All Forum Posts by: Chad McMahan

Bottom line, the best way to look at anything financial, including vacation rentals, is mathematically. Unless you don't care of you lose money and it's all for giggles, it's all about the numbers. I recommend choosing a market where you can break even or better on a monthly/annual basis, and experience moderate to strong appreciation.

I also have plenty of clients who don't care about appreciation and focus purely on a monthly/annual cash cow- but I recommend a vacation rental property in a market that offers a balance of the two. Hitch yourself to a realtor who does a lot of this in a good market area and open up a dialog- sit down once or twice, talk about your goals, financial options and local market options and start looking at homes.

Thank you all for this info. Evolve sounds like a great resource to pass onto some of my clients in Sedona.

Hi Kerry. I suggest you have a local realtor (who does a lot of vacation rental properties for clients) come analyze it. It might be better to sell it and buy a different property to rent out. Or it might make a much better long term rental. 

You will likely finance as a 2nd home or as an investment property. Good luck!

In my area, there are some $175k homes with all the same expenses, grossing $2500 - $3k per month. I recommend you keep looking for something with better numbers. If you keep looking, chances are you will find homes that check off more boxes that tenants are looking for, increasing your net income.

In my area, views and convenience are big factors, boosting the rent tenants are willing to pay. With a HOA, hopefully you can offer renters a pool, etc. I don't recommend "avoiding" HOA's, unless it hurts your cash flow. One of our best investment areas in this price point has an HOA. It brings in extra cash (more than the HOA cost) because it offers a pool, tennis and a hot tub.

I am also interested in joining the conversation. I live in Cottonwood now and work in Sedona, Cottonwood, Cornville and Camp Verde. Great idea, Stanley.

Hi Carrie. Before you start counting the money, have a couple of local agents come out and value the property. It's free and you will have a chance to see some comps and talk about time on the market. There are infinite things you can invest in- but it's hard to beat real estate. Even in a downturn market you can make money- hopefully we have at least a few years before that happens. 

If I was in your shoes, I would start talking with realtors and financial planners to get their best suggestions, given your likely budget and time frame. You can certainly earn more than $25k doing 1-2 low cost renovation flips per year and you would have a lot of free time.

Some markets are great vacation rental markets, some are better for unfurnished long term rentals, some are better for flips. Some areas are simply bad real estate markets (At this time). Before you get your heart too set on an area and a strategy, meet with 2-3 local buyer brokers that do a lot of what you are considering and ask lots of questions. Go seem some properties and talk about returns. Go meet with 1-2 local management companies and confirm what the realtors told you. I recommend you do this before you are ready to buy so can process it. It's quite a bit of work, up front. Once you have a solid, educated strategy with a realtor you feel great about, you'll be ready to dive in. These steps help to reduce your risk and increase your profits.

In Sedona, I always give my clients more conservative estimates than the management companies do- Granted, I tell them exactly what they will hear when they sit down with them, so no surprises.

This thread is pretty enlightening. While a few of us have been successful with 1 provider, it seems the moral of the story is don't put all your eggs in 1 basket. I've always found the most successful route is to use 2-3 sources for booking, to maximize my occupancy throughout the year. It's a bit more work, but it certainly works best for me and my clients.

The management companies in Sedona seem to sync their website calendar with VRBO and Airbnb and they have fairly strong occupancy rates.

A couple of pointers for the vacation rental side of things. Produce your own website for all the properties you own. Provide an easy calendar/shopping cart that syncs with VRBO and Airbnb (Or at least update it regularly). Think about how each property will photograph and how best to present its desirable features.

If it photographs extremely well (Hire a professional with great lighting, and have it photographed at day time and at night time), has desirable features and you promote it those 3 ways, you should have a strong occupancy rate through the year. 

And of course, keep your properties spotless and in great shape.