your home but for that week, you try to pretend you are a visitor with no maintenance responsibilities.

2. Add Something Special to Your Home. Most vacation home owners are regularly thinking of things to add to their home that will improve the experience of using it. It could be a new piece of furniture. If your home is on a lake, it could be a new water toy. Your vacation at home will be extra special if you add that new item specifically for your vacation week. In other words, there is something new for you to enjoy. This summer, that new item for us is a deluxe grill which I brought up yesterday. It’s a huge upgrade from what we were using. It will get a lot of use.

3. Do Something Special During the Vacation Week. To make your week feel like a vacation, it helps to have an activity planned that you do not normally do when staying at your vacation home. The list of possibilities is long. For me, one of those activities is golf. I typically play golf once each year, during our Family at the Lake weeks. We have a great time even though most of us are terrible golfers. One year we took a group to a nearby water park which we had never done before. This year I hope to visit parts of the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area that I have not seen before.

4. Invite others to Join In. When your kids are grown and out of the house, taking week-long vacations with them like the old days is difficult. Spending a week at the lake with just your spouse is wonderful no matter when that happens. But to make it extra-special for a vacation, I highly recommend inviting extended family or friends to “vacation” with you. Spending time with special people at a special place adds uniqueness to the experience.

5. Record Your Vacation Memories. Most vacationers enjoy keeping a record of their experiences, e.g. photos, video and perhaps even a journal. I have tried very hard to do that for our Family at the Lake vacations. I take a lot of photos and some video. After the week ends, I compile them into a digital photo-story with music. More recently, I have created and published a special website that is focused exclusively on activities here at our lake house, and shared the site link with family members who have been here. The website acts as a visual and written history of our vacations here, just as if we had gone somewhere else. There are photos and videos from each vacation week, along with written commentary.

If you own or are planning to buy a vacation home, I hope you can take advantage of the “staycation” concept. Maybe these ideas will help.

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Places to Buy Affordable Vacation Homes

So where are the best deals now in vacation homes? Money Magazine has just published a list of best places to buy an affordable vacation home:

• Borrego Springs, California – median price $236,000
• Cripple Creek, Colorado – median price $132,000
• Hyannis, Massachusetts – median price $244,000
• Montague, Michigan – median price $104,000

Apparently, each of these areas has experienced a decline in home prices of at least 10% to 20% with a bottom expected within the next year. So now is the time to make a move.

Each of these vacation home locations offers something different.

Borrego Springs is close to San Diego and offers desert living near a state park.  If you are a golfer or like outdoor activities, this would be a great spot. However, you will have to deal with state taxes which are extremely high in California and going higher.

Cripple Creek is an old mining town near the bottom of Pikes Peak, so this is another spot for the lover of the outdoors and cold weather activities. If you are interested in building a new home, Cripple Creek Mountain Estates has building lots available.

I was shocked by the low median prices for homes in Hyannis, which is known for the rich and famous. Apparently, these prices are for homes near the town center, not on the water which is nearby. I am not a fan of the Cape Cod area because of the huge summer crowds and the cold ocean water. But if that doesn’t bother you, check out the area and see what you can buy in the $200k range.

I had never heard of Montague, Michigan but it seems it is a popular spot for folks living in Chicago who want to spend time on the lake. In this case, we are talking about White Lake which connects to Lake Michigan.

There is lots of interesting information about this lake vacation home community on the Chamber of Commerce site. I’m not sure how long the boating season is in that part of Michigan but if you can get on or near the lakefront for anywhere close to $104,000, that is a tremendous bargain for a vacation home property almost anywhere.

Inexpensive Vacation Homes – Additional Thoughts

The four vacation home spots featured by Money Magazine probably just scratch the surface of the bargains that are available. I am a big fan of waterfront living and prefer lake homes over the oceanfront. If you also are interested in vacation home property on or near a lake, don’t overlook my lake house spot on Lake Barkley near the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area,  in Kentucky. There are bargains there now as well. In addition, Kentucky is tax-friendly to retirees.

I hope you can find your own bargain in affordable vacation home property.

Image credit: Pacific Pelican

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Lake House Exterior Maintenance

This is the category that concerns all homeowners. Our lake home is directly on the water and in a rural area. This seems to add to the maintenance issues.

Painting. Our house and garage are sheathed in wood panel siding. Last spring we painted the house, using labor supplied by our college student son and his friends. We had to power wash the siding first because with all of the lake humidity and shade, mold can grow on the old paint. This spring we will paint the garage.

