Realtor · Orlando, FL · Member since 2023 · 61 posts · 61 votes
For those owners or folks who are looking to purchase a Vacation Rental, what is the most important part of owning this investment for you? Most of my clients over the years have cited the ability to use the home for friends and family members and have it cover some or all of the costs of ownership. When you think about this purchase, what stands out the most?
Cash on cash return, multiple exit strategies are two great ones. I'd also say the probability/likelihood of future regulations. Although you can't predict this, it is certainly worth considering. For example, true vacation markets offer a lot less risk of future regulations than urban markets do. So if numbers pencil similarly for a deal in a vacation market as for an urban market, and potentially even slightly worse, it could still be worth investing in said vacation market instead of said urban market.
It's ability to also be a long term rental if need be. I'm very rarely leveraged on STR, so more then often it can be a LTR. Otherwise, uniqueness of property and area, but also limited to no accessibility constraints and limited to no hotel presence.
1. No str restrictions, many on this forum will tell you it's like finding a unicorn but those areas do exist and for good reason.
2. Cash flow, we don't buy any properties less than 50% of what they're worth, all our properties we own make positive cash flow in a modest way and these tow items are deal breakers if they don't pass that's test for us on str.
Multiple exit strategies and COC return are top of the list! It may cross our minds if the area is a place we would visit, but more often than not the cash-flow is a higher priority.
Cash on cash return, multiple exit strategies are two great ones. I'd also say the probability/likelihood of future regulations. Although you can't predict this, it is certainly worth considering. For example, true vacation markets offer a lot less risk of future regulations than urban markets do. So if numbers pencil similarly for a deal in a vacation market as for an urban market, and potentially even slightly worse, it could still be worth investing in said vacation market instead of said urban market.