I plan on buying one tomorrow after winning Oz lotto tonight. I'm sure there will be issues re maintenance and upkeep, but the servants will deal with them ;-)

Seriously though, I've never been lucky enough to own one but have worked for people who have. One set up was a shared house between three couples and they each took turns using it so most weekends there was someone there. Seemed to work relatively well.

Another was a house owned by a single family and they used it themselves, but also rent it out every second weekend and half the school holidays for the first three or so years that they owned it. They put cheap furniture in it so they didn't care too much about sandy feet etc. Their bedroom was locked so nobody used it but them, and their kids had bunks in what became the games room and was similarly locked and off limits to renters, which left three bedrooms and a bathroom for renting purposes. They also had a store cupboard where they kept all their staples food, good china/glassware etc and that was locked. After that first three years they had made a substantial enough dent in the mortgage that they could keep it for themselves (and lucky employees!). They had a lovely neighbour who kept an eye on the house for them, brought the bins in etc, and then they did any maintenance when they were down there.