The next time the house needs paint, we intend to replace the wood siding with fiber cement siding. Hardie Board is probably the most well known brand. Fiber cement siding lasts much longer, holds paint longer, is fire and termite resistant, and is less susceptible to storm damage. Since we want to own our lake home through retirement, low maintenance is important.

Trees. Our lot is dominated by large trees, all the way down to the water. We have no grass, which is good. We do get large limbs falling occasionally. Our neighbor has lost several large trees from storms. We had a severe ice storm 6 weeks ago which dropped a lot of limbs across our deck and dock stairs. I cleared them with a chainsaw and lots of lifting. This summer I will try to cut the large pieces into smaller pieces and use that for firewood next winter.

Landscaping. I have very little yard maintenance every year. Basically all I need to do is trim some shrubs now and then and use a string trimmer on the ground cover when it gets too close to the house.

However, because our lot slopes down toward the lake, we have a small retaining wall in front of the house where the previous owners installed a small flower garden. That wall was built from railroad ties which had rotted. So the past two weekends I pulled out the entire wall and replaced it with flanged concrete blocks that simulate a terraced stone wall. I placed porous landscape fabric behind the blocks to minimize soil and plant intrusion through the wall. It was a lot of work but now that retaining wall should last for many years with little or no maintenance.

Wood and Composite Decking

This is the biggest recurring lake house maintenance item. We have one large deck directly behind and across the entire width of the house. We built a second deck closer to the water.

There is a long stairway from the upper deck to the lower deck, and then on down to the dock. All of it is built with pressure treated lumber. We have been using a semi-opaque stain on the wood. It lasts for about three seasons. Last year we cleaned and re-stained the decks. This year the stairs need to be cleaned and stained.

My plan, if I have the time, is to experiment by replacing some of the stair treads with composite decking this year. I want to create a more maintenance free structure. There is lots of conflicting information around about the durability of composite decking. By durability, I am referring more to maintaining its appearance.

Composite decking is very expensive compared to wood so I want to be confident before I replace everything. Luckily the hardware store nearest to our lake home carries one of the better brands of composite decking.

Lake House Dock Maintenance

We have been fortunate with our floating dock.  Three years ago a bad storm tore the dock away from its concrete mooring anchors on shore. Insurance covered that and when we re-installed it, we made the anchoring system more robust.

This spring I will have to replace one of the dock floats because the plastic covering has cracked. I already have a spare float on hand for that. It will be interesting to see if we can do this without using any machinery to lift the dock away from the water. Those dock floats provide a lot of buoyancy to overcome!

Other than dock float and dock board maintenance, I will probably scrape some rust off of the metal support arms and repaint those areas.

That’s it for now. I’m sure I will discover some other lake house maintenance  items as the spring progresses. If so, I will let you know.

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Why Choose Kentucky for your Lakefront Vacation Home?

To understand some of our logic in choosing a waterfront house in Kentucky as our vacation home, you might want to first read what we consider to be the benefits of a pre-retirement vacation home, why we chose lake front living over oceanfront, and then the criteria we used in selecting our lake house.

Now, these are the reasons we chose Kentucky as a retirement destination (or at least part-time retirement):

1.  Proximity and Ease of Travel.  Kentucky is an easy drive from many populated areas in the mid-south and mid-west.   A lot of the prime lakefront property is in western Kentucky with easy access from I-24.  It is not as easy to get to western Kentucky by commercial airline.  The airport in Nashville is used by many travelers.  It is 60-120 minutes by car from a lot of the western Kentucky lakes.

2.  Availability of Affordable Lake Property.  Because Kentucky has so much undeveloped lakefront property, you can still get a great deal compared to many other locations.  Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley in western Kentucky are enormous lakes.  Lake Barkley (where our home is located) covers 58,000 acres with over 1,000 miles of shoreline.  Kentucky Lake is even larger.  Just from our personal observation and exploration, there are many miles of shoreline that remain open to development.  This keeps the lot and home prices down.

3.  Low Cost of Living.  Kentucky is still primarily a rural state which helps to keep the overall cost of living down.  According to data from Sperling’s Best Places, cities and towns in Kentucky have an overall cost of living index ranging from 70 to 78 on a scale of 100, where 100 is the national average.

4.  Carefully Managed Lake Property.  What is unique about lake property in Kentucky compared to many other states is that so much of it is carefully regulated either by the Army Corps of Engineers or by the Tennessee Valley Authority.  This is particularly important when it comes to shoreline management.   All docks require permits, shoreline vegetation must be maintained, and best of all, not all of the shoreline can be developed.  This helps to preserve a peaceful, low impact environment compared to the anything goes, circus-like atmosphere you find on some other lakes.

