- 1). Determine your monthly budget for your home by deciding the maximum amount you are willing to spend. Research loans by speaking to banks about your renting intentions.
- 2). Research a prospective home in your chosen area. Realize that certain areas, such as California, have higher rent than others. Budget how much you will devote for electricity bills, rent, water, and cable/Internet. Take into consideration that aside from rent, all the bills will be higher during the vacation days you choose to stay at the home.
- 3). Invest in bookkeeping software to create a plan and accounting record of all your expenses. Quicken or Quickbooks are great resources for home accounting.
- 4). Keep all your receipts and invoices pertaining to your vacation home separate from your year-round home.
- 5). Input your invoices into your accounting system and do a monthly bank reconciliation where you verify the system's records with your bank's.
- 6). Each month save all your invoices and receipts in a shoebox, file, or other storage container. Label this according to the month, and store the receipts for future reference or in case of an audit.
- 7). Evaluate your expenses each month to determine whether more or less must be budgeted to a specific category. For instance, if you go over the electricity budget, you may need to begin budgeting more for electricity.
Source...