It was an ad for buying counterfeit money. Why they need to sell it if it's 100% undetectable is unclear to me. You'd think they'd just spend it.

sounds a lot like the people who can beat the stock market and will show you how for a nominal $$.

if they can beat the stock market so well, why are they trying to get a few hundo from rubes?

Makes me wonder how landlords make money in VHCOL areas. I'm paying $42,600 annually for a house that would sell for $1.2 million here in SoCal and you could get $40,000 annually on a $400k property in FL.

First, vacation rental ownership is probably the worst way to begin owning rental property.

There's very little visibility and predictability of cashflow. You are vulnerable to external risks at levels that residential rentals do not suffer from. If the overall economy sours, you may face a few years with few or no renters.

In order for it to be profitable, you have to have a premium property, which is going to require lots of $$$ to keep working -- wear-and-tear will be worse. Vacation locations are more expensive then a standard residential location.

Marketing costs will likely be higher. To keep the property profitable, you really need to be aggressive with your marketing.

Getting a loan for a property that will be offered as a short term rental will be more difficult and more expensive.

Getting insurance for a property that will be offered as a short term rental will be more expensive.

I have always used 1%/mo for a rule of thumb for residential real estate profitability. So $1000/mo for a $100,000 property. Obviously, this doesn't work everywhere, but it is a target.

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Look for a 2-family, or a single family w/ apartment that you are an owner-occupant as your first experiment. See how you like dealing with people and maintenance.

If you're going into something with the idea that you hope to break even at it... just don't even start.

Find a property that's in poor shape so you can buy it cheap. Do the majority of the work and all of the contracting yourself. Be prepared to live in it for 5+ years.

Upside of vacation rental prop..... if economy tanks, your value tanks less and rebound is quicker.

Lapi, I agree for sure that longer term single family homes would be better rentals financially (and as we discussed I found an awesome house + garage apartment that I think would be a great starter)

The vacation rental would be if I took a different path. I'm dabbling with the idea of living in the states a few months a year and traveling the rest. If I did this I'd want a home base in Destin Fl, and there is a solid vacation rental market there.

So it wouldnt really be about making money. Just offesetting some expenses if that makes sense.

I suppose to your point I could do the garage apt + house thing in destin also though.

I havent seen that style in the panhandle at all...which is odd now that I think about it. They are super common in orlando and tampa. Could it be a zoning thing?

If its not about making $$$, then don't do it, IMO.

Well, it's about spending less money, i.e. mitigating losses.

You're focusing on trying to mitigate a small amount of $$$ by giving up a considerable amount of your time.

Who manages the property? Who advertises, shows, handles arrivals and departures, cleaning? Who answers the phone at midnight when the toilet doesn't flush?

I imagine someone named Steve for the first two questions and someone named Manuel for the third.

It’s not a small amount of $. You might not be as familiar with it but rental income is tremendous in Destin, and runs 365 days a year and occupancy rates even in the downturn were pretty high.

I agree with you though that it sounds like a huge hassle overall. Just an idea. I don’t really want to own a home I use 2 months a year, but I do want a home base.

My neighbor is a plumber and his name could be Steve.

So rent a place for $1000/mo instead of buying something and trying to rent it.

That's the small amount of $ I'm talking about. As a renter, you're out $12k per year.

As an owner it would be 2x that easily.

Oh i see

Glad I could help

ava got a pal who is an engineer at lockheed martin. dude is wicked smaht. hes young in his early 30s. He now has 17 rental props or so including destin. He just gave notice at lockheed cuz hes retiring.

Man I’d love to pick his brain if that was a possibility when I move closer to you.

Do you know if the destin unit is long term rental or is it a vacation property?

Friend later withdrew notice; citing pending signing bonus.

I hire a lot of people to do little gigs for me. I pay them well and I've met some great people. But some see a few hundred in my pocket and think I'm loaded. In reality all you corporate drones could buy and sell me 20x.

Anyway, I get a few who hound me for money and stuff. A couple are unstable. On guy I figured was ok because he was in grad school, but he's the worst. I bought some Amazon credits from him and he has my address as a result.

So now I keep 95% of BR out of the house, which is an effing pain. Gonna get a gun soon. I was already considering it because I heard they can be a good way to invest cash but it's starting to seem practical too.

Anyway, I've learned that you need to keep up a firm barrier for a while till you really know someone. You don't have to be any less generous overall, you just have to distribute it more wisely.

Also armed. Lol south. Lol people.

Being a landlord is a pain in the ass unless you have lots of time to throw at it. I sold my investment property in Denver this year.

Homer, leave your internet friends alone.

BLR White Gold in 450Marlin?

Speaking of. Does anyone know where I can find, or do the know, some guidelines on investing in guns? Probably getting a shotgun.

We'd need a spotlight to shine on a cloud, writing D C in the sky.