What I learned from buying a second-home-fixer-upper to use as a VRBO

In summary, don’t do it.

My husband and I bought a fixer upper home, gutted it top to bottom, and got it VRBO-ready within a year. Once on the VRBO website (which stands fro Vacation Rental by Owner), the home rented out every single day during the summer season. This place was a super spunky AFrame on a stunning, lake-front lot–only thirty minutes one direction to train-loving, southwest paradise Durango, Colorado and thirty minutes in the other direction to hot spring's mecca, Pagosa Sprins.

We found our place for $165k. You literally could sit on the deck and watch the moon rise over the lake, listen to the wind pushing small waves onto the red rocky shore, or hope out your front door, grab a paddle board, and be in what I think of a pure heaven. The mountains were gorgeous, the lake was an L shape and if you kayaked to the North, incredible snow capped 14,000 foot peaks would come into view. There was tiny grocery store, and a couple restaurants away but the feeling was remote, and the smells of pine seductive.

We had no idea how to get a second home, or if we could afford one. I figured we were doing pretty well with the first home we bought, rationed that “hey, if we were in the Bay Area, these homes combined wouldn’t reach the mortgage we would have to pay there!” There was red flags, the septic had to be updated and we heard that was around 20K. The place was ugly inside—filled with brown carpet and paneling—but the visions of potential was growing and twisting with my emotional connection to the view.

The guy who was selling it by owner didn’t exactly strike me as the honest type (The septics fine—its been like that thirty years, just dont touch it,” and “ you can tie a boat right up there".” Later we found out it was common knowledge that the lake and land in front of the lake, was Tribal land and national forest. No boat could be tied anywhere to preserve the beauty of the land. But, we got a deal of an inspection (only $350, you sure?!) and it came back as pretty okay! So we went for it.

I’m gonna go ahead and skip what happened next—the part where we bought it, closed, and basically discovered everything had to be redone. Not just painting walls and getting a 20k septic, but everything. The electrical was so outdated—the electrician was surprised the place hadn’t burned down. When we started running propane, it constantly smelled like propane, and the Propane guy refused to fill it (as he should!) until we had new connections, and a new stove, which lead to discovering the need for a new water heater, and new furnace. Every time we came, there was a water line busted, and we ended up having to replace all the pipes . The plumber we called noticed the sewage lines were had major leaks—and I’m not talking just gray water here. On Mothers day, I went to see the current septic system, if anything traveling did make it through the leaks. Buried under a bunch of sticks and old window panes, I found the :septic system:” 3 foot deep hole. That hole-in-the-ground was not only ethically wrong, but no way was it going to handle a summer of renters. It, and all the plumbing going to it, had to be redone immediately.

*Just a fun lil’ picture of under the house. If you zoom in, the shitter pipe isn’t fully connected at the corners… :|*

Back to the inside of home, it looked clean when we bought it, but we found the cabinets where completely filled with old medications, or rusted pots—I swept up 13 cigarettes in the kitchen alone. We took 9 trips to the dump one day (45 minutes away) to empty out the shed that seemed somewhat clean when we bought it, but completely packed). The carpet, walls and everything in between smelled like smokers. The house was on a hill, and the deck was about 15 feet in the air—the foundation for the for the deck? Nonexistent. Literally, one post was floating two inches off the ground, another was sitting on a brick. These posts were also the foundation for the house. The list went on.. and on..

I like the painting, tiling and flooring, but that was a small part of a major problem. By the time we got this place livable, it was renting like crazy on VRBO. We had done it! But, everytime we drove up (4 hours from our home) we started to dread what was wrong, what had broken. Everytime we had a renter, we started to worry about what could happen to them and would they fall off the deck or trip going down to the lake or, which actually happened, have two bears come through the kitchen window (luckily, the renters took that lightly!) It was a major, major source of stress. We had small children, and it took so much time from them (although, they did love the place!).

Is the place within an hour or two of your home? If not, don’t expect to go there a lot, unless you have a lot of time on your hands and like the journey!
Was the place well-inspected and in great condition? Basic inspections seem to only be surface inspections–get specialists for septics, termites, etc. Know what you’re getting into and the costs associated with that… but also make sure if those costs double, or triple or more–its not gonna kill you financially.
If the place is remote, it probably doesn’t have sewage, or electrical, internet, cell phone service or trash pickup –all things you need to think about. Is there anyone who can manage the VRBO while you are away? A handyman in case something happens? A cleaner you can hire? We had a construction worker not only steal from us but was clearly squatting at the place with his girlfriend in the winter (sheets were messed up, and two whiskey glasses left out)–we couldn’t confront them because, well he was the ONLY one who actually did decent work!
I get the draw to wanting magical place you return to, year after year, but we basically can go to any VRBO we want anytime as much as we want and it is still cheaper.
Maybe you’re telling yourself you can sell it make money on it. You won’t. We spent 50k, and about 30 back-breaking weekends there and three very stressful years later we were happy to have only lost 10k... But very sad that we spent so much time on something that ultimately was totally stressful, and took so much time from our kids.
Do you have kids? We bought this with the idea that this was for them–but really it just took a LOT of time away from them. Back to point 4–just book a place where everything is maintained for you–even the cleaning!
Do you mind managing 24/7? We had a “manager”–and she was AWESOME. But every time I got a message from her, my heart spun into full on anxiety mode–did something happen? (Yes, two cub bears came through the tiny window while the renters were sleeping. Yes, the sink that you paid to get fixed fell on a drunk lady who was hanging off it and she wants all her medical bills paid for. Yes, the renters couldn’t fit their giant truck in the parking space and the neighbors asked them to move–okay! Me–Lets refund them a night so we get a 5 star review (later I found out they literally parked in the middle of the street so of course the neighbors couldn’t get through!) Basically, with a manager, you will still be the owner, and responsible for everything.
Don’t do it.
Don’t do it.
Don’t do it.
Do you have a lot of cash? Are you retired (or just loaded, like our neighbors who made it big in recent Colorado-friendly industries?) Then, well good luck.

So, what happened? We put the cabin on the market on the market, found out cabins in remote areas can take years to sell despite being so close to great towns, and took what we could get after 8 anxious months on the market! We are SO glad that we did. We totally enjoy having disposable income, no stressful phone calls and used a summer’s rental income to get an absolutely no maintenance travel trailer to make memories in!

So tell me, anyone make a similar mistake, or about to? xo

Brenda Fleming | New Mexico Art