Home Exchange for Seniors: Why Lake Tahoe is the Best Place to Buy a Property

Thanks to home exchange programs, seniors now have an opportunity to travel to their favorite destinations and experience those places as a local would. By staying in a private residence instead of a hotel, a traveler earns the freedom to interact with the host community as authentically as possible. They also end up spending very little on accommodation costs.

While there are several great home exchange programs serving the general public, you may want to sign up for specialty senior programs to give yourself a chance to interact with and stay in homes of people who understand exactly what seniors need. Some of the home exchange sites that have dedicated programs for seniors include Home Exchange 50Plus and International Vacation Home Exchange.

To take advantage of these programs you need to have a vacation property that you can exchange with other travelers. Such a home can be your primary residence or vacation home. If you are scouting for such a property right now, Lake Tahoe might be the place you want to be. Lake Tahoe communities are some of the best senior-friendly communities in the United States that also have world-class recreational amenities for vacationers.

Lake Tahoe - Home Exchange for Seniors

Perhaps the most important benefit to living in Lake Tahoe when you are senior who is a fan of home exchanges is that Lake Tahoe is one of a favorite destination of many travelers. There are several seniors who flock to Tahoe to vacation there every year. It is therefore very unlikely that you will lack a prospect for a home swap whenever you want to go on a vacation somewhere else especially if you are using a home exchange program that utilizes credits. Using credits is always a good thing as it will make it easy for you to find a property during the winter months when demand for Tahoe vacation properties falls.

Further, it is actually enjoyable to live in Lake Tahoe. As a resident, you can enjoy the same amenities and activities travelers enjoy without feeling like you are living in a resort community. It is a perfectly normal community with a sizeable population who live there fulltime.

About Living Lake Tahoe

Living Lake TahoeLiving Lake Tahoe helps people looking to buy, sell, or rent properties in Lake Tahoe. The agency is headed by Alvin Steinberg who has worked as a real estate agent in the Tahoe region for more than four decades now. All realtors working for the team are based in Tahoe and deeply understand the local market.

Fixing the Main Problem with Having a Dedicated Vacation Home

The main argument people have against the idea of owning a vacation property is that someone who buys a vacation property commits themselves to vacation in the same place every time. By vacationing at the same spot, critics say, the homeowners miss out on the novelty of travel.

This line of thinking could have been correct 50 years ago. Today, it has no merit at all. The truth is, having a vacation property of your own will open up a lot more opportunities to experience other destinations while staying in other cool properties on the cheap or for free. You can thank the internet for this.

The internet now makes it possible for owners of vacation homes to enter into home swap programs that allow them to stay in other people’s homes for free when they travel. There are several credible home exchange portals that facilitate such home exchanges. In most cases, all you have to do is find someone who has a home in a destination you want to visit and who also wants to visit the destination your vacation home is located. With home exchange sites now housing thousands of homeowners, finding someone is not hard at all.

Santorini Greece, definitely not a vacation home problem

Vacation Properties in Santorini, Greece.

Further, there are home exchange sites that make indirect home exchanges possible. In this case, the person who owns the home you want to visit doesn’t have to stay at your property. The programs operate using a point-based system where members earn points for letting anyone in the program stay in their property. They can then use the points to stay in any other available property anywhere in the world.

Some of the popular home swap portals worth joining include:

You don’t have to sign up for all the programs. You want to sign up for just a couple of the programs so you have the time to build a reputation for yourself on the site. Making your home appealing to other travelers in these programs takes almost the same process as marketing your home to ordinary travelers. You have to use awesome pictures, get positive reviews, be responsive when communicating with prospects, maintain home cleanliness, and meet your guests or have someone you trust welcome them when they show up.

About Living Lake Tahoe

Living Lake TahoeLiving Lake Tahoe is one of the most reputable real estate agencies in Tahoe. The team is headed by Alvin Steinberg who has over four decades of experience in the local real estate market. They are committed to helping people looking to buy or sell Lake Tahoe properties, including vacation homes, do so as smoothly as possible.

Best Places to Buy a Vacation Home If You Want to Save on Taxes

One of the factors you should consider when scouting for a second home or vacation rental is the tax regime of the hosting state. Tax laws will determine if the mortgage interest on the home is deductible, how much in property taxes you end up paying, and if you rent out the place, how much of your rental income you get to keep.

Fortunately for you, there are some states with very attractive tax regimes. Some of these states also house some of the best neighborhoods vacationers can stay in. Below are three of the best places to buy a vacation home in the United States if you are looking to reduce your tax bill:

Lake Tahoe, Nevada

Lake Tahoe is a favorite for discerning travelers and it attracts nearly 3 million vacationers every year. It has one of the best collections of tourist offerings around with world-class accommodation, dining, and entertainment facilities and services on offer. Tourists can hike the Sierra Nevada Mountains, take a boat ride in Lake Tahoe, go golfing in some of the best golf courses in Nevada, Kayak in Emerald Bay, get a tan at the free Kings Beach State Recreation Area, or take an aerial tour of Tahoe on a hot air balloon or helicopter.

