Rent a home or purchase?

Look at the people in the photo above.  Are they happy they just bought a home in Vail or are they happy they are renting?  For us, we live and work in the Vail Valley.  It is ‘resort community’ and is primarily for the traveler – it is a resort for those who are on vacation.  If you are thinking about living here, take a look at how and why we moved to the Vail Valley.  Also feel free to visit our real estate web site and search for homes in Vail and Beaver Creek.  Everyone who visits thinks at one time or another – ‘Should we buy here?’.

Now for you – to rent or buy? Not easy to figure out, but don’t miss thinking about it.  What about these items?

• Your vacation patterns – do you vacation at the most popular time of the season?  A limited number of properties that suit your needs can make scheduling the visit difficult.
• Your investment approach – real estate is commonly part of an investment portfolio.  Are you looking to add more properties to your portfolio?
• Frequency of travel – how many times per year do you visit?
• Length of your stay – if you stay for longer periods, it can often be costly to stay in certain locations or accomodations.  If you want weekend getaways, most luxury or boutique properties won’t allow it (they have a minimum number of nights you must stay).
• Cost of your trip(s) – the cost of vacationing each year can add up.  At a certain point, you may find it more sensible to invest in ownership rather than the expense of travel.

All of the above items have a monetary amount associated with them.  We have talked to plenty of people that tell is it makes more sense to spend the vacation money each year rather than owning a home.  Yet others purchase a home, use it whenever they want, and make supplemental income through renting the home to visitors.  Which is right for you?

Great skiing, fishing and golf – not to mention the outdoors for those wishing to spend time there.  The rental and real estate market here is more expensive than other places but, with patience, guidance (from us of course) and tenacity, can work for your life style.  Twelve years ago we never would have thought we could live here but decided to take the chance and it worked out nicely.  There have been ups and downs in the real estate market however – as there have been everywhere.

Our clients ask lots of questions because they want to either make the right decision.  Not only do our clients ask about buying real estate versus renting (for their vacation), we often have the same thought going through our minds.  Should we invest in real estate on Cape Cod where our family lives?

Figuring out whether you want to buy a second home (which in many cases here, becomes their primary home) is a real problem for many that don’t have an immense amount of wealth.  With a large amount of wealth, who cares about the cost?  In those cases, we’re simply looking for the best location.

We love the Peanuts Christmas video from 1965 and the wisdom Lucy was sharing when Charlie needed advice.  You have to watch the video until Charlie asks Lucy what she wants for Christmas.  We think many people want the same thing.

Real Estate Tool – To Buy or not to buy

Everyone we talk to has their own view about the real estate market and if you are not in this business, it is easy to become surprised (positively or negatively) about the prices of homes here.  Many are shocked in a negative way at the prices of homes in Vail when they start to look at available homes.  If we were going to look for a home in New York City, we would expect to pay a large amount of money.  For us, it becomes confusing why Vail is not considered on the same level after all the years of people wanting to live and vacation here.  We admit that prices of everything are relative.  There was a time when we were living on the East Coast that we thought a $300,000 home was expensive whereas now we think, in Vail at least, that price to be a bargain.

So we recommend that you spend some time in study yourself – of pricing, your budget, your goals and otherwise.  Making a decision at one moment that later seems bad (just due to the timing) can make us feel like losers.  No one likes that feeling.  It can be avoided or accepted if you have done your research.

This great tool from the New York Times (on-line) is very helpful for getting yourself comfortable with buying a home versus renting.  If the location of your home is not ideal for others that want to purchase after you, you may be more successful renting.

So to get you started, consider buying a home in Vail, Avon or Edwards versus renting for your vacation.  Use the web site mentioned below and you’ll find that it’s a good place to start.  Plan on purchasing a home in the $500,000 range (this may or may not include 2 or 3 bedrooms, 2 or 2.5 baths, 1 car garage).

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/buy-rent-calculator.html?_r=0