Questions re: Condo Ownership

[fbrissette]

Whenever we ping them with ideas like “we’ve got a house for a week up at Saddleback, why don’t you come and ski/stay with us” they usually don’t go because they have already sunk a lot of $ into season passes and lodging at their home mountain. It’s hard to go and spend $500/day (or more) on lift tickets at another mountain when you’ve already sunk a several thousand on season passes & lodging at your home mountain.

For us, the main reason for not going somewhere else is that it's just too much trouble. We leave for the condo wearing our city clothes. To go skiing somewhere we need to collect skis, gear, pack everything and make sure we don't forget anything. Owning a ski condo makes things real simple. It's hard to go back to the drive and ski way of skiing.

So for us, we’ve stayed away from it. I’ve been able to take my sons to just about every major ski area in the northeast over the last several years because of that. We’ve really enjoyed going different places and chasing “the good snow”. We will start doing some western ski trips soon too , so that competes with the concept of locking into 1 mountain as well.

Good points. OTOH, knowing a mountain inside out, all of the secret stashes, all good rocks to jump also has its benefits.

 

[deadheadskier]

Yeah, never understood the whole beach house thing unless it's from Virginia on South and can be used more than 3-4 months. I live 15 minutes from the NH coast. Staggering amount of vacant homes for 7-8 months of the year. Kind of nice to walk out there in winter when you have the place to yourself compared to how crazy it gets during summer. There was 70K+ people on Hampton Beach this Sunday

 

[cdskier]

I am surprised this hasn’t been mentioned yet. Maybe it’s just me and my family. We ski enough that committing to one mountain and getting seasons passes and either renting or buying a condo (or house) would probably make financial sense for us. But the one thing that’s stopped us is that we really enjoy skiing all over the northeast and going to different mountains. It also has the added benefits that if during the season the snow sucks in one area like southern VT but is OK in another area, like northern Maine – then we can just go where the snow is the best.

I felt that way before I bought my condo. I always told people "I like going to different places" and never imagined myself being locked into one mountain. But if you find a place you really love, then I think giving up that variety is worth it. Every once in a while I think it would be nice to go somewhere else, but overall I'm at my favorite resort and love skiing there. It is nice to finally have a mountain to call "home". For me it just happened to be a unique opportunity that came up at the right time.

 

[steamboat1]

I thought about this as well. I love to ski different at mountains. When we were looking at condos killington was my first choice for a few reasons. First living on LI I didn't want more then a 5 hr drive one way. The second was killingtons location. 30 min to Okemo...1 hr to Sugarbush and MRG....1 hr to Magic, Stratton and Bromley. 1.5 hrs to Stowe. To me those are all easy day trips.

Same reason I like the location of our ski club lodge.

 

[slatham]

Couple points to add.

Better to buy when the kids are young and basically go where you go. Let them make mountain connections. When they get older (high school) activities at home start to conflict. Unless the kids are racers or blindly dedicated to skiing (ALL of them....)

How much off season use? The fact that we love VT in the summer and fall and get up there a decent amount made a huge difference.

How much does skiing a the home mountain all the time sound to you? Or buying day tickets to other areas when you already have a pass at the home mountain? So far (2 seasons renting, 2 owning) using the home mountain the majority of the time (even though it is the relatively small Bromley) and buying occasional tickets at Stratton, Mt Snow, Sugarbush and Magic (mostly Magic) has worked for us. But it might not for you.

If you have small kids or kids who may not go out when you do (first tracks at 10 below) or come in when you do (4pm at 10 below) make sure you're on Mountain (or at least on a shuttle)! I have logged so much awesome skiing while letting the rest of the family come and go as they like since we are ski in/short walk out.

Finally, my wife and I agreed up front to no renting (unless finances deteriorate) and no lending (slippery slope on where to draw the line etc. etc.). We were also fairly aggressive in letting friends and family know of this policy, while at the same time welcoming them to join us (Which they have done less than I would have expected).

So far so good. Just wish I could be there more often - oh, yeah, almost forgot - you may find yourself day dreaming ALOT about being at your ski home while you are at work!!!! Be forewarned!!!

 

[gmcunni]

There was 70K+ people on Hampton Beach this Sunday

saw pics on news, insane!

 

[deadheadskier]

saw pics on news, insane!

People must really like crowds. I know a spot ten miles up the coast where you could have fifty feet of beach to yourself and free parking. No waves at the secret spot, but everything else is better.

 

[drjeff]

Couple points to add.

