Cabin Ownership Vs. Renting Your Stay

A calm summer sunset on Fish Trap Lake.

After years in the land of 10,000 lakes, summers in its waters, and fires on the shores, a question often springs to one’s mind. It’s a question that most people who live in Minnesota ask themselves at some point or another: should I buy a cabin?

Cabin Ownership vs. Renting

Maybe you’ve spent years going to the same resort and have been debating on purchasing a cabin of your own. Or maybe you’ve adventured through many options – AirBNBs, resorts, hotels, you name it, you’ve tried it – and you begin debating on settling at a resort or purchasing your own place. It’s a valid question! But it’s best to go over everything before making a decision.

While you may open this post and ask yourself, “How could they help us make a decision, they own a resort!” we are a multi-faceted family. Yes, we do own a resort. We’ve also stayed at many, tried a few AirBNBs, and own our own vacation property down in Roatán which we use yearly. Both options have pluses and minuses – it just depends on what you’re looking for and what would suit your needs best!

Cost

The first thing to think about is cost. With a rental, things are easy – you pay for your stay, your gas, and anything you buy. With a cabin you own, costs are usually more frequent. You would be hard-pressed to find a cabin under 300k. At the time of writing this post, based on current interest rates, your yearly payments would likely be around 22k.

Aside from buying the cabin, you have utilities payments, maintenance, and so forth. And once you finish paying off the cabin, you always have property taxes, which can be… a lot, to say the least. The question as to which choice would be more economical for you comes down to: how much are you using it?

If you’re going to use your cabin as often as possible – i.e. going up every weekend/day off, vacationing there once a month or otherwise using it frequently – the property taxes and maintenance may be worth it. If you’re going to only use your cabin once a year, maybe twice, it’s likely better to rent.

Two of Campfire Bay Resort’s regular guests, Dennis and Linda Johnson, had this as a large reason for choosing to rent instead of buying their own cabin. Even with frequent stays, once the math was done they decided it was a better value to pay per stay. “Our main objectives were to fish, swim, relax and have fun,” Linda said. “[Plus, t]he cost of your rental is less than a cabin purchase as the years go by and no property taxes to pay!” If you want to hear more about their experience, watch the interview we did with them!

Maintenance

In line with discussion about cost comes discussion about maintenance. When weighing your options between cabin ownership vs. renting, it’s important to consider how much time and money you’re willing to spend on the upkeep of such a place.

With a rental stay, you don’t have to do much. After a week or so, you throw out your trash, wash your dishes, strip the beds, and leave all your dust and dirt on the floor for the owners or cleaners to take care of. If a lightbulb is out, you report it and get a new one. If a toilet breaks, you’re not the one hiring a plumber. It’s easy to report issues and get them fixed.

When it comes to a cabin you own, there’s not only the cost of the maintenance, but the doing as well. “Owning your cabin requires mowing the lawn, maintenance, cleaning the cabin, putting in the dock and taking it out,” Linda pointed out. “That sounds like too much work for our idea of relaxing.”

If you rent the place out or simply allow others to stay there, like Heather and Brian do with their Roatán cabin, this will be even more overwhelming. Both of them often say it’s hard to enjoy their vacations there, since they’re constantly thinking about or actively doing work on that property.

If you’re willing to make a commitment to caring for a second home, then cabin ownership may work out great! But if that would add more burdens than blessings, consider renting.

Culture

One of the lesser-considered aspects of the cabin ownership vs. renting debate is simply the culture of either.

If you’re an introvert, cabin ownership would probably suit you better. There’s no expectation to talk to people, and if you find a good place, usually no neighbors either. You don’t have to worry about cars driving too close to your cabin. There’s no concern for random kids running down your dock. But that doesn’t mean you won’t have neighbors. Just like in a normal neighborhood, you could have a great family next door who doesn’t mind your bonfires and all the noise of your kids having fun. Or, you could be next to someone that ends up making your vacations more of a burden.

On the other hand, if you have a family or want a more communal feel, renting from a resort would be a great choice. There’s always something fun going on at most resorts, and even if something isn’t planned, it’s not uncommon to show up down at the lakeshore and find three or more families hanging out.

For more on this, check out Heather’s previous blog, Resorts vs. Vacation Rentals!

Long-Term Value

One topic that often gets left out of conversations like this is long-term value. If you’re looking to get a cabin simply for your own use, I encourage you to look forward a bit. What will you do with it once your use of it slows?

If you’re intending to keep it and give it to your kids or other members of your family as an inheritance, that’s a great thing to consider. Too often people are short sighted in this front. If you have the means to take care of the upfront costs and pass it down to your children with only the property taxes and maintenance costs to shoulder, it would be an incredible blessing for future generations.

If you’re planning to sell it, that’s a valid option too! As property values rise (especially lakeshore property), you could sell it and not only get back what you spent but profit, too. Property investments are definitely something to consider.

Perhaps neither of these appeal to you. To that, I would say, stick to renting. After all, it does offer more flexibility. If you don’t like staying in one place too long, it’s much easier to stay at different rentals each year than sell your cabin and buy a new one on a different lake.

Hopefully this helped get you thinking about all the details that can determine your choice between cabin ownership vs. rental! Both experiences are great but in different ways. It’s best to take your time and determine what would be best for you and your family.