Daydream with me: ski condo

[Trailside Trixie]

For us stuff to consider is also medical. We were set to retire in Vermont but close by and plentiful healthcare is a concern. We're both healthy thank goodness but we need to live somewhere with metro style healthcare nearby and somewhere that also is favorable for social security and retirement benefits. I'm 7 years younger than my guy and I work remote so the retirement stuff is more of a concern for my guy but will eventually be a thought for me also. This is why we've started to look else where for our forever home. Was really set to just make it work in vermont until we went to Bend, Oregon and now things have changed. A friend lives in a Boise suburb so that also planted that idea. I'm kinda tired of having duplicates of everything. My boss has already pre clearned a move for us to Oregon/Idaho, now we just need to keep researching. Now that we've had 2 homes for 7 years I'm very much looking forward to the day when we settle in either Oregon or Idaho and only have 1 residence. @KayOss I love hearin how excited you are. Please keep us posted on your process and how things are going.

 

[WaterGirl]

While looking for ski condos/houses to buy, my husband and I were told that "this is a lifestyle purchase, not an investment". We were okay with that...we were investing into the lifestyle we want.

And as a bonus, with where the real estate market has gone, it's actually been a good investment.

I had been thinking about this thread and what @elenmac wrote is key. I always say I'm not a "skier" but its part of my "lifestyle."

I understand if I were a 'skier' I may not want to be tied to the same mountain all the time, maybe a seasonal rental here or there and traveling to new destinations makes sense. Others may purchase as a rental/ investment, the key would be to have 'several' places to bounce between.

Then there is the 'lifestyle' purchase - its somewhere you chose to spend time, it becomes your second home. My mountain home has a long ski season and so much more to offer all other seasons. It is part of my 'lifestyle,' its not just a 'ski condo/house.'

*my realtors best advice: buy for yourself, the size of your family, not for your anticipated guests.

 

[Trailside Trixie]

We bought our condo in the area we'd already hung out in for years so it's no different than before. We stay at the condo rather than our friends down the street so already in the area. I've found i love the off season more because the fairweather people are gone. Many people just come up for the winter or for the big holidays/ long weekends. We're there very often all year long so we've come to enjoy it more when those people aren't there and it's quiet.

 

[Christy]

@Trailside Trixie whether you are thinking of OR or ID you will want to factor in the cost of homeowners insurance and the possibility of nonrenewals. It's becoming an epidemic in these fire prone areas. Boise County had some of the highest nonrenewal rates in the US last year and Idaho in general is becoming risky. You can find the same info for Bend and Eastern OR.

Insurance companies are looking for reasons to cancel policies all over the West it seems. My brother in SF had his cancelled with State Farm pulled out of the state altogether. The increase in disasters plus the high cost of rebuilding these days means they are cancelling after one claim even in cities like Seattle. This has become a very stressful situation for me personally and millions of others. The NY Times had a good round up of where insurers are losing the most money and pulling out.

 

[Amie H]

I have a (non-ski , woods/rural) 2nd home and every year my husband and I fight about it! I want to sell it and keep my eyes open for buying something elsewhere. He enjoys it.

Some years I may only go there one time in the whole season.
It was great to have when I was a SAHM, and I had a little one and two dogs. Walking the acreage, doing crafts, afternoons on the lake/beach.
My daughter is grown and married, and we no longer have any dogs. I went back to work and so I can't spend weeks there anymore. Not that I would want to. It seems like whenever I visit the house. I'm just doing work so I just don't go

It's just not my jam anymore.

To me I'd prefer to have a "condotel" unit near a ski area/ tourist area. It would allow me to leave some of my stuff in locked up cabinets and when I wasn't using it, it could generate income for me.

 

[Tvan]

For us stuff to consider is also medical. We were set to retire in Vermont but close by and plentiful healthcare is a concern. We're both healthy thank goodness but we need to live somewhere with metro style healthcare nearby and somewhere that also is favorable for social security and retirement benefits.

This is a very important consideration and we weighed this heavily as well when decided whether Vermont would be our retirement destination. It took some effort to find new doctors here when we moved, and even at that, we have to drive to Burlington for any specialty services. Fortunately, for the moment at least, UVM's medical school affiliation with the VT healthcare system is positive.

 

[WaterGirl]

Insurance companies are looking for reasons to cancel policies all over the West it seems. My brother in SF had his cancelled with State Farm pulled out of the state altogether.

Just for clarification, State Farm did not pull out of CA altogether. They have reduced, non renewed and are currently trying to hike rates but they still service and renew polices........

 

[Christy]

Boy, that kind of just goes to show how capricious insurance companies can be. They'd had State Farm for 20 years and never filed a claim, but were told they were losing coverage as part of a big pullout in CA. And of course with reduced options, their new coverage was quite a bit more.

 

[Sarabeth]

This is a significant reason we’re thinking about about Vermont and Quebec — while climate change may reduce the ski season, the fire risk is not predicted to increase nearly as much

 

[Jilly]

I'm not sure what the restrictions are on foreign buyers in Quebec. I know BC has some rules. You might want to check on that. It's all about the Short Term Rentals (STR).

