I am just coming across this thread and wanted to add my two cents. I am a real estate agent in Park City, personally own three nightly rental properties, and manage six units total. I can tell you that it can be a very profitable venture with a few caveats.
1. You need to secure Property management that is good at maximizing income and keeping fees at 25% or lower. I personally manage all of my own units and my numbers are drastically better than many of the property management companies in town. I think this comes down to the attention to detail. It feels as though some of these property management companies get too big and struggle to maintain the quality that some of the smaller companies are able to maintain.
I personally manage my client's properties for 10% so the numbers work. I recently sold a client a studio for 378k that yields 9-10% net on his cash (25% down). If you cannot find good management it is 100% a losing investment from a yield perspective.
2. Owner use will drastically affect the return on investment. Prices in the winter are 3-4 times what they are in the summer. A buyer needs to be very realistic about how much they intend on using it when running models. This can be tough for buyers to cope with because while you own the place you will basically be paying 400-2000 dollars a night to use your place in the winter due to lost revenue.
3. My studio and one-bedroom units run at about 85% occupancy throughout the year which goes against some of the projections in this thread.
Hope this helps,
Steele
