Rental Property Investor · Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island · Member since 2017 · 25 posts · 8 votes
I am thinking about buying a vacation rental in a warm climate (Florida, the Caribbean or Central America is what I am considering) as both an investment and to use for my family for a couple weeks out of the year. My idea is to make a little money and have a place to use myself to essentially have a free vacation home. I am just wondering if anyone has any experience with this? What locations did you invest it? What do the numbers look like and which management company are you dealing with? On the other hand I could just buy another rental in my area and use the income to pay for my vacations. Any feedback would be appreciated!
Real Estate Agent · USA · Member since 2016 · 909 posts · 1k+ votes
6y
Buy your investment as an investment. The second that vacationing in the property enters your mind, your cash flow decreases. Invest for cash flow and you'll be able to afford to vacation wherever you want.
Investor · The worst town to live in, KS · Member since 2016 · 4k+ posts · 4k+ votes
6y
@Luke Carl is the king of managing STRs from an iPhone. But he is on a cruise ship with some '80s rock bands. I'm joining that cruise at the next port of call.
Rental Property Investor · Concord, GA · Member since 2015 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes
6y
My advice would be to take your family vacation location out of the equation and buy a place that will generate good income.
Your family trips can be to a variety of places that way. The exception would be if your gang wants to go to a very specific place and only there, every time.
I am thinking about buying a vacation rental in a warm climate (Florida, the Caribbean or Central America is what I am considering) as both an investment and to use for my family for a couple weeks out of the year. My idea is to make a little money and have a place to use myself to essentially have a free vacation home. I am just wondering if anyone has any experience with this? What locations did you invest it? What do the numbers look like and which management company are you dealing with? On the other hand I could just buy another rental in my area and use the income to pay for my vacations. Any feedback would be appreciated!
You’re on the right path here. I tend to buy in the Southern half of the US for 2 reasons:
1) you get much higher year-round occupancy rates in the South & it's simply tough to earn a good ROI in the North if your place sits vacant for a big chunk of the year
2) Culturally, the Southern half of the US seems to be a lot more accepting of STRs regulation-wise. A lot of these southern beach & mountain towns have been supporting STR for 75+ years, long before Airbnb was a thing, so they're very comfortable with it and it's a built-in part of the community.
A lot of Northern places are FREAKING OUT over STRs & STR regulations & they don’t seem to be very supportive of it. So, in the North, best case you’re fighting an uphill battle with a lot of uncertainty. Worst case, it gets outlawed in a town AFTER you’ve bought a place there & now you have to sell at a HUGE loss bc there’s no buyer demand once STR use is banned! I’ve seen it happen...
As you can see, I’m not the only person on here with this viewpoint. As you can see from this thread that I’ll link to, most of the experienced investors on here are also heavily invested in the Southern half of the US!
Real Estate Agent · USA · Member since 2016 · 909 posts · 1k+ votes
6y
Buy your investment as an investment. The second that vacationing in the property enters your mind, your cash flow decreases. Invest for cash flow and you'll be able to afford to vacation wherever you want.
Olympia, WA · Member since 2016 · 8k+ posts · 7k+ votes
6y
Hey @Adam Dow, we did what you are thinking of doing. Our place is a lake house in north Idaho on Lake Coeur d'Alene. I grew up there and have wanted a place there for years.
We are 360 miles from our vacation house and rent it out. We wanted a place that we could take the whole family for a couple of weeks each year. I didn't expect it to cash flow a ton if much at all. We do all the management of the place. We have a good cleaner and handyman ready to help as needed as well as a great neighbor who keeps an eye on the place.
Right now we are breaking even for the most part. As long as nothing breaks we are good to go.
I guess if I could do it again, I would probably invest closer to town to grab more winter rentals. Right now the house is pretty much empty from Oct to May.
I plan on seeing about longer term short term rentals for any kind of traveling professionals for the small local hospital or the school district. If I can get some folks in there for a few months at a time that would be awesome!
Like @Avery Carl said, if you plan a place to cash flow for you, then you can use it here and there as well as just go wherever you want.
Rental Property Investor · Castle Rock, CO · Member since 2017 · 335 posts · 387 votes
6y
If you want "a vacation home and make a little money", then you're probably going to actually "have a vacation home and lose a little money". Because they are two different things.
Flipper/Rehabber · Boynton Beach, FL · Member since 2018 · 81 posts · 129 votes
6y
Beware that the majority of condos in Florida prohibits STR's (not explicitly, but will they have minimum lease duration and a maximum number of times per year you can rent the unit) and those that don't, know they're part of an elite few and charge all the money for them because they know an investor will buy it.
Make sure you read the condo association’s rules and regs before entering into a contract.
Realtor · Clearwater, FL · Member since 2018 · 16 posts · 2 votes
6y
@Cassie Montalvo is correct. I’m on a condo board here in Pompano Beach. The majority of condos have at least a one year “no lease” clause, and some say never. Read the condo rules.
We recently did what @Adam Dow is thinking about here. We purchased a condo in the Florida Keys. We were able to purchase an existing rental and were able to get the last few years rental history, we knew the condo would be able to pay for itself. We self-manage, but have a trusted neighbor who greets for us and keeps an eye on things, and just kept the cleaner and handyman that were on staff before we purchased. We are in a situation where we need to vacation at the exact same place every time, so it made sense to buy a place to return to for vacation, but we only use it ourselves on weeks that don’t rent well (beginning of May, end of August, beginning of December). There are a few towns in the Keys that do a lot of STRs, but they’re fairly expensive to get in to.