Do 1 Thing: Buy A Vacation Home! OK, JK, Do Your Taxes

By Ester Bloom September 10, 2015

Thursday is a great day to do that 1 thing you don’t want to do but also don’t want to continue thinking about doing.

It’s taxes time again for all of us freelancers / independent contractors, so file away if you want to get those 3Q e-payments in before the deadline of September 15. What happens if you don’t make the deadline? Either nothing or masked men in a dark van appear late at night and abduct your dog. Is that a chance you’re willing to take?

Fun fact I noticed: the Federal EFPTS site is more anal than the New York State site. EFPTS demands precise figures to two decimal places, whereas NYS, which provides no space for decimals at all, is more like, “Eh, just round up, or down, whatever.”

If you’ve already done your taxes for this quarter, or you don’t need to file estimated taxes, and you have a bank vault full of coins you’ve been wondering what to do with, may I suggest buying a vacation home? Apparently September is a great time because they go on sale. Check out this list of properties via Brick Underground in the highly coveted, fancy pants East Hampton / North Fork region.

When you’re aiming to buy a getaway during prime vacation season, you’re bound to hit roadblocks. So it makes perfect sense, then, to start your search now, when thoughts turn away from beachy fun and toward buckling down for autumnal seriousness and, for sellers, finally selling their properties.

We scoured StreetEasy for houses asking a million and under in the East End that have been discounted in the last week. The pickings are plentiful — as of this writing, there were nearly four dozen — and offer the promise of a rental-free summer next year.

All of them beautiful, all of them kind of affordable, at least by insane New York-region standards. Meet me in Montauk, baby.

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