Growing up, I was lucky enough to see a family cabin in Mundos Park, near Flagstaff, Arizona. We can visit our cabin 5-7 times every year if we have the opportunity. We have great memories of the salon, but when my parents decided to sell it about 6 years ago, I immediately began to look for a salon. I had to give my kids the same opportunity to remember with the family cabin, because I had it. We started looking for a house or plot to build in June 2006. We quickly found a site in Pinetop Lakeside, Arizona, which is in the White Mountains and about 3 hours from the Phoenix area. It was a modest 8,000-square-foot plot, but we loved the proximity to the cinema, restaurants, ski resorts, lakes and more. We decided not to build a house on this site and placed a new house on the site, which we were able to complete in November 2006.

We thought we were going to use the cab for a few years and sell it for profit in the future (yes, it was all during the real estate boom, so you can imagine how much we’re underwater). Can’t describe the joy we experienced on our first trip with the kids to see our new hut. We had a great time, for the first time together with young people, and we couldn’t wait to come back. We made a 3 hour trip to our cabin with as many breaks as possible. After we realized that we couldn’t sell the hut, let alone give it away, we had a problem. We managed to raise enough money to pay for the cabin in cash. What we didn’t know was how much a cottage without a mortgage would cost. Regardless of whether the cabin is paid, you will still have to pay property taxes, home insurance, basic equipment, frozen pipes, porch repainting and various other expenses. We didn’t have to run out of money at the cabin we had just visited 5 times a year, so we quickly climbed the internet to find a way to rent our cabin. That’s when we came across a lot of rental sites for vacation time on the Internet. On many rental sites for a while we really liked the simple fact that some of our friends trust them.

Don’t get me wrong, we are so grateful to have received this money because they help us pay off every year instead of paying out of pocket. It’s amazing how expensive the rent of our hut was. However, if you think about it, the more you rent a cabin, the higher the cost of utilities and the worse the condition. In the shade were hidden all the other negative elements of the lease of our hut, which I quickly encountered and could never scare away. Owning our chalet since 2006, we finally came to the conclusion that it is better to rent a holiday home than the owners. I’m sure many of you have a different opinion, and I’d like to hear it, but for our growing family of six, it’s too difficult. Below are some of the pros and cons of holiday rentals we encountered. Buying a home has never been something we should be doing on a whim, so take your time, explore your options, explore your finances and ask anyone you can find about their experiences. Here are some of the pros and cons of renting on vacation time.

Advantages

1. Property on holiday – you no longer need to pay someone to rent a property that you like or don’t like. You can furnish the building on your own and then make changes without asking permission. You have complete control over where you buy the property and exactly what it will look like.
2. Possible rental income. We managed to rent out our chalet about 10 times a year using the holiday rental website, but I’m sure we rented it for extra days and could potentially make a profit. Depending on where you find the property and how it was bought, you will be able to make a profit faster than we do.
3. Tax depreciation. If a property is purchased as an investment and/or rented annually, you can claim potential tax breaks. Of course, I’m not exactly an accountant, which means you need to learn about it from a professional.

4. Bragging/wish list. Funnier than that, I’m sure many people are buying a home on vacation just to brag about it or even throw it off the list. The idea of buying a cab was clearly a big fantasy, and so was I, which was one of the reasons I bought it.
5. Investments – If you choose an investment in an ideal location and in the ideal period of time, you may be able to sell the holiday home at a profit a little later.

Inconvenience

1. Maintenance – I’m sure most of you who are looking for a holiday property are now homeowners. So I’m sure month after month you may have something in your home that requires a little care. We found that maintaining our hut costs a considerable annual cost, ranging from repainting our porches or outdoor siding to plumbing in case the pipes freeze and winter begins. There are always unexpected costs.
2. Working with tenants – this will be a headache only if you decide to rent out your property for recreation. I have a lot of fantastic tenants who stay in my cabin, but there will always be a few nightmarish tenants a year who I will have to deal with the stupidest complaints. Frankly, even to get the perfect tenant always requires the first call, request for money, signed lease, instructions on renting for the time of vacation and more. Even today, when I rent a chalet in winter, I worry every day that my tenant will call me and tell me that the stove or pipe has broken. Unnecessary stress can occur and nothing will happen.
3. Market value. I bought our cottage in the midst of a housing boom, and now it’s worth about $60,000 less than I bought. What really hurts is when I remember paying cash for the property. I’m not going to say that your resale value will go down, but it’s a danger you face when buying a property.
4. It is not used separately. We could only use our cabin about five times a year. When we get there, we have a really good time together. When we’re not around, I sit down and think about my empty booth, which I don’t use, and I wonder why I bought something so little used.