Better to buy when the kids are young and basically go where you go. Let them make mountain connections. When they get older (high school) activities at home start to conflict. Unless the kids are racers or blindly dedicated to skiing (ALL of them....)

How much off season use? The fact that we love VT in the summer and fall and get up there a decent amount made a huge difference.

How much does skiing a the home mountain all the time sound to you? Or buying day tickets to other areas when you already have a pass at the home mountain? So far (2 seasons renting, 2 owning) using the home mountain the majority of the time (even though it is the relatively small Bromley) and buying occasional tickets at Stratton, Mt Snow, Sugarbush and Magic (mostly Magic) has worked for us. But it might not for you.

If you have small kids or kids who may not go out when you do (first tracks at 10 below) or come in when you do (4pm at 10 below) make sure you're on Mountain (or at least on a shuttle)! I have logged so much awesome skiing while letting the rest of the family come and go as they like since we are ski in/short walk out.

Finally, my wife and I agreed up front to no renting (unless finances deteriorate) and no lending (slippery slope on where to draw the line etc. etc.). We were also fairly aggressive in letting friends and family know of this policy, while at the same time welcoming them to join us (Which they have done less than I would have expected).

So far so good. Just wish I could be there more often - oh, yeah, almost forgot - you may find yourself day dreaming ALOT about being at your ski home while you are at work!!!! Be forewarned!!!

With my kids (they'll be 12 and 10 this ski season and we bought when they were 4 and 2) the one interesting thing that my wife and I have discovered the last couple of seasons as they (the kids) have gone through the ski school programs at Mount Snow and on to the race team at Mount Snow is that just like in our pre-kids, pre-owning a condo days where we skied at a bunch of different areas a season, (we rarely skied anywhere but Mount Snow for a number of years when the kids were in season long ski programs at Mount Snow) is that with racing, we're once again skiing at a number of ski areas where my kids have races at, once again. Last year, their racing schedule had them at Mount Snow, The Hermitage Club, Stratton, Bromley, Magic and Willard Mountain in New York State for races, and add in a couple of end of the season days at Killington and Okemo and one evening session at Berkshire East and even though I was sleeping at Mount Snow, I ended up once again skiing a number of places.

Additionally, when you buy at a ski area, especially if you have kids in the kids ski programs there, you tend to quickly meet a number of like minded, ski addicted families who are there week in and week out doing the same thing that you are (and you don't have to explain your ski addicted life style to them either! ), and you develop a network of friends up where you own too. This has probably been the biggest and best surprise that we discovered after we bought.

Lastly, when you own at one place, especially if you're either not renting at all, or at least not during the known time frame since you last were at your place, it is so nice to just be able to leave your primary residence with not much more than what you're wearing that day, and just go right to your place with basically not having to unload anything more from your car than just some groceries. It really is simply you just going home

 

[gmcunni]

too late in life for me to pursue this but i think about it a lot.

the whole "1 mountain" thing keeps popping in my head. but what i then think about is the friends you make who you hang out with. i skied a lot(for me) at Mount Snow this past season. not the largest mountain but hardly a small one. I never got bored skiing the same trails each time because i skied with friends. regardless of the terrain it was just fun. also i think of an area like MRV. 3 mountains (2 connected) close to each other would have to offer reasonable diversity even for the shortest attention spans. Sugarbush South and North ski so differently even if i stayed just there i don't think i could ever be bored.

 

[ThinkSnow]

no lending (slippery slope on where to draw the line etc. etc.). We were also fairly aggressive in letting friends and family know of this policy, while at the same time welcoming them to join us (Which they have done less than I would have expected).

How did you achieve this?

 

[slatham]

ThinkSnow, not sure if you mean: how did I get the wife to agree (or vice versa)? We simply have the same view.

Or how did we actually pull it off with friends and family? Emphatically stating our policy from the very beginning was a big help as it avoided the tough discussion when someone outright asks (or begs and pleads). Its been interesting because our close friends and family have respected the decision and never asked. Its been the peripheral friends who have "softly" inquired, and were easy to rebuff.

 

[cdskier]

also i think of an area like MRV. 3 mountains (2 connected) close to each other would have to offer reasonable diversity even for the shortest attention spans. Sugarbush South and North ski so differently even if i stayed just there i don't think i could ever be bored.

Had my condo in the MRV 4 years now and still haven't made it to MRG. I've always kind of felt like you have to go there midweek to get the maximum enjoyment out of it. Maybe I'm wrong though, but I would like to try to get there this year.

