Buying a vacation home in Europe

Hi all,

Friends of ours just bought a vacation home in France. Of course this got us talking about doing something similar. I suggested Spain since houses are stupid cheap there (I suggested an unused International Airport, but that might be over budget ). Italy would be another good choice. Anything but France, because we now have a place we can use there

Has anyone here done this? You can find what look like decent little places all day for under 50k Euro. Not cheap, but not a lot of money either.

Thoughts?

A quick google search turned up:

Buying property in Spain must not be done without legal assistance from a lawyer, which should be > domiciled in the potential area of interest to have a thorough knowledge of also local, provincial or regional laws and ordinances and of the value of the respective property and > experienced in dealing with foreigners, i.e. have certified (English) translations of all relevant documents etc. Forums are full of horror stories of home buyers which found out that their new property had been erected violating local building codes and had to be torn down (at their expenses, of course), or that in two years a new motorway would run through their backyard, or that the power line to their new finca was not working and so on and on..

Without knowing anything about buying/maintaing/etc a house in Europe, I would first look into what does it cost to spend a week there renting a hotel room or even a house for a week, if such a thing is possible. My parents issue with buying a vacation home 4 hours away is that they would use it maybe 6 weeks out of the year, but they can rent a vacation rental and the total cost will be $3000 for 2 weeks. When you factor in maintenance, upkeep, taxes, etc., it makes a lot of sense to rent.

To me, the same idea applies but even moreso for buying a home in Europe. Total cost for us to get to where my parents are looking, and back? About $200 in gas, for 3 different vehicles. Total cost for a plane ticket to Europe, for 2-8 people? Don't want to think about that.

So if you planned on staying there for 2-3 months of the year, continuously, then maybe it is something to consider. Otherwise I'd skip it and rent. (Again, no research or knowledge of prices/plane tickets/etc.)

Dude, you're asking an Internet forum full of cheap bastards about buying a second house in another country.... We probably won't be much help

I got drunk in Europe once, I'll work up a complete guide on this shortly.

Spoolpigeon, point well taken. But I ask you folks everything

I'm sure there are better places, but you may have luck with this question at corner-carvers.

I would be looking to hook up with a vacation rental agent in the locale you are interested. They can tell you which properties would return value for the times (most of them) that you aren't there, and could manage it in your absence.

What is the advantage to you to own a house you could rarely use? What are your rights in a foreign country?

My dad knew someone building a vacation house in rural california and the cranksters got in and stripped the sucker. Even pulled the well pump.

Spoolpigeon wrote: Dude, you're asking an Internet forum full of cheap bastards about buying a second house in another country.... We probably won't be much help

When I saw the thread title, my first two thoughts were "This is a joke" and then "did wearymicrobe post this?"

I couldn't give advice on buying a first home, beyond "ABANDON ALL HOPE"

My family has a flat in London - most real estate in the area is structured as 99 year leases instead of outright ownership - different deals outside of London or the neighborhood for that matter. Every country/region/province has their own nuances (just like the US) for zoning, future planning, etc. The disadvantage is doing things at a distance and language barriers, but it's not all that different - same basic concerns and you want the same kind of protections - so finding an agent and attorney you trust is top of the list. On the good side, it's not hard to find renters to cover expenses - just find a maint. agency/person...

Head east man, I'm tellin ya! The cars are cooler, cost of living is lower, and these eastern european gals ain't exactly what you'd call "hard to look at" (do a google image search for Hungarian Women and get back to me )

Other than that, I have nothing to add.

I'm in the "would it really be worth it camp"?

The house cost is only 25% of the cost. Maintenance, taxes, fees, travel costs, upkeep, repairs, furnishings, dues...this is where the money comes in.

I would look into a condo that can be rented when you are not using it, and is managed by the property. Done right, it can be a great annual vacation that pays for itself.

Thanks for the info so far. Yes, it's a little bit of bench house buying, but not out of the realm of possibility. I agree, the key is time spent there and possible rental return when not there. If I could spend the summer (but not August) and the month of December there (working remotely and visiting customers on occasion) then I think it would make sense.

I like owning a second home.
The big concern for me would be taxes. Even though my other house is in the US, we get hit with not having a homestead exemption and so our taxes are just over double what our neighbors are. It hurts. As long as the taxes aren't too bad then it sounds like a solid plan. Consider a condo or an apartment too. You would have building costs, but you wouldn't have to worry (as much) about things like a leaky roof that you don't find for six months.
Lastly, before I ever bought a house somewhere, I'd go visit the area for at least a couple of weeks and see if it's really where I want to be. You need to be able to see yourself visiting this same place year after year for a decade. If the idea of that brings a smile to your face, then you're on the right track.

Where in France?

Just outside of Toulouse.

I've "had" to keep my place in the UK for a few years before I sold it.

You need a local property manager who doesn't rip you off and uses good local contractors to fix your place if need be. I started out with a very good property manager which made the whole thing easy, but when he left the company, things became a bit of a pain in the posterior.

Administering a place from 6000 miles away is not fun, even with a local property manager and (in my case) friends in the trades who are local. I had regular tenants and that was OK, I don't think I would have wanted to deal with vacation renters.

I would only do something like that if I wanted to retire in that place later on.

My neighbors have owned a house in a small village in southern France for 10 years. They don't seem to have any problems, but they live there from April thru November and back here the rest of the year. Also he has EU citizenship (originally from Latvia). Whichever they are not living in at the time is rented out. His wife handles that duty.

I think it would be a PITA for anyone not in that situation, I know my SIL has enough problems with her vacation home/rental and it is only 6 hours away.