Am I greedy to buy this property?

[MuckFusk]

I notice a lot of people on MN are down on owning vacation homes, and I get why that is, considering how short housing is and the population density in the UK. I'm in Canada (where it's very common to have a vacation home) and I just made an offer on a property which will be used probably four months out of the year. I felt it was a better option environmentally to travelling, as it is not far to drive to, so no plane travel needed. I plan to kit it out for sustainability just as I have my current home; high efficiency heat pump, insulation, etcetera. The major reason I bought it as a future income property for my disabled daughter, especially for when I am no longer living, but it will be a vacation home for awhile. I don't think I'm depriving anyone else of high demand home, because it's been sitting on the market for a month and is in an area with a glacially slow housing market right now.

However, I do wonder if I'm greedy to have more than one property when some people can't even afford one. So you can vote YABU if you think I shouldn't have it and YANBU if you think it's okay.
It might seem like a weird question, but I second guess myself a lot.

Thank you. I'm happy to hear your child's housing is taken care of. It is such a worry, thinking of what their lives will be like when we're gone, isn't it.

Where in Canada? If it’s further out from a vacation area it is a residential property, if it’s a cottage is it winterized?

How will you and daughter make money on it? Because a lot of small town Ontario is massively underemployed and homelessness is rising. If you skip the vacation part can you afford to rent it to people on welfare? A friend does this (which helps in Canada because lots of landlords charge more than welfare programs pay).

I do think you can be an ethical landlord or cottage owner. But are you or will you be?

Also for fall/winter spring weekend rentals you basically need a nice fire and maybe a hot tub and good marketing

Quebec, and it's a four season home. So it will be rentable year round and that's the market we'd be going for. It would be rented by local people, not vacationers, because it's not actually a resort town. Yes, it would be affordable to rent it to people on welfare, no problem there. We'll have no mortgage.

I would be an ethical landlord and have been in the past. I have deliberately rented for no profit.

This with bells on! I also live in North America a lot of places with vacation homes have minimal infrastructure even available in the off season. I also think people who live in the UK and think Scotland gets a lot of snow have a hard time really understanding mountain communities that get 20 feet of snow in a winter… people don’t want to/can’t live there year round…

Exactly. This place has very little infrastructure. It's not in a ski area either, so nobody would want it for winter recreation. It's suits us and would suit a local renter when we're not using it anymore.

I don't think you're greedy, just rich and successful!!

Thanks for posting, we don't get enough of this inspirational, aspirational stuff on MN @MuckFusk should be celebrated

Aw, that's sweet. Thank you. However, I'm not rich at all. I'm a pensioner. The money came from the sale of the former family home. The property we're buying is not expensive at all, so we'll even have money left over. I sold in an in demand area and I'm buying in an area that's not in demand.

I'll vote YANBU if you let me come use it!

😄 If you're ever in Quebec, send me a DM.

In what sense does this property make sense for her? She can’t easily rent it as it probably doesn’t command a high rent year round. She can’t commute to it or live in it without being able to drive (surely).

We're not looking for a high rent as it's not her only source of income. She will have a management company take care of collecting rent and dealing with the tenants and then send the money to her. We looked into it and it doesn't cost much. So there will be no need to go there when it's tenanted.

Oh dear - you already know the answer to this question. And the way you have worded your post makes it seem more like you are bragging about the fact you are buying a second home rather than having any particular interest in sustainability etc. If you actually cared about the answer you wouldn't be buying the place.
If you want to buy a second home and have the means to do so then do whatever it is you are going to do. But attention seeking like this is daft.

It’s a different market though isn’t it. Having lived in Canada there are plenty of people who have second homes/cottges/holiday homes. Many of these are not winterized and cannot be lived in through the winter. Often the location is inaccessible through the winter months and the local town has few services through the winter (schools,doctors etc) So it’s not really taking a liveable home away from someone

If everyone followed that logic nobody would but anything, a lot of people can’t afford what others can but that doesn’t mean people shouldn’t buy them! Saying that a month isn’t a long time to be on the market and yes I do think people choosing to have a property that will lie dormant when people are clawing to rent anything isn’t great.

It's a sound idea for you and your child, Op.

If there are any charities which support your child's disability, you could offer free or at cost holidays for some families that would relish staying in your little holiday abode set up with facilities that suit your daughter..Engage a local cleaner to help manage that.

Another one who apparently doesn't understand the purpose of an AIBU post. In an AIBU post you ask for opinions on your choices, problems etcetera. In my case I post them because I'm a bit lonely and like talking to people and hearing their points of view, not because I wanted my mind changed. I guess I could stretch the point and call that "attention seeking," in which case anyone who starts a thread in AIBU is doing the same. So why are you posting in AIBU if you are bothered by that? Where you get "bragging" from I do not know. It's not exactly a palace and if you had FTT you would have seen that.
You don't have any reasoning behind anything you're accusing me of, so it's not interesting to me. But thanks for responding.

That is a fantastic idea! Thank you!

You have a point there. However, people are not clawing for rentals in the area. You're picturing a situation like in the UK or a big North American city. It's not at all like that. The area is not in high demand.

All that is true, only in this case it is a year round home, but in a low demand area. Few services and not close enough to any big city to be in demand from commuters either.

Just don't it. Well off folk who live council houses are worse IMHO. They should buy their own and let a more deserving person have it.

Will other peoples opinions feed your daughter when you’re gone?

who cares what anyone else thinks, if prioritise what was right for my family every time

most users here are in the UK so you’ll be told yes it’s greedy because there’s enormous issues with property there and people are very opinionated on it. However in the rest of the world it’s totally fine and you can have a house for holidays.

If its not an investment property as you go to great lengths to reassure us, then why do you even bother mentioning your daughter?

Ignore the people who think like this. They are crabs in a bucket, who want to pull everyone else down rather than focus on fixing why they may be experiencing a problem.

It’s a prevalent cultural attitude in this country, why is why it is in terminal decline. Small island mentality.

Because some people are considerate of others and like to put some thought into things before they nake decisions. Things that we do impact other people and it's a positive thing to consider that. The world is going to shit because of thoughtless, selfish fuckers who never stop to look at the bigger picture.