The Cottage Ownership Guide: How to Buy, Sell, Rent, Share, Hand Down & Retire to Your Waterfront Getaway Book

• How much are you willing to spend?
• Chart: Surprise, surprise: How additional costs add up
• How far are you willing to travel?
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• Do you want a cottage you can use year-round?
• Drive-to or water-access?
• What is your vision of "cottage country"?
• Are you willing to rough it? If so, how much?
• How many people do you want to fit into your cottage?
• The L.Q. test: What is your luxury quotient?
• What do you want to do for fun?
• Are kids part of your cottage picture?
• The Cottage Wants Checklist
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• Taxation
• Restrictions on non-resident land ownership
• Borrowing from Canadian institutions
• Health care and retirement
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• Mining cottage association reports for nuggets of buyer-helpful information
• Who's in the know? Where to turn for info
• What's your lake like?
• Area maps: Essential tools for lake detectives
• How much does the water level change?
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• Sample lake analysis
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• Where to turn for info on local issues
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• The Multiple Listing Service on-line
• When is there too much liquidity?
• Realty web pages
• Independent commercial websites
• How to snag a property where cottages rarely come up for sale
• Print media
• The "With Contents" Purchase
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• Two bottom-line must-haves
• Understanding the agent's role
• The birth of the buyer agent
• What a seller's agent is obligated to show you
• Choosing the agent relationship that's right for you
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• Is this where you want to be?
• Where does the sun set?
• Which way does the wind blow?
• Case study: Off-season buying requires more detective work
• How close are the neighbors?
• How do you get to the property?
• Questions to ask about a property's road access
• Questions to ask about a property's water access
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• Who are the neighbors?
• What is the boat traffic like?
• Is the water used by transient boaters? Or anglers?
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• How does the cottage get its power?
• Where does the cottage get its drinking water?
• Questions to ask about the water system
• How does the cottage treat sewage?
• Questions to ask about the waste system
• What sort of communications systems are available?
• Is the cottage suitable for year-round use?
• How is the cottage insulated?
• How is the cottage heated?
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• Different types, different levels of information
• How recent is recent?
• Who pays for the survey?
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• Encroachments and boundary disputes
• The shoreline road allowance
• Other road allowances
• Cottages on leased land
• Restrictive covenants and easements
• Ownership beneath and on the lake
• Where does the waterfront end and the lake begin?
• Aboriginal land claims
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• When to inspect
• Goals of an inspection
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• Finding a cottage inspector
• What an inspector does not (or might not) do
• No-nos for home inspectors
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• Arrange to go along
• What an inspector is looking for
• Got 'em covered?
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• Structural
• Q and A: Problem discovered. Is it time to walk away?
• Mechanical
• Pumps and plumbing
• Septic smarts: The snowball effect
• Seller disclosure: Telling it like it is
• Heating systems
• Getting the green light on woodstoves
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• Getting the repairs done
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• Vacant land
• Q and A: Can you rebuild a tear-down that breaks current rules?
• Tear-down/renovation
• Planned subdivisions
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• Will you be allowed to build?
• What to do before buying
• How much will it cost?
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• Deducting interest charges
• Undeveloped land as an investment property
• Deductions for a home under construction
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• Case study: Reducing the buy-now, build-later tax hit
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• How big a mortgage will you need?
• Who gets the best financing deals?
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• Conventional mortgages
• Insured mortgages
• Collateralized mortgages
• Cross-border flnancing: American buyers and Canadian banks
• Conditions that concern banks
• Chart: Risky business
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• Use your home as collateral
• Using other assets as collateral
• Working with a line of credit
• Sample spreadsheet: Using a line of credit to buy cottage furnishings
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• Q and A: Can we claim the deduction?
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• A compatible vision for how the property will be used
• A compatible vision for change
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• Financing the purchase
• Who gets to use it when?
• Chart: Choosing time slots
• How will expenses be divided?
• Changes in ownership
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• Don't sweat the small stuff
• Play to the partners' strengths
• There's a difference between breakage and breakdown
• Other common causes of discord
• Co-ownership agreements: Dealing with the what-ifs
• Case study: A solid friendship is no guarantee of a trouble-free co-ownership
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• Who will your renters be?
• Getting the word out
• When are you going to rent?
• Case study: Getting a good fit
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• Is your cottage renter-friendly?
• Establishing the conditions of rental
• What to include — and not include — in the rental
• Basic cottage gear for renters
• Giving renters the information they need
• Managing risk when renting
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• Types of rental services
• Items to consider when hiring a rental services company
• Screening the renters
• How much does it cost?
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• Reporting rental income
• Rental expenses and Canadian taxpayers
• Renting and capital gains on Canadian property
• Eligible U.S. rental expenses
• Rental income and U.S mortgage interest deductibility
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• Choosing an agent
• Selling privately
• Red-flag reasons for deciding to do it yourself
• Got a buyer in mind? Then selling it yourself makes sense
• Downsides to selling privately
• Six for the sale
• Advantages an agent offers
• Q and A: Getting a "for sale by owner" property on MLS
• Playing to your own strengths
• The Return on Equity Rule: Holding out for the right price costs you money
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• Appraisal + marker forces = asking price
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• The basic facts
• Pictures are worth a thousand words
• The value-addeds
• Provide documentation
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• Sample: Seller Property Information Statement
• A vendor due diligence checklist
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• Adding value to the property
• Tips from the frontline: Where to focus your renovation efforts
• Getting the cottage ready for showing
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• Taxes in Canada
• Taxes in the US
• How to build a cottage operating manual
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• If you're buying a property now for retirement later
• A starter kit of questions for year-round cottage living
• Assessing local services
• Lifestyle "transference"
• Case study: Retooling the retirement dream
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• Year-round versus seasonal occupancy
• For Americans: Make sure you're covered
• Fretting over fitting in
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• Retirement retrofits
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• Using the cost of cottage improvements to offset capital gains
• Using residence/home status to reduce capital gains
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• Did you use these loopholes?
• Treating heirs equally doesn't mean treating them the same
• Leaving a cottage to one of several offspring
• Number-crunching for Canadians: How to estimate the capital gains tax
• Case study: Using the principal-residence designation to reduce the tax bill
• Avoiding family friction once the offspring take over
• "Pre-bequest" changes in ownership
• Number-crunching for Americans: Being wise to capital gains reduction
• Using life insurance to pay capital gains tax
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• Non-profit organization
• Testamentary trusts
• Living trusts
• Chart: Summarizing the options: The pros and cons of various bequest strategies
• Protecting against loss of the property through mental incompetence
• Charitable bequests and public donations
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Acknowledgments

Index