5.  Moderate Weather.  Yes, Kentucky can get some nasty ice storms now and then but overall, the weather is quite moderate, particularly when compared to what some of you upper mid-westerners experience.  The key is that the water (which is why we are there after all) can be used for 8-9 months of the year.

Finding Lake and Vacation Property in Kentucky

If buying a lake front home or lot in Kentucky is something you would consider, I suggest you start looking at three of the largest lakes, Kentucky Lake, Lake Barkley, and Lake Cumberland.

Kentucky Lake was formed when the Tennessee River was dammed up.  It runs parallel to Lake Barkley which similarly is part of the Cumberland River system.  The two lakes are separated by the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, which is a fantastic facility in its own right.  This federally-controlled area will help to maintain the natural character of the lakes. 

Kentucky Lake is deeper and wider than Lake Barkley but we prefer Barkley because it is easier to access from the main highways.  We also believe that the housing options are better and that more dock permits are available.  On both of these lakes, you generally cannot build a dock on the main lake channels- only in the bays and inlets (of which there are many).   Both are great fishing and boating lakes.  Kentucky Lake is a better sailing lake.  (The photo was taken on Kentucky Lake.)

Just a word of warning – you will find housing and developments of all kinds around these lakes, from shacks and trailers to multi-million dollar mansions.  I suggest that you work with a skilled real estate agent who knows the area well.  

It is equally important to understand the year-round water conditions in front of the lake lot you are considering.  These lakes are part of a flood control system which means that their levels are dropped in the winter.  You don’t want to have a mud-front property in winter if you can avoid it.  Finally, be sure that the lot you are considering is eligible for a dock permit.

A smart thing to do before making any lake home purchase is to spend some time on that lake and in that area as a tourist.

The Army Corps of Engineers has a Lake Barkley web site with lots of useful information.  The Lake Barkley Tourism site also has useful links for the newcomer.

For information on Kentucky Lake, visit the Kentucky Lake Tourism site and the TVA site.

Lake Cumberland is also part of the Cumberland River system.  For more information, try the Army Corp’s Lake Cumberland web site and the Lake Cumberland Tourism site.

Here is a real estate relocation video I found for Lake Cumberland:

I hope you are successful in your search for lake property.  Let me know how it turns out.

By the way, if you are interested in vacation home property in other states, check out this site which has mountain and lake retirement property for sale.

Photo credit:  Lincoln Purvis

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1.  Can you get to it?  In some extreme northern or remote locations, roads to lake front property are closed or impassable at certain times of year. 

2.  Can you keep it warm?  In my opinion, this means insulation and central heating.  Although the concept of staying warm in front of a fireplace in a lake cabin that is not insulated may sound charming or romantic, the pleasure won’t last long.  We have a heat pump and a fireplace and on very cold days, it can be hard to keep the entire house warm.  In fact, our next purchase is going to be a high tech space heater that we can move from room to room as needed.  You may get by with a fireplace insert heater but if your lake cabin is not insulated, forget it.  Even if you can keep enough heat in, you will spend a lot of time and money stoking the fire.  Cold drafts will probably be part of your life as well.

3.  Can you get water?  We draw our water from a county water system, meaning that as long as we protect our pipes, we can get water in even the coldest weather.  Many lake homes depend at least in part on well water or even lake water.  Reliably drawing water from natural sources during the coldest months can be a real problem.  Freezing is always a concern.  You don’t want to have to spend your time thawing out water systems for your basic water needs.

4.  Will you enjoy the downtime?  This is a big issue for some.  If your primary enjoyment from a lake house derives from water-based activities (fishing, boating, swimming), you will need alternatives for winter living at the lake.  In our case, we enjoy the solitude, the peace and quiet, and the natural beauty.  We are also fortunate to have some year-round neighbors that we are friendly with.  If you are hoping to attract visitors from family and friends, they may not find “winter at the lake” as enjoyable as you do.  If you tend to the more gregarious side with a need for outside stimulation, winter living at the lake may not be for you.  If you are content with your spouse’s company, reading, writing (I blog a lot from the lake), and TV viewing, that really helps.

5.  Are stores and other resources nearby?  In many lake communities, some of the stores and other commercial facilities depend so much on summer traffic that they close or drastically cut back in the winter months.  The marina closest to us is one example.  You need to be sure that you can find a grocery store, etc. that is reasonably available in winter.  Otherwise, you will be storing and/or transporting a lot of food.

These are some of my initial thoughts about winter living at the lake.  I will probably have some others to write about in the future.

Image credit:  Saso Skalic

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