Discussions

As a newly retired senior who enjoys travelling and is very active was wondering what other people‘s experiences and advice would be to spend three or four months of our winter down south in Mesa ? Do you recommend just renting or buying a gated community cheap mobile trailer or what do you think ?

My dad has bought a house in Texas, but not in a gated area or anything, just a regular house on a regular block. He enjoyed it, but felt by buying he wasn't able to go elsewhere if he wanted to. Say he wanted to go to Arizona for a month, he figured he couldn't because he'd invested in his Texas property.

Kind of my thoughts too your then stuck in one place. I think myself in the end would just rather rent for a specified time and then just walk away when you leave . You will always get those people saying that renting is waste of money .

Really it all boils down to the old money supply and how much ya got, owning two property's is going to have year round expenses of some kind and if the economy hits the skids again your not left holding the bag in some real estate market taking a dive, just hop in the old pick up and get out of dodge.

If you choose to buy something in a park, you are on the hook for the pad rent each month you own it, whether or not you use it. As long as your situation stays stable, not a bad choice.  
 
If you purchase an actual home and property, be VERY careful about the tax implications, in particular when you eventually sell the property and perhaps make a profit. The IRS will want their share.  
 
Also, if you decide to rent out the place to other tenants when you aren't there, there will be tax implications in the US and Canada, for deriving income from your investment.  
 
Lots of legal red tape.  
 
Easiest to rent for a few months and walk away when done.

I have chosen to rent a site for my camper when I go. I know too many people that took sick and had to pay fees for the place that they owned and could not go to. Also not just tax implications but potential problems to sell by your estate. I know worst case scenario if I got sick or died, someone can drive my truck and trailer home. If you have extended family that can make use of it if you can't go, it could make more sense to own. My friend had a nice trailer with an Arizona sunroom that cost him about $18,0000 US$ but his lot rent was $5,000 a year. It was one of the nicer parks though.

We have friends who travel down there. They bought a house back when the market had tanked down there. One thing to be aware of now is I guess the States is charging a "snowbird" tax. On this specific property it went up about 1500.00 a year on top of what they were paying in taxes before. He also has to have his yard maintained in the summer months and hires someone for that etc. So there are a lot of extras and hidden costs as well by the sounds of things.

Florida is the only state that has a higher property tax rate for snowbirds that I am aware of. Is your friends place in Florida? The rates for Florida residents has the rate increases capped under their Homesteader Act is my understanding. No cap on property tax rate increases for snowbirds. A lot of snowbirds I met down there were either moving or considering moving their trailers to Texas.

Well after some of these replies and some research on my own I think I am better off with just renting and walking away . I will go down the last two weeks of March maybe rent a hotel or an Airbnb . Then I can maybe look around for something I can rent for a month or two each year. Mostly just want to go down for the baseball spring training not much of a golfer. If you stay for a month you can get a discount at some of the extended stay motels for as little as $1200 per month. Motel 6 in Mesa has a good deal for long stays as well.

Buying ties up your capital and reduces your flexibility. Renting, you are "footloose and fancy free". Short term costs may be higher, but, you still have your capital.

My opinion would be rent vs buy. Reasons are the same as already posted. I would think twice about extended stays in a hotel though. I have done long stays many times. 2-3 weeks is not bad if it has a kitchenette. A month gets to be no fun no matter how nice the hotel is. I would look at Airbnb or other vacation rentals for a house condo or apartment.

Remember that you can do the opposite - buy down south to spent the winter months there, and then rent or house-sit in various parts of Canada for the summer months. That's our retirement plan!

There are way too many issues and opinions for anyone to answer this question. It depends on your financial resources, level of confort, things you want to do, etc. Pm me if u want to meet i discuss these decisions for a living. We have a place in mesa we have rented it and 2 months rent covers cost of ownership. Yes declare to cra. Value of our place has gone up almost 50k since we bought it. We r on our may to mexico and sitting in houston airport. To buy a park model or trailer comes with high cost of ownership and no return on investment so in that case renting is better. So the comments made are of limited understanding of choices. One does not have to give up travel with ownership it comes down to financial resources and decisions based on ur skills and comfort level. Enjoy ur retirement!!!

What if a person bought a property down south and used it as an investment property such as an airbnb and keep a couple of weeks open for yourself to go there?!?! Anyone do this??

if you buy down in the US and then rent for half or most of the year, besides reporting this to CRA, wouldn't you also have to declare to the IRS? An then you would have to declare all your income to them ...  
 
Edited by passingthru, 2018-01-24 00:14:08