Can short term rental property pay for itself? (Orlando, Boca Raton: rental homes, HOA)

[EditorJul]

Originally Posted by pbiancardi

That is a very good point and something to consider. My thought was that in 15 years I have built up equity in the property (while the costs have been mostly covered by renters) so I would have multiple options -

1. Sell my main home, pay off the FL one and move down (and pocket the extra $100,000.00+).
2. Main home paid off, use the FL one for the colder months and stay where I am.
3. Sell the FL home and main home and buy something else.

Isn't Windsor Palms considered a good community, no "interesting surroundings"??

The community is a good one, although it (like almost all other vacation properties) is located not too far off the 192 Strip, and for Windsor Palms, it backs up right on an major expressway (429), so you will have some traffic noise from that. Once you get out to 192 in that area, there are a few abandoned hotels, some "hotel homeless" crowd, and some places that get caught up with some meth drama and the like. (So, basically, like any other part of the 192 corridor.) Before you settle on buying in that area, you'd want to drive around it. I'm trying to remember if Windsor Palms was gated or not… I think it was Emerald Isle that we tried to drive around in and were "politely" asked to leave by security without a real estate agent appointment. The best bet would be to find an investment realtor to have them drive you around, and then head home and give some thought to it all once you see the properties first-hand.

[pbiancardi]

Originally Posted by EditorJul

The community is a good one, although it (like almost all other vacation properties) is located not too far off the 192 Strip, and for Windsor Palms, it backs up right on an major expressway (429), so you will have some traffic noise from that. Once you get out to 192 in that area, there are a few abandoned hotels, some "hotel homeless" crowd, and some places that get caught up with some meth drama and the like. (So, basically, like any other part of the 192 corridor.) Before you settle on buying in that area, you'd want to drive around it. I'm trying to remember if Windsor Palms was gated or not… I think it was Emerald Isle that we tried to drive around in and were "politely" asked to leave by security without a real estate agent appointment. The best bet would be to find an investment realtor to have them drive you around, and then head home and give some thought to it all once you see the properties first-hand.

The realtor I spoke to mentioned you can make an offer with a 10 day inspection period to get a professional inspection done, check the place out yourself, and request hard data on past and future bookings and are able to back out if that is not all to your liking. If I ever get that far I will certainly do that.

Windsor Palms is supposedly a gated community. I had no idea there were issues at all in the area, I always thought it was a nice place from my visits....

[annerk]

Originally Posted by pbiancardi

The realtor I spoke to mentioned you can make an offer with a 10 day inspection period to get a professional inspection done, check the place out yourself, and request hard data on past and future bookings and are able to back out if that is not all to your liking. If I ever get that far I will certainly do that.

Windsor Palms is supposedly a gated community. I had no idea there were issues at all in the area, I always thought it was a nice place from my visits....

There is a lot of homelessness and some gang and drug problems in both Kissimmee and Davenport.

[EditorJul]

Oh, and lest anyone think that there aren't some crazy retirement ideas out there, before we made the decision to just up and move to Florida, our original plan was to start collecting up DVC points through resale until we had enough to snowbird down for the winter and just live at different DVC resorts for half the year. Apparently there were some people who had bought in early on who were doing just that, although they have made things more difficult if you wanted to try and do that today.

[Sydney123]

If the comps are coming in @ under 125k and are used in the appraisal process why would a bank loan on a property that is almost 50k over what the comparables are selling for? Even if you were approved you'd be stating out 50k in the hole.
No?
If your set on the idea why not offer the bank a low ball offer on one of those foreclosures? Say 100k and save 70k?
You could put 25k into updating and bringing the house up to that 125k value and not be close to 50k upside down from the get go.
Also take into consideration the cost of having a management company rent it out for you, and they money you'd have to pay out when it's not rented.
At 170 k.. They're making out, getting rid of a property that's not worth the asking price and making even more money off of you.... Just saying.

[pbiancardi]

Originally Posted by Sydney123

If the comps are coming in @ under 125k and are used in the appraisal process why would a bank loan on a property that is almost 50k over what the comparables are selling for? Even if you were approved you'd be stating out 50k in the hole.
No?
If your set on the idea why not offer the bank a low ball offer on one of those foreclosures? Say 100k and save 70k?
You could put 25k into updating and bringing the house up to that 125k value and not be close to 50k upside down from the get go.
Also take into consideration the cost of having a management company rent it out for you, and they money you'd have to pay out when it's not rented.
At 170 k.. They're making out, getting rid of a property that's not worth the asking price and making even more money off of you.... Just saying.

The 125's are from foreclosure auctions, no idea what shape they were in...I think I have basically ruled out the Davenport property based on this thread, still thinking and researching other options...

[Sydney123]

Originally Posted by pbiancardi

The 125's are from foreclosure auctions, no idea what shape they were in...I think I have basically ruled out the Davenport property based on this thread, still thinking and researching other options...

Good for you.. Didn't sound like a good investment anyway.

[miakelly]

Originally Posted by pbiancardi

The realtor I spoke to mentioned you can make an offer with a 10 day inspection period to get a professional inspection done, check the place out yourself, and request hard data on past and future bookings and are able to back out if that is not all to your liking. If I ever get that far I will certainly do that.

Windsor Palms is supposedly a gated community. I had no idea there were issues at all in the area, I always thought it was a nice place from my visits....

You can make an offer with an inspection period and you can specify the time frame in the contract. It can be 5 days, 7 days, 10 days.....if you leave the time frame blank, it defaults to 14 days. Just be certain to follow the time frame you specify and after you have the inspection, if something is not to your liking, make sure it is addressed in writing. You can get out of the contract or you can try to negotiate with the seller depending on what the home inspection uncovered.

Also watch the HOA fees/intervals.....8119 Princess Palm is $738 Quarterly and it has been on the market for 159 days so if it was a great investment opportunity, it would have been long gone. Keep looking, there are plenty of opportunities and it sounds like you are on the right track.

[pbiancardi]

I was actually able to talk to a property manager that deals with some Windsor Hills townhouses and he gave me a lot of good info, including various estimated costs so I have enough info to piece together the puzzle and see if its actually worth it. He actually has two opposite properties, one where the guy does all the booking himself and one where the owner is hands off and just collects a check each month (obviously the more you can book yourself the more money that will end up in your pocket). Based on my conversation with him and some preliminary figuring it seems like it is possible to break even after all costs plus mortgage but also possible to come up a little short.

At least now I have actual real world info, I was just not trusting the realtor's that were not able to give me any actual real world numbers on anything.

[runrowdy2]

Originally Posted by pbiancardi

Isn't Windsor Palms considered a good community, no "interesting surroundings"??

Prior to moving here, we used to rent a townhouse or condo for our stays. I never rented in Windsor Palms because Windsor Hills was newer. The place we used in Windsor Hills has off season weeks for $299/399 and when they can't rent a place out, they send out emails for $199 a week. I get the discount emails from them a lot. With Champions Gate being built out and the newer Windsor at Westside vacation homes, Windsor Palms will fall further down the preferred rental neighborhoods just because it is older. Doesn't mean you won't be able to rent it but you will definitely need to be realistic about how much you can rent it for on a per night basis.