The financials of buying a getaway property

$125,000 and some acreage? Good luck with that.

Maybe for $125000 you could get some b!tches

It's possible. You just have to live off the grid

You can either buy an off-grid cabin or an RV. Or just VRBO yourself and save your money.

Depends how far upstate/how remote the area is. If you’re talking about “upstate” as nyc’ers talk about it, there’s no chance. If it’s actually upstate you can probably find something but the Airbnb chances will diminish. What county?

I'm nowhere near NYC. Not referring to the "NYC" version of upstate, thank goodness.

I found one for $150k that had 32 acres, a cheap little bachelor crib and a steel barn. It needed minor TLC but was solid.

True, but if you aint looking for a river or lakefront...random 900sq ft in the middle of nowhere is easily had for 125K. With those goals in mind? I might think about getting the best piece of prop/acres you can get for 125K, get an RV or camp for a few years until building costs stabilize a little and have YOUR 900sq ft built! Now if you want to rent it out, you need to be somewhere interesting likely, and 125k might not fit the bill.

We NYC folk know the difference between the Catskills and the Adirondacks.

I'll agree with the above that Airbnb chances will diminish.

For now I'd rent and explore until you discover an area you love.

What about getting the land and putting a $10,000 to $20,000 cabin on it? I follow some YouTubers who step by step by step build process. Clearly a ton of work, but could be viable....?!

You can get a crappy little cabin for that money and have to fix it up yourself or get someone else to do it.

The main problem with vacation properties is that you end up being married to them and are reluctant to go anywhere else. The other problem is that whenever you go out to your vacation property, you spend half your time cleaning up and fixing stuff. And you will have the same problems with neighbors, roads, utilities that you have at home. A friend of mine bought a great property on a river in Central TX near Austin and San Antonio. He actually makes good money on VRBO-ing it. But the ranch on the other side of the river has a half dozen dogs that are kept chained up in a yard and bark for 8 hours a day. Whenever anyone has gone over to complain, the owner comes to the door with a shotgun. The police won't do anything about it because they know that if they show up, they are going to get into a firefight with the guy because he is a militia wannabe and has tried picking fights with police before.

Vacation homes can be great investments and they can also be a dud. Lake houses up north of Houston used to be cheap. People would buy lots for $10-20k and build a little lake house for $50-60k. Now, the lots are worth $300-400k and people are building 4-5,000 sq ft houses that sell for $1 mil+. But my dad bought an old farmhouse in the middle of nowhere in Vermont back in the 1990s. He put a lot of money into renovating and maintenance over the years. He would spend summer there and winter in FL. He never got any interest in renting it in the winter because it is at least 90 min from any ski area. And he is now trying to sell it and hasn't got any offers. Location still matters in a big way with vacation properties. You can find something cheap in the hills in the middle of nowhere, down the street from a guy living in a trailer with a thriving meth lab, but that doesn't mean that someone else will want to buy it when you are done with it.

For $70,000 I just bought a 1100 sq-ft old house on a quarter acre lot. Kaufman county has a ten acre well maintained field in the back. It will never be built on. The place came with a 625 sq-ft barn/shed on the side. I was trying to find a lot on Cedar Creek Lake. Those go for around $200,000 with HOA protection to keep anymore trailers out. Across the street you can find $5,000 to $10,000 lots but that is where all the old trailers still are. I'm about four minutes away from the lake. I am still looking to build a 800 sq-ft tiny house if I can find the right spot. Home Depot has some nice two story sheds at around $24,000. Then you can do the inside yourself. I am using reclaimed wood on my Fitness Barn/Wine Shed and it's coming along fine. If I stay here much longer I will be looking into solar panels. If I can flip this house I will be back to looking around the lake. I gave up looking on the coast because of the new building codes from all the hurricanes. Otherwise I would build in Bay St. Louis

I have been watching all those DIY shows about tiny house and YouTube. I even went and helped with working on a few houses so I could learn and get experience. Years ago I worked on a few with habitat for humanity.

Not sure where you are in upstate NY but in northern PA you could get something in your price range. In my old home town there are hunting camps which aren't used as often as they used to be, and someone would let one go. For various reason the economy there has taken some hits and someone would jump at that amount of money. Look at real estate listing in Potter, McKean, Warren, Cameron, Elk counties in PA.

Check out "New York Land and Lakes" - you can definitely get like 10+ acres with lake access for 125k.

My wife and I bought a 1400 sq ft cabin on 3 acres in the western Maine mountains for 139,000, 6 years ago. Beautiful both inside and out. Built in 2007. All pine inside, clapboard outside. 2 story. 2 BR 1 1/2 bath. Put a metal roof on it, new heating system. Bought it fully furnished. Had it appraised a year ago for a refi, came in at 325,000. We don’t rent it, spend about one week per month there. 20 miles from a ski area. Best investment we ever made. I’d perhaps wait till the market cools off before I’d buy, unless you can find a steal somewhere.

I bought something small and off-grid that was 75K. I had to spend 25k just to fix the structure and make it weather tight. It is a horrible investment but I love it. My dogs roam free and I rarely have to deal with any people. I can run and bike all summer and ski into it during the winter. It feels like a million dollars when your buried in 3 feet of snow or walking alone on the trails.

For me having something remote but also with a short commute was important. I didn’t want to spend 2-3 hours driving every Friday night.

Yes, it's a lot of work, but way better than having a bunch of digital dollars in an account, and watching it slide up and down based on events totally out of your control. And wonder about whether it is safe.

If you buy something adjoining a park or wilderness, it's like owning thousands of acres. You can go for a hike from your front door.

Water sources are important. Is there a well, is it drinkable, is it productive, is the water table dropping? How much does it cost to drill? Where I live, you're looking at drilling through 300ft of granite to hit water. At the other end, a septic system install will cost 5-7k, assuming you have the right kind of soil, that goes deep enough. And don't forget about electric, although it seems like most places these days have access to power.

Or you can put that off and just have a large water tank (1000-2500 gallons) brought in and refilled periodically.

I just took it gradually. The place I bought had a well-built little well house on it, that I expanded into a cabin with kitchen and bath. And a porch where we can sit and watch the wildlife. You don't need a lot of interior space if you have all outdoors.

With regard to Airbnb, in many places, the neighbors get to weigh in, at a local gov meeting, and they can object to you being granted a license. Where I live, almost no one is granted a license.