If you're tired of shelling out for an expensive bed and breakfast or cabin for your weekend getaways, it's time to invest in your own piece of Catskill real estate. Besides giving you a place that is truly your own—one that is more personal, more intimate, than any B&B ever could be—purchasing your own second home, cabin, or parcel to build on in the Catskills will give you a destination that is always available when you want it. And, if you are enterprising, you can even turn your investment into a money maker.

The main reason most people buy Catskill real estate is because they are simply ready to move on to the next stage of vacationing: they don't want to pay someone else for a room to sleep in, for maybe a week, and they don't want to have to book months in advance to be sure of getting a bed. Perhaps they want to be able to go to the country on a whim. By getting their own piece of property in or near the Catskills State Park, buyers expand their vacation options. If they decide on Thursday to go to the country for the weekend, that's fine. And then if they change their mind Friday morning and decide to catch a play downtown, that's fine too, and there's no non-refundable deposit that they lose.

Besides the added flexibility and freedom of having their own property, many people think of Catskill real estate as an investment. Instead of thinking of a weekend at someone else's cottage on the lake, these intrepid buyers are thinking for themselves: they can use the cottage on the weekends that they want it, and rent it out to other people when they don't. If that sounds like too much of a hassle for you, remember that there are services that will do all the renting for you, for a small fee. Given the rates that rentals are going for,  a piece of Catskill real estate can be a lucrative investment.

Whatever reason you do get your Catskill real estate for, remember that location is very important. If you are a skier who hits the slope four or five times a winter, it does you no good to get a cabin that isn't near any good ski resorts. Likewise if you like to fish and your property isn't near a lake. Essentially, make sure that the Catskill real estate you buy is suited to your individual needs.