Below are five best practices you should consider if you decide to own a vacation home with your family.
Before heading into any arrangement such as this one, you must have 100% trust that everyone in the deal will act in the best interest of the group.
Setting expectations upfront may sound simple but it is so important. First, you must sit down with all family members to ensure everyone is on the same page. What happens if the water heater breaks? Who pays for it? In our case, we also have a boat and wave runner. The boat is 20 years old, so it frequently needs work. Everyone needs to understand what occurs when these things inevitably happen.
It only takes a few minutes to set up a google calendar that everyone in your family can access. I can’t tell you how helpful this has been. At any time, I can check the google calendar to see what weekends are available or already taken.
A checklist is helpful for all of us and even more so in cases where we rent the place out. The arrival checklist includes items such as turning on the water, hot water heater, and ice maker. The departure checklist covers all aspects of shutting the place down plus the cleanliness standards.
We each put into our account more than necessary to plan for these expenses. Living in a condo, we won’t have as many capital expenditures, such as paying for a new roof. However, there is always something that comes up. Often it’s boat or wave runner repairs, but it could be a variety of other things as well.