4BR SFH Pool Home STR near Disney, is $4K/month NET revenue realistic?

[David Sanders]

I'd really like to hear from people who have a 4 bed pool house near Disney if $48K per year net revenue is realistic. By net I mean take home pay after direct booking fees, including cleaning. But not including utilities, HOA fees, etc.

I do plan on doing moderate, functional theming and a game/theater room. Looking at areas very close to Disney, like Windsor Hills, Emerald Island, or Indian Creek, etc. $4K per month is kinda my magic number for making this work for me, so I'd love to hear your specific numbers. Feel free to PM numbers to me if you would prefer.

[JD Martin]

Quote from @David Sanders:

Quote from @JD Martin:

Quote from @David Sanders:

I'd really like to hear from people who have a 4 bed pool house near Disney if $48K per year net revenue is realistic. By net I mean take home pay after direct booking fees, including cleaning. But not including utilities, HOA fees, etc.

I do plan on doing moderate, functional theming and a game/theater room. Looking at areas very close to Disney, like Windsor Hills, Emerald Island, or Indian Creek, etc. $4K per month is kinda my magic number for making this work for me, so I'd love to hear your specific numbers. Feel free to PM numbers to me if you would prefer.

 No. Not right now at least. I have a 4/3 3k SF pool home on a lake 10 minutes from Disney in 4 corners, and I would be in serious sense trouble right now if I needed this house to net anything, much less 4k per month. My gross monthly average since November is about $3k per month, and my net outside of my mortgage is about $2k per month. September and October were total duds and last summer was only about 50% booked. 

We have serious oversaturation here right now. If you pay all cash you might see $2k per month net for the year. If you have a note you will be subsidizing the house right now. Ok if you use it sometimes, like I do, but not very good as an investment. I am across from the new Windsor Cay resort in Cagans Crossing for reference, and I have a nice place with all 5 star reviews.

 Sorry, "net" was a poor choice of word. I meant net revenue, not net profit. But I think you still answered my question, I belive you're annual revenue is roughly $36K? 

$4K per month is what I anticipate my monthly expenses to be, with mortgage, utilities, etc. I'm just looking for a break even property.

 With a mortgage, unless you put down significant money, your expenses are going to be a lot higher than 4k for a 4/3 pool home. Outside of my mortgage - principal and interest -, here are my expenses factored monthly:

Insurance: 300

Taxes: 410

HOA: 51

Water: 55

Electric: 300

Lawn care: 100

Pool & caretaker fee: 220

Internet & TV: 100

Pest control: 25

STR state license: 15

That's $1500 or so right there. All of that is independent of one-off maintenance costs - for example, trimming my palms costs $100 a couple of times per year. Door lock, detector batteries, other consumables, replacement of damaged or disappearing items like pool towels and linens, replacing blown out screens (I spent over a grand just on screens last year though we did have a freak huge hail storm). I haven't even factored in repairs because I do a lot of those myself when I go down and stay in January and February. 

Last year, which was not a good year, I grossed just under $20k and I used the property about 3 months total doing some rehab and improvements; if I had rented out during that time I would have made another maybe 7-9 grand so let's call it 30 grand gross. My expenses not including mortgage were $33,100. I had a couple of bigger capital expenses - had to replace the refrigerator and an entire queen mattress/box spring set in one of the rooms, and I added a few things - fencing and some landscaping - but everything else was pretty normal stuff. 

It doesn't bother me to lose some money on my place because I use it, I like it, and I'm working towards higher rates with some of the improvements, but I can afford the loss. If I needed this place to break even I would have sold it already.