Seeing if we can afford a million dollar vacation rental property

Seeing if we can afford a million dollar vacation rental property

Long Beach Island, NJ · Member since 2015 · 3 posts · 1 vote

Recently married couple, looking to buy a vacation home down the Jersey Shore that we would also offset the cost by renting out in the summer.  Unfortunately the barrier for entry into a lower-end home is about $1 million now, and property taxes are low (likely less than $5k).

I currently have a financed home with about ~250k in equity (2% interest rate), and we have about ~220k in cash.  Our combined salaries are $275k.  The only debt we have a 20 year loan I took out (16 years remaining) left for home renovation with about $35k remaining at 8%.  My wife has never owned a home.  

Ideally for the home we would put a down payment of $200k, and somehow use rental income to help offset the costs of the home as income.

The town we want to buy a home allows for weekly vacation rentals and has about a 100% rental rate in July and August (rents are usually booked out a year +).  The month of June is close to full occupation however rentals  are about 25% less from the July and August.   The months of May and September do rent out but unsure if they would be at 100% occupancy (so want to exclude them from any calculation).

Its hard to gauge what weekly rentals would be without a having a home but weekly estimate would be for the exact home but my estimates are:

$3k - Conservative, $5k - Moderate, $7k - liberal (July and August), the month of June is probably a 25% reduction.

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Anthony DiSanzoBusiness Member
Real Estate Broker · Monmouth County / Ocean County / Middlesex County · Member since 2023 · 28 posts · 14 votes
2y

@Mike Johnson

When you say Jersey shore, are you referring to Monmouth and Ocean County or further south? 

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  • Chris SeveneyBusiness Member
    Moderator
    Investor · VA · Member since 2015 · 21k+ posts · 19k+ votes
    2y
    Quote from @Mike Johnson:

    Recently married couple, looking to buy a vacation home down the Jersey Shore that we would also offset the cost by renting out in the summer.  Unfortunately the barrier for entry into a lower-end home is about $1 million now, and property taxes are low (likely less than $5k).

    I currently have a financed home with about ~250k in equity (2% interest rate), and we have about ~220k in cash.  Our combined salaries are $275k.  The only debt we have a 20 year loan I took out (16 years remaining) left for home renovation with about $35k remaining at 8%.  My wife has never owned a home.  

    Ideally for the home we would put a down payment of $200k, and somehow use rental income to help offset the costs of the home as income.

    The town we want to buy a home allows for weekly vacation rentals and has about a 100% rental rate in July and August (rents are usually booked out a year +).  The month of June is close to full occupation however rentals  are about 25% less from the July and August.   The months of May and September do rent out but unsure if they would be at 100% occupancy (so want to exclude them from any calculation).

    Its hard to gauge what weekly rentals would be without a having a home but weekly estimate would be for the exact home but my estimates are:

    $3k - Conservative, $5k - Moderate, $7k - liberal (July and August), the month of June is probably a 25% reduction.


     For $1M you will probably need 25% down and in todays environment. I would make sure to get very good comps or if buying get the history of the property and do not count 2020-2022 and see how it performed prior to COVID and last year. 

    Make sure to take into account insurance and taxes as those are typically a killer in NJ and can destroy all the cash flow. 

    7e investments53 Reviews
  • Member since 2021 · 9 posts · 3 votes
    2y

    Use an online calculator like AirDna to understand what your income would likely be from the STR before jumping in. If it's a business, this is imperative, even if running a STR is just a hobby for you, it will be good to know if you will have out-of-pocket costs each month and how much they will be.

  • Anthony DiSanzoBusiness Member
    Real Estate Broker · Monmouth County / Ocean County / Middlesex County · Member since 2023 · 28 posts · 14 votes
    2y

    @Mike Johnson

    When you say Jersey shore, are you referring to Monmouth and Ocean County or further south? 

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