Any investment scenarios that make sense?

AAbsolute, my point stated inarticulately, was intended for the person not as familiar with real estate as they should be---- and not directed at you per se. Anyone that infers a 40% return and says they would buy it themselves but conveniently can't for one reason or another, is stretching credibility. I hope it works for the buyer, but I wonder if the previous 5 customers who are in morgage loss mitigation expected the same kind of return. I hope that the "desperation" on the part of builders that you stated exists, doesn't drive them to raise unrealistic expectations in the consumer.

It does. No mortgage of course but you can do those numbers many different ways to check cash flow.

Pirate, you mentioned you felt gulf front was key, is it your feeling anything that is not gulf front couldn't be cash flow positive? Say north of 30-A in Rosemary or Seacrest (for comparison sake, assume the same purchase price / carry costs)?

AAbsolute, my point stated inarticulately, was intended for the person not as familiar with real estate as they should be---- and not directed at you per se. Anyone that infers a 40% return and says they would buy it themselves but conveniently can't for one reason or another, is stretching credibility. I hope it works for the buyer, but I wonder if the previous 5 customers who are in morgage loss mitigation expected the same kind of return. I hope that the "desperation" on the part of builders that you stated exists, doesn't drive them to raise unrealistic expectations in the consumer.

In each case that I sited of mortgage loss mitigation the borrowers were extremely upside down before they ever contacted us. Example: 950,000 lot purchase and encumbrance on property valued at 350,000. Lot purchase and encumbrance 575,000 on property valued at 250,000. Lot purchase and encumbrance 850,000 on property valued at 325,000 etc.

At least 1 party had an interest reserve during construction that when it was depleted they simply made no payments of their own. Meanwhile the lender felt they had no fiduciary duty to us to inform that the loan was in default and this individual felt it best to not inform us either. We obtained CO, couldn't get our final payment and had to write a check for 6 months payments and obtain the homeowners policy to get the property back out of default. The alternative was to be in second position behind a terrible mortgage encumbrance. These (consumers) knew exactly what they were doing. Roll the dice with someone elses money.

As for builders current pricing, if a party knows exactly what they want in a home before they start and will clear the way, there are numerous builders who would take a job in Watercolor or Watersound for 200 per sq. ft. I talked to an Architect the other day who told me he had a home built for less in Watercolor.

Pirate, you mentioned you felt gulf front was key, is it your feeling anything that is not gulf front couldn't be cash flow positive? Say north of 30-A in Rosemary or Seacrest (for comparison sake, assume the same purchase price / carry costs)?

I sure wouldn't say that, but in my experience gulf front rents substantially better than anything else in dollar amount and number of weeks. The number of rental weeks almost seems to directly correlate to distance from the beach. Rosemary and Seaside may be exceptions to this, but nothing in those areas has a chance of cash flowing. Smaller properties book all year and larger properties only book seasonally. I think another key is keeping your place very, very nice. If your place is a little nicer than the one next door it will always book first and people are happy to pay a little extra for a well kept rental.

As a rental investment I would prefer a 2 bedroom gulf front condo in Seacrest to a 4 bedroom house at the back of Rosemary. I am sure there are some rental agents here that would give their opinion.

It does. No mortgage of course but you can do those numbers many different ways to check cash flow.

Thanks for the response, but once I saw the VRBO ad I believed it anyway. I'm very familiar with those townhomes and have never seen one sit stagnant for any amount of time.

I was thinking about what properties I had seen lately that I thought had a chance cash-flow wise. The market isn't covered in them but there are possibilities. I wouldn't share all of my prospects of course, but one example is a unit in One Seagrove that is on the market for the mid 300's. The rental posted in the ad is abysmal but it seems I have regularly seen these doing 25-35k per year. If you could buy this unit for say 280k, put 10k in it to spruce it up and make it photo well I would imagine it would be a top renter in the complex. With 20% down and a 30 year mortgage your payments total around 15k per year. I don't remember what the HOA fee was, around $1250 a quarter? I won't go down the entire expense list, but this property may cash flow if you have the patience for VRBO.

As a side note, units in this building have sold over 600k, so this is half of peak pricing.

Anyone know what the nicest units in the building rent like?