How a Second Home Can Be Your Best Investment: New, Tax-Free Methods for Using a Vacation Home for Recreation, Retirement...AND Investment! [Paperback]

Tom Kelly (Author), John Tuccillo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 19, 2004

Strategies for lifelong, tax-free second home ownership

This book explains how to invest profitably in a vacation or future retirement home. Featuring success stories from second home buyers and often-overlooked financing options, How a Second Home Can Be Your Best Investment provides dozens of strategies and proven how-to avenues for finding the perfect home that will eventually pay for itself. Real estate experts Tom Kelly and John Tuccillo show readers how to save thousands through exchanges and exemptions and include valuable Web resources for both second home buyers and real estate investors. Readers will discover how to:

• Choose a second home and location with maximum appreciation potential
• Use a vacation home as a cash cow rental
• Subdivide a property
• Minimize the hassle factor of an investment --while maximizing rental income

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Invest in your future with the second home of your dreams

If you've thought of owning a second home--as a vacation property, a place to retire, or just a smart investment--what are you waiting for? If you can own one home, you can own two! How a Second Home Can Be Your Best Investment offers commonsense guidance and case studies that show ordinary homeowners how to find a second home, finance it, and use it to build long-term wealth.

In this practical, straightforward guide, real estate experts Tom Kelly and John Tuccillo show you how to use the equity in your current home as a down payment on a second home--and how to get other people to pay the mortgage! With a little patience, you'll own a second home that you can live in, sell tax-free, or use as a source of lifelong cash flow. Packed with useful resources, proven strategies, and simple, unbeatable real estate wisdom, you'll have all the tools you need to:

• Calculate what you can afford
• Choose a community
• Find the perfect property
• Get the best financing
• Understand and profit from tax laws
• Manage your second home as a rental, and
• Live richly off your investment!

About the Author

Tom Kelly (Rolling Bay, WA) writes a nationally syndicated real estate column and is a former real estate editor for the Seattle Times.

John Tuccillo (Arlington, VA) was previously chief economist for the National Association of Realtors and gives more than 50 public speeches a year on real estate topics.

Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (March 19, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071429700
• ISBN-13: 978-0071429702
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #876,249 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A terrific book!, April 21, 2004

By 

Sheri Koones - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How a Second Home Can Be Your Best Investment: New, Tax-Free Methods for Using a Vacation Home for Recreation, Retirement...AND Investment! (Paperback)

This book is meticulously written by two extremely sauvy real estate professionals who cover every aspect of second home ownership and show how one additional property can serve a variety of purposes over time (investment, recreation, retirement). They show how real estate can become "portable" - it can move with you, tax free, through your life while compounding your nest egg. It is a must have book for anyone considering purchasing a second home and might even induce those who hadn't considered this option, to look for a second home as a great investment as an alternative to the uncertain financial markets.

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Dangerous Cheerleaders, December 13, 2005

By 

Perpetual Dreamer "Perpetual Dreamer" (Moorestown, New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: How a Second Home Can Be Your Best Investment: New, Tax-Free Methods for Using a Vacation Home for Recreation, Retirement...AND Investment! (Paperback)

Some people need encouragement. Regarding our dreams for a 2nd home, most of us are probably stuck in ruts, not knowing how to get out. This book does a good job of helping readers envision the possibilities. Too good a job. They do not present a systematic process for realistically considering what a prospective 2nd home buyer can afford, whether this is even a good idea, the downs of investing (how will you feel after 6 months of no rent in your investment property while still paying the mortgage?) They don't have the reader ask enough tough questions before cheering them on to take this bold and potentially devestating step. Think the dot bomb was rough? How about staring a $2000/month mortgage in the face with no hope of liquidating that property that's worth 10% less than you paid for it! I recommend Investing in a Vacation Home for Pleasure and Profit by James H. Boykin instead.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Read, but Leaves me wanting, April 3, 2005

By 

QuixoticMan "mfd" (Bozeman, MT) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How a Second Home Can Be Your Best Investment: New, Tax-Free Methods for Using a Vacation Home for Recreation, Retirement...AND Investment! (Paperback)

I like this book, but it left me wanting more. The book does a nice job framing a second home as an investment, but the tax advantages are quickly addressed in chapter two w/o a lot of detail. After one read, I get the general idea, but not all of the implications. Also, the trade-offs of depreciation are only touched on vaguely.

However, the book is very readable and uses great antidotal examples (which I found helped me understand the material better). Also, there are lots of references for additional research. This i probably a good introduction into the subject and did leave me with enough information to decide to pursue this idea of a second home a little farther.