And yea, just SB South vs North alone is a tremendous amount of variety that I can't see getting bored skiing (plus throw in all the seemingly endless woods that I've just started to explore the past couple years).

 

[Whitey]

Lastly, when you own at one place, especially if you're either not renting at all, or at least not during the known time frame since you last were at your place, it is so nice to just be able to leave your primary residence with not much more than what you're wearing that day, and just go right to your place with basically not having to unload anything more from your car than just some groceries. It really is simply you just going home[/QUOTE]

I thought this was a site for hardcore skiers. Recurring theme – “waahhh, I don’t like having to pack, so I lock into one mountain & buy a condo so I can leave my stuff there”.

Your cushy lives in your condos have left you out of practice and behind the times. A couple of points: Unless there’s a lot more 1 percenters here than I thought, most of us wouldn’t be able to afford a ski in/ski out on mountain type of place anyway. Many have referenced that they are “on the shuttle route” or nearby to a mountain. If that’s the case – you are packing it in anyway. 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] point – as has been stated in other threads, ski boot backpacks are one of the great recent ski inventions. For us, we not only pack our boots, googles, gloves in there but we also put our long underwear, ski pants, etc. in. Basically everything but the ski jacket. We just get changed in the lodge when we get there. In the AM, we just get up, throw the boot backpacks in the back, skis & poles in the Thule, and go in our street clothes. We can be out the door in 10-15 min after the alarm goes off. True even if we are staying overnight. Only difference is the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] bag (that stays in the car) that has some xtra clothes for the overnight. The trick is to wash & repack your ski stuff after you return from your ski trip so that it’s ready to go for the next one.

I’ve spent the last 10 yrs schelping me, 2 boys (frequently a couple of their friends too), and sometimes the wife to different mountains. Never had any problem getting gear to any mountain. I usually pack a cooler with lunch, snacks, & drinks too. I’ve also found that a lot of mountains have done a pretty good job with their “drop off” areas & keep them moving/clear. Most times I am just rolling up, dumping kids/skis/bags and then I just park & walk up. Pick up the skis and boot pack on the way by and meet the family in the lodge. That’s “too hard”?

Added bonus too is that at the end of the day when all the rest of you are sweating your asses off in the bar because you are still in your long underwear and ski pants (because you can’t take that stuff off until you get home) – my stuff is back in the ski boot backpack and I’m in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. I hate being in long underwear & ski pants indoors.

 

[Domeskier]

I thought this was a site for hardcore skiers. Recurring theme – “waahhh, I don’t like having to pack, so I lock into one mountain & buy a condo so I can leave my stuff there”.

I'm not sure what constitutes a hardcore skier, but it's probably not the people who cannot ski the same mountain more than twice without getting bored, either...

 

[deadheadskier]

The biggest appeal for me in wanting to own property near a ski area someday is the short commute to the hill. I travel A LOT for work. 40K+ miles on my car this past year. So, the thought of getting up and spending 2+ hours in my car again on Saturday morning is never appealing. I do it, but someday I hope I don't have to.

 

[slatham]

Well lets be clear that being able to own a condo on any ski mountain is a luxury, one for which I am very grateful I can afford. As far the 1%-er comment, I am not sure about other mountains, but Bromley has condo's that are relatively reasonable. Certainly not the 1% club, for which I think more of Hermitage or Stratton.....

Also, I think a lot of the comments - and my feelings - on the luxury of not schlepping your stuff to the mountain every weekend were more of an added benefit, not a motivation. Even with a home mountain I still day trip to other areas, though admittedly that's easier from Bromley than from Long Island.

But again, I am lucky and grateful, and commented here to help someone else who is contemplating a purchase.

 

[Whitey]

I'm not sure what constitutes a hardcore skier, but it's probably not the people who cannot ski the same mountain more than twice without getting bored, either...

Knew I'd strike a nerve with that comment (& the "1 percenter" comment too). You guys are too easy. . .

 

[ALLSKIING]

Knew I'd strike a nerve with that comment (& the "1 percenter" comment too). You guys are too easy. . .

Congratulations

 

[Vortex]

If you go on a Disney type vacation yearly you probably can afford a seasonal rental, or a ski Condo if you have reasonable expectations. You don't have to be rich, more like frugal.

Those people who you think are sweaty in the bar have ski lockers if they are not ski on ski off.

 

[ThinkSnow]

Those people who you think are sweaty in the bar have ski lockers if they are not ski on ski off.

Or maybe they just put extra clothes in their boot bag?