Ta Da! Amazing how a few words can change the entire meaning of an idea. There is a lesson in here. ;-)
Rental Investment Questions
- Thread starter DreamnOfFL
- Start date
-
Trouble logging in? Send us a message with your username and/or email address for help.
Ta Da! Amazing how a few words can change the entire meaning of an idea. There is a lesson in here. ;-)
Yup, Smiling Joe says it best. Once you've thought through the details of what kind of place you want an you're sure you can afford it, etc., then you can enjoy it, as we do, with all your heart. This morning we ran into some friends downtown where we live. They came to the cottages with us this summer and we were all still basking in our memories of the time we spent together. We were beaming wistfully at the memories we shared and talking about how much we look forward to next summer when we can do it all again.
As for the hardiplank, our's looks very good - the only problems are where I mistakenly got some bleach on a part of it and that faded it and where the painter dripped some white paint on the side. Other than that, it looks very good, as does the hardiplank on all the cottages in our community. The white trim/carports on the other hand need to painted at a minimum every 5 years (to look really fresh, I think it's more like 3 years).
Thanks! Now I have that answerAnd you're right sounds like you could have had some major damage. We have always thought it might be a bad idea to have a fridge with an icemaker because the amount of water when one of those gets damaged.
...its not just icemakers; dishwashers, washing machines, toilet supply lines--anywhere there's water under pressure that's going to be left unattended for an extended period of time can be troublesome. I always turn the water off at the main when I'm on an extended trip out of town--and use no-burst stainless steel supply lines.
.
.
Im a little confused as how some may say beach property isnt an investment....if you buy a nice condo in the right spot for the right price....it can cash flow pretty easily or get real close....that looks like a good investment to me.....with that said I wouldnt want to count on rental income 100%.....I can understand property not cash flowing 2 years ago due to crazy high prices but if you can buy one now for 50% less....it does make it a little easier.
Last edited:
...there are those pesky "if's" again!
....buy for 50% less than speculative bubble prices? Still too high.
This area isn't a 365-day vacation destination and the competition for vacationers has exploded over the past several years. There will be a time in the not too distant future when public access to the beach in this area will be all but totally cut off--then those "bargain smell-the-gulf-view" investment properties will be even more of a bargain.
Too many people who purchase a vacation home because they "luv-luv-
-luv" it here are just using the "investment" argument to justify tossing their cash into a property they can barely afford. "Real investments" have absolutely no heart-strings attached. Throwing money into a depreciating asset with zero-to-negative annual return isn't an investment at all--it's either owning a second home or "investulating."
Last edited:
I still don't think you can find anything that will truly "cash flow" unless of course you pay all cash and the only thing you need to cover with the rental income are taxes, insurance, utilites, HOA dues and maintenance.
Could a few people please show some examples of what they think a condo in a prime area of seaside or watercolor would do for the year in rental income... 2br, 2.5 bath, sleeps 6.
How many weeks a year are considered prime?
Well, if you get on VRBO you will see a two bed/2 bath condo sleeping 6 in WC renting from $1490-$2485 a week depending on the season. If your LUCKY you MIGHT rent 20 weeks a year. This is just to give you a model. A realtor can retrieve rental histories for the units. Anyway, lets say you have a rock-n-roll year and rent for 20 weeks. Here's a sample:
- 10 weeks of prime summer season @ $2485.00
- 06 weeks of prime spring break season @ $1990.00
- 02 weeks of winter/fall season @ $1245.00
-02 weeks of winter holidays @$1490.00
That is a total of $42260.00 in rental. Now if you use a rental management company they get anywhere from 25-40% of that. Let's be aggressive for you and say your with a 25% company and they only charge you 10% when you book yourself on VRBO, of which you do half the time. You would owe them $7395 for their services. You get $34865.00. Let's go even further and say you just bought the least expensive two bed/two bath condo in WC which is $595,000 for 25% off the asking price (which again is aggressive). You would buy the property for $446,250. If you financed, you'd put 20% down and have a mortgage of $357,000. Now ROUGHLY your monthly mortgage would be $2200.00 with only flood insurance. A condo in WC has a $1000.00 a month association dues. Your monthly nut is $3200.00 with only flood. That will run you $38,400.00 for the year. I don't have numbers on further insurance for a condo so I can't begin to speculate. O.k.,
phone/internet: $70.00
cable: $40.00
electricity: $150.00
heat: $150.00
interior maintenance/repairs: $300.00
total $710.00 a month or $8520.00 a year for a total of $46,920.00 in expenses.
That puts you at about $12,055.00 a year in the hole or approx. $1004.00 a month if you got the best deal in WC and had a banner year. Uhm, I am NOT a professional in any way, so these are just models I use. We've been walking the sidelines for a while now and this is similar to a model we use when number crunching.
Last edited: