Beachfront property during COVID

[Account Closed]

Hi there BP community. I was curious if anyone out there owned or are investing in beachfront property or property near the coast and how covid has impacted you. Whether you air bnb, rent it out (seasonally or year-round), or just own it as a vacation home or part of a timeshare, I'd like to know how your numbers have changed and/or how you've had to adapt. 

I hope to one day own a home by the beach and maybe go there during the summers, but I'm not sure if now is the right time to be looking at those sort of properties, especially when there's no guarantee of cash flow to cover my expenses/mortgage. Of course, if anyone here has some covid beachfront success stories to share, then I'd love to hear them! 

[Avery Carl]

Keep in mind when analyzing, that if you're finding that entire markets don't pencil, there's a good chance that the analysis is off. While of course some markets are better than others, there should be at least one or two deals where the numbers work even if it's a weird market.

The FL panhandle was just named #1 on rented.com's 2020 best places to invest in vacation rentals here, so it's working for many many of us. Not every deal sitting on the MLS is going to be a home run, sometimes you have to wait and keep and eye out and be ready to pounce when a good one hits, and also make sure that you are keeping your own personal preferences on finishes and furniture etc out of the analysis.

The biggest mistake that I see investors make in any of the markets that I am in is that they stop their analysis at the numbers that are given by the previous manager. In the markets that I am in, the opportunity lies in the fact that most of the properties in the market have been on outdated property management companies that have been around since the 80's. So you can't stop your analysis at the numbers given, you have to take a few steps further and ask how it was previously managed, and what SHOULD the property be doing? You can find out what the property *should* be doing using a number of the STR data subscription services (none are perfect, but the overall trend is usually correct), or from getting projections from some of the larger, (or not necessarily larger, but more tech-forward) management companies, and also using the ENEMY Method

Covid has actually caused a boom in true, regional vacation rental markets, as most tourists aren't comfortable getting on planes or going to large metro areas yet. We are getting higher prices per night on all of our properties than we have ever seen. Definitely interested to see how it plays out long term!