Continued: Three wives buy 'lazy man's cabin'

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Is it craziness to buy a second home with friends (or relatives) and divide up the weekends? Sure, you'll save money on the mortgage and upkeep, but will you lose a relationship in the process? Three couples, led by the wives, gave it a shot. The women formed a limited liability company called the Laughing Loons. Coming up with the name took three meetings, weeks of e-mail traffic and a few bottles of wine. The rest has been relatively easy.

KARE-11 is the friends' common bond. Melissa Young of Minneapolis, Susan Wiese of Medicine Lake and the husband of Camille Calderano of Minnetonka work at the station. The trio paid cash for a one-bedroom condo at East Bay Suites in Grand Marais, Minn., in 2006. It's the old East Bay Hotel, remodeled into condos. We asked Young about the process.

Q Why Grand Marais?

A Our one-bedroom condo is on the second floor, so when you wake up, all you see is Lake Superior. It's magical. Go out the front door to the lake and beach. Go out the back door and you're in town, across the street from the World's Best Donuts, Drury Lane Bookstore, Ben Franklin, great restaurants, shops and galleries.

Q Did you buy for leisure, investment or retirement?

A Each of us had a different reason. Individually, we each looked at East Bay Suites and I suggested maybe we could do it together. I was looking for maintenance-free leisure and an investment, Susan just loves Grand Marais. Camille was considering a place for retirement.

Q Any struggles?

A Communication is the key. Everything needs to be talked out. The hardest thing has been deciding paint colors and art. Majority rules.

Q How do you divide the usage?

AThere's no arguing during the high-season months of August and September because we rent it out. Our goal was to break even and with rentals, we're in the black [for maintenance, taxes and association fees]. For tax purposes, we each limit our time there to two weeks per year. We alternate holidays like New Year's.

Q You call your condo a lazy man's cabin. Why?

A My husband and I own a small business. We basically work all the time unless we leave town. None of us wants to spend a vacation maintaining property, putting in or taking out a dock, cleaning house, fixing the roof or mowing grass. When we arrive at the condo, there are clean sheets on the bed, clean towels in the bathroom. The maintenance company takes care of any repairs, too. When we leave, they do the laundry and clean the place.

Q So no one can say that Melissa isn't doing her share?

A Exactly. With a condo, we don't worry that someone's not doing her work to maintain the cabin.

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