<p>My husband and I are looking to buy a vacation home on a lake, and we are talking to some of his siblings and spouses about sharing ownership and use. </p>
<p>I would really like to hear from those who have done something like this. What is a workable number of families to share this venture with? </p>
<p>What are some suggested rules for shared ownership–who can use the home, how are the weeks of use divided, how is the money handled? </p>
<p>Any and all information is welcome.</p>
<p>I know someone who did this with 3 sibs and their parents. Two of the siblings are married with children, and one sibling is single. They use the home for vacations and all family holidays. This way nobody has all of the work of cleaning and cooking. They all clean and they all cook at the home. I guess some precooked dishes are prepared as well. I obviously never asked about finances. My friend is the single sib, and he is happy with the arrangement. He does not find it a burden to clean up, or put up with his young nieces and nephews. He is a very easy going person. I know that he enjoys time boating and golfing with his brother and brother-in-law. I got the feeling through years of converstation that the parents of the sibs made a considerable downpayment. This means that there are fewer money problems, since they all are being gifted their share of this home. I know that the sibs did not put down any money of their own. I do not know who is paying maintenance or property taxes. I also know that the sibs have a wealthy aunt who has gifted them each some money. This also makes paying for the upkeep of this home easier financially.</p>
<p>I have a relative who has done this, but she and her husband went in on it with just her mom. There are other properties among her family, though, that are shared by siblings AND mom, and there is a big beef going on right now about inheritances. It may seem like a LONG time right now, but I’d think about how your heirs (and your siblings’ heirs) are going to handle inheritance. </p>
<p>Also…What will be the basis when someone wants to be bought out (or buy someone else out)?. The basis issue has really become a big deal in their family…a sibling needs out, but the other siblings only want to pay what the house was originally purchased for. Yuck, we’re talking property that’s been held and maintained for years, has appreciated by leaps and bounds.</p>
<p>Friends of D do this. One hard and fast rule is that no one under 21 stays in the condo without the adult owner on site to supervise. College kids are welcome to bring their friends, so long as mom comes too.</p>
<p>My 3 siblings and I “inherited” a small vacation cabin. (I have that in quotes, because my parents actually sort of gave it to us because it was a childhood place for us and they had bought something else.) </p>
<p>My husband and I gave up our share because we hated feeling tied to vacationing in the same place all the time. Plus I hated the cost of the whole thing (taxes, new roof, etc.) and the maintenance involved. At this point, only one of my sisters uses the place, and my other two siblings have sort of given it up by default. </p>
<p>For us the hardest part of co-ownership was dealing with maintenance issues. A lot of vacation homes (at least around here) are in places where it is virtually impossible to hire anything out. So when something breaks (and something always does - pipes freeze, septic tanks act up, mice move in, the pump breaks…) it was stressful to figure out who should go and fix it. </p>
<p>Someone needs to be appointed to pay the bills, go down just about every year and argue your assessment with the tax collector, hire the driveway to be plowed, argue with the highway department when they wreck your culvert making your driveway impassable, trying to hire someone to empty the septic tank, carpets cleaned, snow removed from roof in winter, huge fallen trees to be removed, (this was all stuff that is an issue at our place!) etc. Strict agreements need to be made about how much stuff each family can store there, what condition the place needs to be left in, and - oh - the worst thing - the food in the refrigerator! Whose is it? How old is it???</p>
<p>I don’t think divvying out occupancy dates is all that tough. One thing you want to get in writing is that the co-owners aren’t loaning it out to friends, grown kids, and various other people. That can get to be a BIG problem. If there are boats or snowmobiles or whatever some sort of slush fund needs to be set up to care for that stuff (and a person assigned). </p>
<p>Oh, it makes me tired to just think about it. I’d much prefer at this point in my life to pack a little bag and head to Europe and let somebody else worry about all that stuff.</p>
<p>My boyfriends parents co-own a vacation home with his aunt and uncle (dads sister and her husband) in Myrtle Beach. It seems to work out pretty well. Both families usually go there for a few seperate weeks each year and they rent the home out the other weeks. (occasionally they go together). I don’t really think they have any set limitations to how often they can both go down however I could be wrong - they just go on the weeks that weren’t rented out. I know my boyfriends mom handles the booking and renting of the home. We went down for a week during June and I know his parents were there during May. I believe they are planning to go down for another week at some point in the upcoming months.</p>
<p>It can be a big headache. My sibs share a west coast home that is still under our mother’s. I live closest to coast house. One sister is 600 miles away, younger sister is tied up with her daughters and work, and older brother is in NYC. Sisters want to be consulted. I am going to house tomorrow to do minor prep for niece’s use this weekend and to check on window replacement work. </p>
<p>House is now, way to valuable to sell and basically irreplaceable because of location, views, safety, neighborhood, & microclimate.</p>
<p>I have good friends who went in on a beach house with the husband’s 2 siblings. It’s about a 4 hour drive for them. They enjoyed it at first but I think it got to the place where they felt obligated to go down there more than they really wanted to. They were spending so much on the mortgage and the upkeep that they felt like they should use it whenever possible even if they (or their kids) didn’t particularly want to go.</p>
<p>They tried renting it but most of the rental business was of course in the summer which was really the only time the family was really interested in going. So that didn’t work out.</p>
<p>My friend (the wife) said she got tired of going to the same place all the time but didn’t feel like she could justify going somewhere else for vacation when they were spending all that money on a beach house.
My friends and one of the sibs. eventualy sold out to the other sib who lived about an hour from the house and could use it more easily.</p>
<p>This always sounds like a great idea until you actually get into it. My dad and his 3 siblings inherited a wonderful beach house many years ago. For years they had a family meeting once a year (at the house, no kids invited). They divided up taxes, mortgage (if any), maintenance, and whatall. There was a general fund" which was administered by the sibling who lived closest to the beach house. Rules were set out that everyone was expected to follow - such as, only the principals and their immediate families although kids couldn’t come unless the parents were there also. There was a long checklist of all the things you were expected to do when you stayed. If there was a problem, you were expected to fix it or pay to have it fixed and then you submitted the bill to the general fund.</p>
<p>In later years as they all retired, everyone wanted to go more and more often. Since it was the four of them, they divided the year into thirds and drew straws for each third of a year to choose a 2-3 week time period or something like that. Sometimes they would “trade” their time with one of the others if it so suited both parties.</p>
<p>Eventually, after 40 years of this, they sold the place - they are mostly in their 80s and no longer want to make the drive. Many of the cousins/younger siblings thought very seriously about chipping in together and buying it, but for most of us the drive just makes it impractical (13 hours for us!!!).</p>
<p>It can be done.</p>