Buying Land in Maine for Cabin Vacation Rental

[Gregory Mizzi]

Hello everyone,

I am currently looking at buying land in Maine (near Bangor) to use not only as a personal vacation spot (to get out of NYC for once), but also as a vacation rental for when I build on the land. I was wondering if anyone has any experience with buying land, building an off-grid (or even on-grid) cabin and renting it out as a vacation spot on AirBnB and/or Vrbo, using a property manager to manage the space, etc. My wife and I have been wanting to rent a cabin for a while now and they always seem booked, even listings that are only a safari tent and a hammock are booked months in advanced, so it seems like a good idea. However, I naturally want as much information as possible when it comes to these things.

What are some things I need to consider? Ideally, this would be a place to disconnect from the world. A digital or tech detox spot if you will. Enjoy the outdoors, live rustically for a while, hunt/fish/hike/bike, etc. What do I need to know to give this a good chance of succeeding? What would be some things to include as a vacation rental? A couple of canoe's for the lake? Some mountain/dirt bicycles? Transportation from the airport? Or am I overthinking? At the very least, this would be for our personal use, but we would like to turn it into a cash flowing property when we are not using it (which would be most of the time I would imagine).

Thanks

[Ed Emmons]

I am just north of Bangor and have cleared land to develop. I also have STR out of the way so to speak. The unplug idea works for some but not most. Everyone we have rented to wants internet. You need to have something convenient for people to do. It could be the ITS sled and four wheeling trails, hunting, fishing, etc. Another consideration is snow removal. Some of these large partials of land have long driveways which could be a couple hundred dollars to plow. If you are north of Bangor, figure 15-20 plowing a year. I'm familiar with an hour north of Bangor area. There's not much there 6 months out of the year so your likely to run about 40-50% occupied during the winter unless there is a strong sledding attraction. You definitely want to get a building permit to start. Depending on what town or if it is a town, that may the only one you need, just ask ahead of time. Cleaning people may be a challenge as the work force is limited. As far as cutting your own trees, if it is going to be more of a rustic camp, that may work. If you want to build something nice, I wouldn't recommend it as it should be dried before building and unless you are an experienced logger, it will take you 10 times as much time. If you want the experience, consider building the living quarters with traditional lumber and cut your own trees to build out buildings or a garage. You will need shelters for your stuff in the winter. Also if you are thinking off grid, think about how you are going to prevent pipes from freezing. That opens up a whole bunch of other necessities like generators, fuel, a heating system besides wood, remote monitoring, etc. There's a lot to think about.