Would you do this?

[MSWR0319]

Do you not like to go up at all before June??? What if it's a mild spring, I'd want to be able to access it whenever. Plus, you're going to see a lot of wear and tear with people living there 24/7 for 6 months. If money isn't tight I would not do it.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

We do go up, even if it's just for the day. The kids like to ice skate and wanted to try ice fishing. We just got the fireplace cleaned because DH wanted to go spend Sunday's there watching football in front of the fireplace. For me, this house was bought to spend time with the kids and friends & family. A place to make memories. And that's what I want to do there.

It's kind of funny. I am usually the cheapskate in our family. Always doing everything I can to save money and being a tightwad when it's not necessary. Selling things that DH wants to throw away. DH is the frivolous spender and doesn't worry about money. He knows how house building goes. We built our house and of course it wasn't done on time. We had to live in the kitchen because our lease ran up and we were kind enough to move out.

Yes, the money would be great but I'm not a money person. It's not important to me more than spending time with family. I would rather get a part time job than rent out the house. The kids' educations will be paid for from profit we have from selling land, so not doing this isn't going to harm them. It's just so hard!

[mom2binsd]

Enjoy your cabin, this isn't money you were counting on, winters at a cabin are wonderful! I'm jealous you have something so close!

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[Snow mom]

Imho if someone is willing to pay $15k in rent for a place they will be out of the place when they are supposed to be.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don't know about this. Renters paid $5k+/mo upfront for a full year of rent and then ended up needing evicted at the end of their lease for a luxury condo a friend owns. In this case the renter was screwing their STBX by paying the rent upfront so it shouldn't have been a shock when they screwed the landlord as well.

[JElaineB]

Just say no. You don't need the money, you bought this place to enjoy. Clearly it is usable year-round, so why not make this winter the winter you start using it more? And no strange dog messing up your house.

[trcy]

I would, because we could use the money. Savings, retirement, college fund for the kids, ect. But you don't need the money, so I don't think you should.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Baby Bargains mobile app

[jacksmomtobe]

It sounds like the trade off for you isn’t worth the extra income. You want to enjoy the house and not be a landlord. Both of which are completely understandable. We have a carriage house/garage which has standalone living quarters in it and we get asked a few times a year whether we ever consider renting it out. We have always said no because the the thought of being a landlord and the lack of privacy (access is off our driveway behind our house) just hasn’t appealed to us. We had one friend splitting from her spouse stay there when she wasn’t with her kids as the spouses where rotating in and out of their house. We didn’t charge her rent and she was the perfect tenant as we barely knew she was there. She was exceptionally considerate.

[Mommy_Mea]

I wouldn't based on what you have said, and my reluctance to ever be a landlord for all the reasons stated above. Think about it this way: you have invested a certain amount of money to have this special place available to you, by renting it out you are essentially sacrificing that money. And $15k wouldn't be enough of a compensation for that.

[Liziz]

Definitely no. I hate the concept of renting out my space. I know it's fine with some people, but I'm not one of those people. You probably don't have the house set up like a rental b/c you don't do that, so it would require definite effort on your part to get things put away you don't want random people messing with, etc. The fact that it will interfere with time you'd spend there is another no-go for me. I'm with you -- even if I was okay doing day trips, I would not be okay going somewhere I normally have my house and not having access to it/potentially seeing other people using it. And despite the fact that I own dogs myself, I would not be willing to have another dog in my space. The only way I'd be willing to do this is if we were in a financial hole and needed to get ourselves out. Just say no!!!!

[mommy111]

Nope. If you don’t need the money, why would you ruin your chance at winter and summer recreation?

[magnoliaparadise]

I once rented my home when I was going away for the summer and someone approached me. I only charged the family my rent, but it felt like a great deal since I would have had to pay that rent anyway and lost the money. This way, it felt like I could leave my home for 'free' for the summer.

And I DID appreciate getting the money. However... I found it to be a total PITA as well.

First, I had to do a ton of cleaning and get a lot of stuff out of the way before the tenants came. That took longer than expected and was logistically exhausting.

Second, when the tenants left at the end of the month, they took a couple of little things - the only thing that really mattered was a stuffed animal Curious George that belonged to one of my kids - I knew that the family took it because they wrote that their kid liked it so much and asked if they could keep it. I said no (nicely), but probably not emphatically enough. And it was gone when I returned. I have heard a lot - from friends and on this board - that when you rent out a house, you should expect that some tenants take things. My parents rented out a summer house and had to replace a ton of stuff over the years.

Third, before my tenants arrived and while I was focused on getting the place cleaned up for them, my kid got very sick (mysteriously high temperature that kept oscillating up and down). The ped evaluated my kid and did some tests and said everything was fine and it was just a flu that would pass quickly. In the perfect world, I would have stayed at home a few more days so I could see her pediatrician again. However, I didn't have that luxury - the tenants wanted the home immediately and I didn't have the money at the time to stay at a hotel because it was a VHCOL area and I didn't know how long I would need to stay.

So I left my home and went about my summer plans to another state... and my kid, then 2, took a turn for the worse. It turned out later that her ped had missed a urinary tract infection (she tested for it, but the results were negative), but by the time we all figured it out, it had scaled up to a kidney infection. It was a mess, honestly - a couple of antibiotic tries before we got the correct one, some other complications, and t hen there were the blood tests, searching for all kinds of nefarious diseases that tore my gut out worrying, and my daughter was 105 degrees off and on more often that I'd like and we were running back and forth to new/unknown doctors from the out of state summer house where I was staying while the tenants were in my home... It took probably 3-4 weeks to get to a better place and was really scary. We were on our way to the emergency room several times, but a family member with medical knowledge would talk me down last minute - but my DD could easily have been hospitalized for it. My ped was calling me 5-10x a day for awhile while DD was sick, it was so up and down and confusing.

I am CERTAIN that had I just stayed in my home a few extra days and gone back to my DD's ped again, instead of leaving town and going out of state, the ped would have figured out the problem and my DD would have been spared what became such a big illness. It's ultimately my fault because it was my choice to leave my home state when I did instead of find a way to stay at a hotel (DD had periods of being fine with no temperature, so it was very confusing and I didn't get how sick she was), but... in hindsight, that month's rent was not worth the money. I'm beyomdgrateful that she recovered and is ok, but if I could have spared her that, I would.

I know your circumstances are different, but this is just to say that you just never know how or what exactly will be affected by having someone stay in your other home. In your case, you don't need the money so I'd just not go through the hassle. If you needed the money for college, retirement, vacations, anything, that's a different story and may be worth the sacrifice of not having access to your second home. But if you don't need the money, my suggestion would be to not do it.