Airbnb most successful Hawaii rental is in Kihei/Wailea

[Kokoleka1]

I have big news for those who really believe that by owning a condo one could get rich. You'd certainly make money if you paid for the condo CASH. However if you do have a mortgage on it (and I guess most condo owners do) then you can consider yourself lucky if you even cover cost! Our place is really well rented. And we (partially) pay quite a few people trough it. The state with taxes (not too little), the people who work for the association, our cleaner, our on-island contact (note the ON island, not off island) and occasionally builders when we have renovations done. Oh yes, and the banks, since - despite their ridiculous jurassic methods of banking - we chose BOH for our business for the exact reason of wanting to leave as much as we can on the island... Now that's only speaking for someone who owns a place in a short-term rental complex...

[MauiPartTimer]

Originally Posted by Kokoleka1

I have big news for those who really believe that by owning a condo one could get rich. You'd certainly make money if you paid for the condo CASH. However if you do have a mortgage on it (and I guess most condo owners do) then you can consider yourself lucky if you even cover cost! Our place is really well rented. And we (partially) pay quite a few people trough it. The state with taxes (not too little), the people who work for the association, our cleaner, our on-island contact (note the ON island, not off island) and occasionally builders when we have renovations done. Oh yes, and the banks, since - despite their ridiculous jurassic methods of banking - we chose BOH for our business for the exact reason of wanting to leave as much as we can on the island... Now that's only speaking for someone who owns a place in a short-term rental complex...

These are all good points, although it doesn't take into consideration the fact that it depends how much of the purchase is financed. There's a big difference in cash-flows between putting 20% down or 50% down. It also ignores potential appreciation. Our place has appreciated approximately 60% since we bought it 5 years ago, but we were lucky with our market timing.

In our case, we didn't buy the place as a source of income. We bought something we could afford without renting as we didn't want to have to depend on renters. Instead, we've treated the net rental income as "gravy", re-investing it into improvements/remodels. We took out a mortgage, but paid it off, which will reduce our living expenses when we retire there.