Thanks for your reply Nickle! You are so lucky having your own holiday house . The cons you have listed are all on our list too. If we do eventually buy our own place, we plan on being straight-up about not lending the house out to others for free. It will be on an invite only basis. Otherwise there will be LOTS of family/friends politics involved which would certainly ruin the fun. Also, if we plan on renting it out, we'd give preference to those willing to pay the rental rates as we'll desperately need the cash!

We have already factored in gas/electricity/insurance/water, etc. we've estimated there should be around $5000 in outgoings each year (ouch!).

It's a shame you have had some people do damage to your house , it's also very sad that it has caused issues with your family. I'm very glad to hear that even after all of that you don't regret it!