Planning To Buy A Second Home For Your Retirement?

It's a great plan to have you, your children and your grandkids gathering every summer or during your birthday at the house you bought by the sea after your retirement. Or maybe your kids visit your new condo outside the city during weekends.

It sounds good to reward yourself with this simple wish after working so hard for many years, but you have to consider a lot of things before buying a second home for retirement.

Here are some things you have to ask yourself first before making that financial jump.

1. Can you afford it?
If you can buy a second home, can you afford the monthly expenses that go with it now that you can no longer rely on your regular paycheck? If you are financing the second home with a mortgage, can you afford to add those monthly payments to your existing monthly expenses? And even if you are not taking out a mortgage, you'll have to face the normal expenses associated with owning a home: roof repairs, leaky plumbing, gas leaks, utility bills, etc. So before you go home shopping, grab a calculator and see if you can afford it.

2. How will you pay for it?
Buying a second home is fine if you plan to use cash from your savings, though you have to make sure that such a big expenditure won't eventually make it more of a struggle to meet your daily needs in the future. Financing your second home with a mortgage may be more of a challenge. Although lenders can't reject you because of your age, they can still reject you if you don't have enough income to cover your monthly payments.

3. How often will you use it?
Are you planning to stay there permanently or are you just going to spend some weekends there from time to time? If you think you won't be spending much time in your second home, it might not be a good choice.

4. Who will maintain it? Once you've decided to buy a second home, you have to think of maintenance next. Who's going to mow the lawn and fix the fencing? Who will shovel the walks, sweep the floors, and replace fading paint jobs? Remember that you're in your senior years and doing too much work might not be good for your health. Hiring a service to handle the regular maintenance of your second home is the best choice, however you have to think of the cost.

5. What happens when you die? It's a question that most people want to avoid but hey, that's reality. One day you'll be gone and what will happen to your properties? Do you want it to be sold and the proceeds divided among your children or do you want someone to inherit it?

These are the things you have to consider when buying a second home.