All Forum Posts by: Jeremy Baker

Hi @Steven C. Suarez vacation rentals can definitely be a great investment, but just like any other deal it's all in the numbers.  What your missing in your post (or maybe I missed it) is what would be the nightly rates and the expected occupancy rate.  You also need to figure in how much you believe it will cost to replace sheets, kitchen items, beach chairs, towels, etc... each year.  

One thing to keep in mind with condos are special assessments that may come up. So when you have a property that has an HOA you need to make sure to have some reserves built up for when, not if, they come.

Everyone has different goals and it sounds like you would be happy to break even and use your property yourself, which many people do with a vacation rental.  Others want a substantial amount of cash flow, so some may say it's a bad deal while others may view it as a great deal.  So hopefully you get some good feedback in this thread and everyone can help you come up with the best decision for you.  

Also if you plan to use the property yourself, which is a great perk with vacation rentals, make sure you are familiar with tax laws regarding personal usage of your investment property.  Use it too much and it gets classified as a second home and you lose quite a bit in tax deductions!

@Svetlana K. when will you be on island?  We will be there for 3 weeks starting 3/28.

@Akash Y.    Most of the condos in the beach areas of Maui are zoned to allow short term rentals, then it's up to the homeowner's association on whether or not to allow short term rentals.  If they do, then all an owner needs to do is apply and get their excise and transient accommodations tax ids.  

For houses, ohanas and other properties that are zoned residential, each island is a little different.  In Maui county, you must apply for the short term rental permit, which takes at least 6 months to get.  It's quite a process to get one and they limit the number of permits in each neighborhood.  Also, if a current permitted short term rental is sold, the permit does not pass to the new owner, so the new owner would have to wait at least 6 months while they apply for the permit.  

Kihei, Maui is definitely a 4 season destination...although it's basically the same weather all year round.  As for rentals, there is a high season and that's Dec - end of March as that's when the weather is usually the worst where most people in the US live and it's when they want to escaped to HI (it's also humpback whale season there).  However, you won't have any issues keeping your VR full the rest of the year too!

HI @Selena Walsh.  While I don't know the Florida market well, my wife and I own a couple of vacation rentals in Kihei, Maui.  Our "high season" runs from Dec 15 - March 31 as it's the time of year where the weather is worst where most people live and they tend to want to escape to Hawaii plus it's the time of year the humpback whales are visiting Maui too.  

We may not be the best example to go by since most people visiting Maui will do so for at least a week and I would assume FL vacation rentals will get many more 3 or 4 day weekend visitors.  So for us, we do have a 3 day minimum, but our average stay is right around 10 days.  However, we do get a few stays that are 3-5 days and those are usually guests that are visiting multiple islands.  These stays are nice as they sometimes fill in some of the small gaps between visits, which is why we advertise a 3 day minimum instead of 7.  Hope this helps!

@Jake Hartman you can find some nice 2bd/2bth condos for way less than $600 in the South Kihei area that could possibly generate some positive cash flow.  We focus mainly on 1bd/1bth vacation rentals in Kihei, but if you find a 2bd/2bth that you like, feel free to send the property to me and I'll be happy to help you run some numbers to see how it can perform.  We've been invested in the Kihei area since 2012 so we have a good feel for what expenses and income to expect there (hint: expenses are high but so is the possible rental income!).

As for your partnership question, it's sounds tricky and as others have mentioned, drafting a solid agreement would be key and you may want to speak with a good real estate attorney.  

@Ryan Perkins I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have!  Please send me a private message and I'll help in any way I can.

@Diana Damian we do and we love our property manager and I'll be happy to share their info when you send me the message!

@Diana Damian, that post got deleted since we are not allowed to advertise on the forums, so if you would like the info and our VRBO sites, just send me a personal message and I'll share those with you and you can share your listing too.

We do all of our bookings through VRBO, although there are some repeat guests that we will book outside of VRBO to save them the guest service fee as long as they contact me outside of VRBO.  I'd say 95% of the people that book our condos will find us through our VRBO listings while the other few will find us through our website.  We created this website as an informational site for our guests and potential guests and not as a site to attract a lot of bookings outside of VRBO.  It would take a lot of marketing money to get our site recognized enough to where we don't need VRBO, much more than the cost of VRBO.  VRBO is not perfect, but it's the platform that we like best and our listings stay full.

Aloha @Diana Damian,

We currently own 2 vacation rental condos in Kihei, Maui and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have or share any insight and information I've gained.

Warmest Mahalo!

Jeremy