New Vacation Rental in Emerald Coast Coming Soon

New Vacation Rental in Emerald Coast Coming Soon

Investor · Fort Walton Beach, FL · Member since 2015 · 33 posts · 5 votes

Good morning BP!

My wife and I have been entertaining the idea of owning a vacation rental property for about 6 months now.  We owned our home in Navarre Florida, and just closed on our second home (which will become the VR)  I am confident that we hit a home run with this property, here are some details.

- 5 minute drive from Navarre bridge / beach. For those who don't know, this beach is breathtaking and has plenty of tourists per year.

- No HOA on the property

- We bought it for zero dollars down using my VA loan, mortgage will be ~$850

- Flip house, therefore it came equipped with stainless apps, granite counters in the kitchen and bathrooms, brand new hardwood tile throughout the house, double-deck patio in the backyard with fire pit. Fully renovated with warranties on almost everything.

- Will sleep 8 comfortably

I've done some research thus far, and being how close I am to the beach, 30 minutes from Pensacola, and 25 minutes from Destin, it looks like the home would pull in about $1500-1800/ week with proper exposure and marketing. We are evaluating our options right now, and currently would have the opportunity to move back into our old property after our tenants lease is up, and turn this one into our VR. I'm really excited about the potential profits to be made with this property, seems like we picked up a great place for this business plan with low cost of ownership, renovations already in place, and a killer location. My wife is a degree holding graphic designer, photographer and web designer, so our marketing and imagery for the home will be spectacular. Beyond reading our forum boards regularly, what would you all suggest for a future VR owner to get my business off the ground?

Derek

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  • Real Estate Broker · Naples, FL · Member since 2013 · 9k+ posts · 6k+ votes
    10y

    Never done VR but the house sounds great. Congrats. Awesome financing too.

  • Investor · Fort Walton Beach, FL · Member since 2015 · 568 posts · 966 votes
    10y

    @Derek Pigulski Congratulations on the purchase! Sounds like a great deal. @Timothy Gleason has a vacation rental in Pensacola. I believe he started out self managing. He would be a great person to talk to 

  • Contractor · Milltown, NJ · Member since 2016 · 297 posts · 213 votes
    10y
    If I read this right, your current residence will end up being a very short distance from your vacation rental. What a great set up for an owner operator. Perhaps a digital lock that can be connected to your and your renters' smartphone would be a worthwhile installation. They have time locks so you can control when each individual renter can gain access. You can book all of your own renters, and handle the maintenance issues yourself. That is a huge cost savings when you are charging $1500-$1800/week, would be approx. 10%-16% off of my realtor bills. I would still hire a reliable cleaning service though, as doing your own cleanings after each renter can get really old, really fast. Just so you are aware, several pitfalls exist with online booking agencies that the industry itself is not so in a hurry to working out. As the "middleman" in the transaction, they make money on whether things work out or don't work out, so they don't really care about the process once they get the renters' money. Just do an internet search of "TripAdvisor owner complaints" and you'll see an array of issues experienced from both owners and renters. So far they have done right by me, but with no way of contacting them by phone if an issue arises, things can go bad very fast for both the owner and the renter. Most of my rentals do come from a realtor/property manager local to the area, however I chose to do some online as well to boost margins. If you have any questions about doing vacation rentals please feel free to pm me at anytime. Best of luck, Rob
  • Military · Pensacola, FL · Member since 2014 · 53 posts · 63 votes
    10y
    Derek Pigulski Lots to iron out here. First up is to get PRO photos. Easiest way to distance yourself from the non-pro's out there. Second is to build a quality listing. I like VRBO, but there are others as well. Have your listing 'live' before Thanksgiving. The holidays have a way of spawning discussion for that next summer VACAY. In line with #2, pay diligent attention to your rates. This is more than just price, it also includes turnover days and minimum stay lengths. Once you start booking, your revenue is locked in. Shoot too high, and you miss the post-Holiday booking rush. Adjust both during the booking season to balance revenue and vacancy. Fourth- reserve your own dates. For your first year, is block some maintenance days into your calendar. It's very hard to do more than basic repairs on a single-turnover day. Five- control your reviews. Anyone CAN review, but if I know they had a good time and no issues, I 'push' a review request to them. If a marginal stay, I stay silent on topic. And if things are headed sideways during the visit, take as many steps to right the wrong as you can afford. In your first year, your online credibility base is everything. You can call me for more, but that's the basics.
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