Camps rental

I am thinking of purchasing a camp, mainly for rental but would like to use it a couple of times a year for hunting, fishing, kayaking, hiking, and camping. Some of them do not have any utilities. Wondering if I can get some insight on the probability of actually renting it and if it is worth it to have utilities. Pro for Utilities

• Availability for families to rent • Would be good for longer stays • Convenience Cons

• Cost • Maintenance • If not setup then I would have to add that to the cost • Do people want to be off the grid? If so perhaps utilities would be a con Most of the camps are at least 2 hours away from me, so I would not spend much time at it and would like to use it as another form of income.

I've personally known 3 families that had "camps" or basically cabins in the mountains they used as a vacation home. My family had one as well.

My family sold ours (slept 8, running water from well, septic, electric) because my uncles didn't like driving 3.5 hours to go up there for a weekend, and because for the most part after about 30 years in the family my father and his brothers had done just about everything there was to do up in Potter County. They had also bought it new, and it was getting to an age where maintenance was getting expensive, even if you did it yourself.

My grandparents had also bought an RV and were spending most of their time in that, so going to the mountains wasn't their priority when they were at home.

In hindsight, my grandfather wishes he would have transferred ownership to me because he knows how much I loved the place and how much energy and enthusiasm I had for the idea of turning it into a rental property. Unfortunately they sold it when I was 19, so I wasn't nearly as responsible or business minded back then.

Two others families I know built their cabins and spent good money doing so. They had no interest in renting them (or even letting friends/family use them) because they didn't want anyone trashing their place. Unfortunately, these were also the types of places that could have made money, because they were nice.

My coworker has a cabin in northern PA. She's been going for about 7 years now and she's bored with it.

I've got a friend whos parents build a huge house outside of Coudersport, never rented it, used most if not all of their vacation time at that place, and are now retired there.

I wouldn't buy a cabin (or any second property) without it being primarily an income property. It should be built, modified and maintained with the idea that things will get broken, trashed, abused etc, but that you will always make money on it regardless of the damage. Personally, I dont think this type of place needs to be charming. It needs to warm during the winter, clean, comfortable and close to a wide variety of activities.