Today we moved out of Ann Arbor, MI which I had always thought of as the cool place to be in my 20s (while being close our families). It’s got cute coffee shops, bookstores, fun festivals, and short commutes. But I’ve gotten older! And the pandemic came. And my husband went through kidney cancer and surgery.
And now – open spaces, lakes, nature feel more urgent and important to us, than being in coffee shops with engineers discussing tesla.
So we started looking at lake homes last year.
Finding a lake cottage
After visiting a house at the top of our budget that had no closets and shaky floors, we realized that buying a second lake house would be more affordable than trying to move to a lake full time. So we bought a 860 sq. foot cottage two and a half hours away from our condo. For the cost of a nicer and bigger house, we now had two small starter homes.
During our first summer on the lake, we loved being able to be outside everyday. It wasn’t all easy – we had to figure out how to navigate territorial neighbors, and how to take care of a 100 year old house previously owned by a very handy DIY person. We are not DIYers.
Because winter came, we returned back to our condo to get more space. And we hit another long Michigan pandemic winter. And we asked ourselves ‘why do we live this way? why do we have 2 homes in a state that has 7 months of winter?’
So we started random-zillowing homes in warmer climates, just for fun. And realized that for around the price of our college town condo, we could live in a warmer climates where we weren’t trapped inside for seven months of the year.
Now, we just had to find a home in the Venn diagram of warm, affordable, not on fire, not flooding, and where I would feel safe walking around as a woman of color. Super easy!
Choosing a snowbird state
We considered Florida, North Carolina, Alabama, Texas, California, Colorado, and others. Many of them were too pricey or had too many pythons.
Then we visited Arizona in January for my brother’s wedding. We fell in love with the state, with its warm winters and how every ten minutes of driving took us to what felt like an entirely different countries, from pine tree lined mountains to yellow brushed savanna to red desert to rolling plains to massive mountains.
We loved Tucson especially. We walked around the Loop, a bike trail over a hundred miles long that circles the city, and loved its beautiful views of the Catalina Mountains. And a short drive of the city there were deserts, trails, and beautiful campgrounds. Tuscon felt like our home in Ann Arbor, just with warm winters and more access to nature.
Buying a house in Tuscon
A coworker recommended a realtor, and we started the stressful process of bidding on new homes. On our wish list:
- Mountain view (surprisingly easy in Tuscon, which is surrounded by mountains)
- Within walking distance to a trail or wash (a wash is a flat walkable area that may flood during monsoon season but provide nice trails during dry seasons)
- No HOAs so we could park a camper van
Because these demands were high, we took a no frills approach to the actual house and bidding:
- No expectations around inside of house (ex. kitchen, flooring etc) except that it is not a fixer upper
- We bid on anything that was within our price range, whether we liked the house or not
- If we fell in love with a house because of its updates and views, we assumed that more cash rich people would also fall in love, and tried not to get too attached to it
- Not getting attached of course was really hard to do; what helped was just bidding on anything that somewhat made sense for us, so that we were less tied to the success of single bids
Still, we kept getting beat by buyers with loads of cash. After a few weeks of this we started talking about other possibilities, even living in a van and renting office space for the first winter.
We lucked out!
Our offer got accepted on a home that was in the exact area that convinced us to move to Tucson — Rillito. Six minutes away from the house, you walk onto the loop, a bike trail with stunning views of the mountains and washes.
The house was not HGTV at all, with original carpet and twelve years of renters. And it had an HOA which was a negative for us since we wanted to be able to park a van at our house. But we recognized that all the cash rich buyers who kept beating us on other houses were passing up on this house because it wasn’t updated or convenient, and knew this was likely our best way of getting a house in Tucson in 2022’s bananas housing market.
So we closed on the house last week!
What we learned
All in all, here is what I am learning from this journey:
- We are taking a lot of risks and not saving up as much for retirement, but vacation homes feel like a good mixture of present fun plus future investment, since the money we spend on mortgages doesn’t go toward a rental or an Airbnb but into our own equity.
- By trying to have more freedom and movement we are also having to purchase things like houses and cars and trailers, which come with their own baggage and maintenance and other things that we need to buy. I’m a little worried this cycle will never stop and we are on a continuous materialistic upward journey, but I’m telling myself that we are at the beginning of a new transition which needs upfront investment of time and resources.
- Renting versus buying: My husband and I have had this debate many times — is it better to rent homes and be able to travel to lots of places, or to own a home that you return to for vacation? For our mix of personalities, where my husband appreciates nesting, and where it’s hard for me to pull the trigger on expensive vacations — buying a vacation home enables us to actually go on vacations. Having a default option reduces the amount of choice and effort to decide whether to travel.
Summary
Overall, buying and selling homes is not something I want to do again for a long time. I’m hoping to refocus on just living and relaxing and having hobbies again. There are floors and air conditioners that need fixing though.
And we’re sad to leave Ann Arbor and our first home. It was hard to start packing because we were dismantling important memories. But now that the house is all packed, it feels like we’re one step closer to our new life of snowbirding and being able to walk outside for an extra 7 months of every year. It’s also easier knowing that we’ll be in Michigan in the summer and will still be able to see friends and family.
