I inherited a family cabin. It's nice - I'm there right now. Rural WI, fiber connection, fireplace, on a lake, etc but god does it suck up the money. I'm looking forward to giving it to someone in the next generation but I have to wait until one of them has a job that can afford the upkeep.
What is expensive about its upkeep?
In the last ten years: - roof replacement (replaced with metal so hopefully a longer-lived roof) - repaint and repair cabin, garage, shed - replace rotting deck - had to dig out a creek to replace a culvert and did proper landscaping as part of it - redo a big part of the landscaping to redirect water runoff away from the cabin while also installing drain tile - re-level the cabin and a shed where the ground had settled - converted from gas to all-electric (it's only a summer cabin so no need for gas) and so had to upgrade the electric connection (this change wasn't completely necessary but I just didn't like using gas) - replace the pump
Coming up: - convert kitchen lighting to led from halogen tubes (ballasts are failing so may as well redo it all) - repair/replace parts of the fireplace outside because it was built with indoor bricks instead of outdoor so it's breaking apart
That's just off the top of my head... I have a list of projects but I'm not getting out of my chair to get it :)
It sounds like many of these are going to have long lasting effects. That person that inherits from you will wonder why you thought it was so expensive. Good job :)
To be fair, many of these are upgrades, not just repairs. Sounds like a lovely property though.
It's not winterized so it would work as a spring to fall rental. However the land and cabin and neighboring land have been in our family for over 100 years and so there's lots of family-related stuff like artwork, antiques, etc that we'd have to put in storage. Instead I let people in the family use it for free.
Ah, so comparing https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45160374 the cabin is actually doing the role of a storage unit.
There's something similar going on with my grandmother's house, which my mother is hanging on to but no longer going to use as a holiday home quite so often now she's passed her 80th birthday. It has in it a piano (archetypal item that costs more to move, let alone store, than it's worth) and, yes, a set of china and wedding silverware.
Living in the city here... if you don't mow your lawn every week (due to long covid), you end up with a forest of volunteer trees, and a notice from the city. Everything has a maintenance cost, and it can be huge!
Property Tax?
That sounds like it could be an excellent rental property.
So why not sell it?