STR - Vaca Rental Education

[Chris Hackett]

Hey All-

I'm about 10 years away from retirement and want to start educating myself about the possibility of purchasing a STR investment property somewhere along the gulf coast of Florida / Alabama.

How would you recommend I start the process of educating myself about things like:

* Rental Occupancy Rates (both seasonaly adjusted averages as well as specific monthly numbers - Basically, where can I get some good, real numbers for rental histories?  Can I only get this once I'm in actual negotiation or Due Diligence on a specific property?

* Management fees

* taxes and insurance, etc.

I wonder if there are folks who are tracking income and expenses in a spreadsheet and would share their experience?

Chris

[Greg Parker]

My cliffs notes version on our 4/2 on the beach with a private pool.

Purchase price 530,000. Furnishings, paint, etc. 41,000. ARV 700,000.

Typical management fee = 20%.  Cleaning fee after every guest = $250.

With utilities, taxes, insurance, it costs $15,000 yearly just to own the place with no payment.

It is not a condo, so there is no COA or HOA.

Rent rate in July is $500 per night.  That is fairly standard for 10-12 weeks in the summer.

Roughly 250/night the rest of the time.  Roughly 50% vacancy in the winter.

We do a 4 night minimum so as not to have weekend partiers trashing the place.  We also do not rent to snowbirds for a month at a time in the winter.