34 / matters magazine / summer 2018 house, but if we end up being profit- able in a few years, we’ll take it.” They settled on a two-bedroom, 2½-bath condo, perfect for small fam- ilies and located in the quiet Holmes Beach area. They plan to head down on spur-of-the-moment trips when they have breaks in rentals, ideally three or four times a year. “All of us are happiest when we are down there,” Landers says. “It’s given us the opportunity to escape the mad- ness for a little bit.” Malia Rulon Herman lives in Maple- wood with her family. If she were to purchase a vacation/second home, it would be in Hawaii, Spain or Ocean City, NJ. Ricky Cortez didn’t go on many family vacations as a kid. Now, living in Maplewood with his husband, An- thony Zuco, and their two children, a son aged 5 and a daughter aged 7, he started thinking about how he could give them the e x p e r i e n c e s he never had – while also making a liv- ing. “We want- ed to add value to our family and at the same time create a job for me,” Cortez says, explaining that they start- ed looking at vacation homes to buy about a year ago. “We go up to the Poconos every couple of years so we knew the area,” he said. “Then, when we started looking at real estate, and the cute little homes and stuff to do, we discovered that there were activities all year round.” Cortez said they chose to buy a cozy chalet on Lake Naomi – their “Mt. Maplewood Lodge” has five bedrooms and sleeps 15 – because of the rental opportunities a large home provides, as well as the amenities that come with owning at a premier lake community. “I can’t describe what it means to me, being able to take my kids to this 277-acre lake community with sail boating and canoeing and kayaking,” Cortez says. “That is stuff that I never thought I would get to do.” He adds that skiing at nearby C a m e l b a c k Mountain has also been a new experience for his family. “I had never skied myself until this year. It seems like a dif- ferent world, a dream.” For Lisa Landers and her husband, Shaun, the idea of buying their sec- ond home started on a vacation to Anna Maria Island, a barrier island on Florida’s Gulf Coast that is known for beautiful beaches and quaint streets lined with shops, galleries and eateries. “We had fallen in love with Anna Maria Island the first time we went there and decided it might make sense for us to own an income property there that we could use, too,” Landers said, explaining that they researched rent- al income in the area and what they needed to make each year to make it worthwhile. “It had to be an economically- driven decision,” she says. “Our goal is to break even and gain equity in the A ski chalet in the winter or lake home in the summer The Cortez-Zuco family at Lake Naomi. Ricky Cortez and Anthony Zuco purchased their "Mt. Maplewood Lodge" at Lake Naomi in the Poconos. This large home has 5 bedrooms and sleeps 15. A family’s ‘happy place’ on Anna Maria Island The Landers bought this income property at one of their favorite places: Anna Maria Island in Florida. Lisa and Shaun Landers fell in love with Anna Maria Island from the start.