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Updated about 11 years ago on . Most recent reply
Condo. How much is this really going to cost?
Hi,
This is my first post on this forum so I’d like to say hello to y’all. I am a native German and live in Greenville, SC w/ my American wife and three kids. We just started looking into buying a condo at the beach.
Just to give you a heads up. I am in the beginning of the beginning of hopefully becoming a landlord.
Here is our plan.
We would like to buy a condo in the Myrtle Beach area that we would like to rent out occasionally. I don’t really want to rent it out to one person that lives in it full time because I’d like to go to the beach and stay at our condo whenever we feel like it. I think we’d probably go down once a month for the weekend and maybe a little more during off-season. So that leaves plenty of room for renting it out throughout the year.
I’d like to know what expenses I’d have to expect that I might not even be thinking about yet. I want to do my homework before we really do anything.
We found some nice condos for about $85.000 that would really fit our needs. 3 bedrooms, close to the beach, community pool.
If we would put 6% down, the monthly est. mortgage would be roughly $360. The monthly fees in that apartment complex are $200.
[b]Expenses:
$360 Mortgage
$200 Fees
$60 Maintenance/Repairs on Average per month
$??? Property taxes
$??? Home Insurance
[/b]Earnings:
$??? Rent per week on average.
Could anyone possibly fill in my blanks and let me know what other expenses we’d have to expect? I could ask so many more questions but I’d just like to get a conversation started first.
Thank you for your help. I appreciate it.
Most Popular Reply
Well it depends , I have someone who is responsible for turnover, cleaning and check-in, while I handle bookings, billing, and all the administration. I got lucky and found a recent retiree who I can pay less than a company because of the small amount of duties of the job, and they really just need extra money on the side as opposed to a full paycheck. Because my VR is on the other side of the country this is a necessary expense for me.
Also you really have to factor in the cost of furnishing and rehab, it is A LOT. If you want to get a good price for renting it is going to cost you quite a bit. Don't judge it based on what the cost of rehab is for normal rentals it will be at least twice that.
I have had no trouble making a profit while using a service but you have to be very conservative in all your calculations. Do what other people have said look on VRBO, HomeAway, Flipkey, etc. at not only what people are charging in your area but their calendars too.
Also it is definitely not as easy as just going at the beginning of the week and leaving at the end, people will have questions, complaints, request all sorts of things they wouldn't ask a normal landlord about because they want vacations to be perfect, so any small problems have to be fixed immediately so as not to cut into their perfect vacation time.
This is not meant to sound negative but just make sure you are aware of all the facts before jumping in it's not as easy as it sounds, and definitely more work than long term rentals.