 

[Emms]

They exempted Whistler from the foreign buyer rules. But there are zoning restrictions on what areas in Whistler can and can’t be used for short term rentals (which predates airBNB but wasn’t consistently enforced until it because a problem c/o airBNB)

 

[Sarabeth]

The places we’d buy in Quebec allow foreign ownership. STR legality varies but some of the places are cheap enough that we wouldn’t worry about renting it out anyway.

 

[Trailside Trixie]

We love Mont Sutton and dream about buying a condo there

 

[Trailside Trixie]

To me I'd prefer to have a "condotel" unit near a ski area/ tourist area. It would allow me to leave some of my stuff in locked up cabinets and when I wasn't using it, it could generate income for me.

Im tempted to buy one of these at one of the places I ski. Slopeside and inexpensive. It's a small place in Massachusetts near the NY border. They have night skiing as well and a lot going on in winter and summer

 

[geargrrl]

Hi all, been gone for a few weeks but now I will chime in with our condo experience. I would totally agree that it's a lifestyle purchase, and with the reality of fire you had better be prepared to eat a loss if it should occur. That is one of the main reasons we sold ours. The condo association had to cobble together 3-4 policies to get insurance for the association. Our personal insurance would only cover furnishing, etc. And...looking at the forest: dense, unthinned, you just know it will go up in flames someday. Looking at this, the fact that if it burned we'd be out 200+K, literally down the toilet, we decided to sell. Three days after we made the call to our realtor, a fire blew up less than 2 miles away; the whole area including the condos was evacuated. We were biting our nails for which way the wind was blowing. Thank goodness that area of the mountain was spared. We went ahead with the listing as soon as the evacuation was cleared and unbelieveably sold it in 3 days.

My friend who had two condos at Mammoth sold hers for the same reason, fire risk.
On retrospect, just the fees alone (500/mo) cover a lot of gas, hotel, ski lift tickets. :-)

 

[Christy]

Hi all, been gone for a few weeks but now I will chime in with our condo experience. I would totally agree that it's a lifestyle purchase, and with the reality of fire you had better be prepared to eat a loss if it should occur. That is one of the main reasons we sold ours. The condo association had to cobble together 3-4 policies to get insurance for the association. Our personal insurance would only cover furnishing, etc. And...looking at the forest: dense, unthinned, you just know it will go up in flames someday. Looking at this, the fact that if it burned we'd be out 200+K, literally down the toilet, we decided to sell. Three days after we made the call to our realtor, a fire blew up less than 2 miles away; the whole area including the condos was evacuated. We were biting our nails for which way the wind was blowing. Thank goodness that area of the mountain was spared. We went ahead with the listing as soon as the evacuation was cleared and unbelieveably sold it in 3 days.

My friend who had two condos at Mammoth sold hers for the same reason, fire risk.
On retrospect, just the fees alone (500/mo) cover a lot of gas, hotel, ski lift tickets. :-)

I've been wondering about condos--if they too were hard to insure in the fire prone West, how it worked. So part of your HOA does were to pay the insurance that the board purchased? We don't really have condos here in the Methow, it's all single family homes except for a couple spots in Winthrop I think.

I submitted the final photos of the last thing Allstate wanted to see, underneath the deck screened by 1/8" hardware cloth so embers can't get under it, and am anxiously waiting for them to decide if they will renew our policy. If not, there is only a single insurance company that will still write new policies here so we'll be at their mercy in terms of cost. And it's all totally understandable. I don't mean to sound like I think it's unfair. Though I do wish they would have done all this when we first asked about getting insurance for this house, before we made an offer. The "Yes! No problem!" then whiplash to "Okay we got problems" is not fun.

 

[geargrrl]

Christy if I am understanding your ask, here's how it works where I had mine. There were 7 buildings with a total of 130 condos. The Condo Association uses HOA fees to pay for policy for the structures/buildings/physical. Personal insurance doesn't cover any structural rebuilding, only possessions. In reality I'm sure whatever they were insuring the buildings for wouldn't even come close to actual rebuild costs. Units vary from "Original 1970's everything cheap built with orange shag" to "million $$ three condos on top story combined into one big one and redone with top everything".

FYI some insurance companies are now using drones to inspect roof conditions.

 

[Amie H]

Im tempted to buy one of these at one of the places I ski. Slopeside and inexpensive. It's a small place in Massachusetts near the NY border. They have night skiing as well and a lot going on in winter and summer

I've stayed in quite a few of them over the years and have met unit owners who really appreciate the arrangement. The last time I stayed in a unit like this was at Palisades Tahoe (fka Squaw Valley) in 2019. The prior year was at Breckenridge. From what I understand, it's not a moneymaker BUT I'm ok with that as long as it would cover my costs, and be professionally cleaned after each use vs. only using unit for myself.

That said, for the foreseeable future (probably next 2-3 years) I'll daydream and wait.