Buying a vacation property in Lake Tahoe gives you a chance to take advantage of Nevada’s favorable tax laws. Nevada has zero income state tax and the property taxes are very low. Nevada’s effective state property taxes stand at only 0.96 percent. If you want to establish residence in Tahoe and are already doing some estate planning, you will also benefit from the fact that Nevada has no inheritance tax or estate tax.

Panama City Beach, Florida

Child by the water, Panama City Beach

Panama City Beach is the premier beach destination for travelers in Florida and the surrounding states. The beach is the main attraction and most tourist activities are water activities. Tourists can also visit the Pier Park which is a shopping, dining and entertainment complex and the 7D movie theatre at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! There’s also a small zoo off Front Beach Road called ZooWorld.

As far as taxes are concerned, Florida is one of the best states. Florida has no personal income tax. The corporate income tax is a flat 5.5 percent. As a resident, your beneficiaries will not incur any estate or inheritance taxes.

Miami, Florida

Miami Vacation Destination

If you want a destination that also offers the best of the city life, Miami is the place to be. It goes without saying that you will also be enjoying the Florida tax benefits discussed above if you choose to stay in Miami.

Vacationers can have a great time at the beach, interact with a friendly and vibrant mix of people, experience Miami’s upbeat nightlife, and enjoy a range of cuisine from several open-air restaurants. Since Miami attracts tourists all year round, if you choose to rent out your vacation home, you can expect a good occupancy rate.

 

About Living Lake Tahoe

Living Lake TahoeAlvin Steinberg is an experienced real estate agent based in Lake Tahoe, one of the nation’s best places to buy a vacation home. He has arranged for the sale and purchase of several properties in the area. With over four decades of experience in the local real estate market, he is one Tahoe’s most respected real estate professionals.

How to Properly Market a Vacation Home

How to Properly Market a Vacation Home

If you in the market for a second home, you are probably wondering how you will make money off it when you are away. You actually can make decent money off your vacation home if you go about the endeavor the right way.

As you would expect, the location of your property will be a key factor in whether or not you will be able to make money off it. Properties located in areas that are frequented by vacationers will surely make money.

Below are some of the ideas you can put to use to increase your chances of making good money from your vacation home:

It All Boils Down to Marketing

If you have a beautiful vacation home, the battle is already half-won. All you have to do is let people know about it and you will have a reliable stream of renters.

A great number of your competitors don’t put a lot of thought into how they market their properties. If you take marketing seriously, you will quickly rise above them and position your property as one of the most visible vacation homes in your area.

To start, you should list your vacation home on the traditional listing sites that vacationers frequent. Such sites include Airbnb, Flip Key, One Fine Stay, Booking.com, and HomeAway, among others.

What you shouldn’t do is invest time trying to rise to the top in all of them. The sound thing to do is figure out the two or three sites that drive the most traffic to your area and focus your energies on only those few sites. You will have a better chance of ranking high on those few sites when your time isn’t spread too thin.

Given a choice, you should always prioritize the listing sites that allow renters and vacationers to interact freely. Airbnb is a good example of such a listing site. In such a situation, you will have greater control over how your promotional efforts affect the metrics that push properties to the top. Such metrics for Airbnb include the number of reviews, average star rating, number of bookings made, number of canceled bookings, and whether or not you are a super host.

How to Market a Vacation Home

One of the important basics you shouldn’t overlook when listing your property on booking sites is the quality of the photos you provide. It is imperative that you use professionally shot photos and capture the things that vacationers typically care about such as views, space, bathrooms, quality of finishes, and furniture.

Pricing and Occupancy

Pricing is part of marketing. Failing to get the price can lead to you leaving a lot of money on the table or even incurring losses.

Since you probably aren’t a pro in marketing, you should keep it simple. The only thing you should care about as far as pricing is concerned is price elasticity of demand. Price elasticity of demand basically refers to the tendency of the demand for a product or service to change as the price changes.

To guard against under-pricing or over-pricing your vacation property, start with a lower rental price and then scale the price up month over month while taking into account seasonality of demand for vacation properties and then compare the yields for the rental prices. The occupancy really doesn’t matter. What matters is how much money you make. There are instances where you will make more money with a higher rental price at a lower occupancy than a lower rental price at a higher occupancy.

About Living Lake Tahoe

Living Lake TahoeLiving Lake Tahoe is a real estate agency that helps people looking to buy, sell, or rent properties in Tahoe navigate the local real estate market and achieve their goals as painlessly as possible. The team is headed by Alvin Steinberg who has over four decades of experience as a real estate agent. Alvin carries a CRS (Certified Residential Specialist) in both California and Nevada.