Advice on Buying A Florida Home For Rental

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Becky
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2005 8:42 pm

Advice on Buying A Florida Home For Rental

Post by Becky »

Hi i wonder if any one can help we are looking to buy a house in Florida that we can let out for Rental Income and to pay mortgage etc. We are wondering what the rental success is like in Kissimmee . How many weeks out the year do you actually have successful rentings. We need some reassurance that we would be able to pay bills.
janny
Posts: 70
Joined: Tue Sep 28, 2004 3:09 pm
Location: florida
Contact:

Post by janny »

We have had a rental home in the Davenport areas for 7 years and i think the Kissimmee area has much the same problems-in so much as that there too many homes for the number of rentors.Bear in mind you are in competition with not only other home owners but all the hotels inside and out side of Disney as well.It is a vewry hard market and one that you really only get reasonable returns on if you do all the work in renting your self which means several hours a day on the computer sometimes answering enquiries and up dating web site listings etc.The rental scene in the Disney area will get toughter as the main counties have just raised their taxes on the homes by an average of 30% which is a big jump and not really of a size that can be passed onto the guests .
To start you off here arte soe of the htings you will need to cover on a regular basis

HOA
MC Fees
Electricity
Gas
Water
Property Insurance
Liability Insurance
Property Tax
Grass cutting
Pool maintenance
Pest Control
Repairs and replacements
Licence fees
Telephone
TV
Tangible property tax
Accountants fees
Termite protection insurance
Sales tax on all bookings

and there are others as well in addition to the mortgage.
It is a big decision to make buying in such as area and now with the properry increase that is happening in the area renting out is a hard job.
Having said all that having a second home is good fun most of the time -although if you do get on you can say good bye to hoidays as you know them now .You will spend most of your time in diy stores and doing the little jobs around the house that need doing .

If you are really interested then you could do worse than join another forum(sorry Paolo) but this one is aimed solely at florida owners and has a wealth of information on it

orlandovillas.com

join the general forum then scroll to thew area called Villa Owners Area and ask for access to the section for Buying A Florida Villa and read the threads there.Good luck
Becky
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2005 8:42 pm

Buying propert in Florida

Post by Becky »

hi Janny

Thanks for your reply i have tried to get on the forum you have suggested and because i am not a villa owner i cannot access i have sent email so hopefully they will allow me access.

Over the last few days we have looking at buying a hotel condominium with a guaranteed lease back for 18 months it has a 24 hr reception.

What are peoples views on this i would be really gratefull of peoples opinions.
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Alan Knighting
Posts: 4120
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:26 am
Location: Monflanquin, Lot-et-Garonne, France

Post by Alan Knighting »

Becky,
Thanks for your reply i have tried to get on the forum you have suggested and because i am not a villa owner i cannot access i have sent email so hopefully they will allow me access.
Why on earth not? The orlandovillas.com site says:-

Registration is not required to view current topics on the Forum; however, if you wish to post a new topic or reply to an existing topic registration is required. Registration is free and only takes a few minutes. The only required fields are your Username, which may be your real name or a nickname, and a valid e-mail address.

Alan
Becky
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2005 8:42 pm

Forum

Post by Becky »

Hi Alan

I am able to get on the usual forum but i am unable to go on the buying a Florida Villa it requires a password i have registered and browsed but i cannot find a section on buying property in Florida am i missing something?
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Alan Knighting
Posts: 4120
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:26 am
Location: Monflanquin, Lot-et-Garonne, France

Post by Alan Knighting »

Becky,

I don't know. I haven't registered so I don't know what lies behind the search for a holiday or post on the forum options.

With the huge number of properties available in the area I am guessing there must be an equally huge number of websites trying to sell them. I would just pick another website or two or three or..............

Alan
janny
Posts: 70
Joined: Tue Sep 28, 2004 3:09 pm
Location: florida
Contact:

Post by janny »

The site in question doesn't sell homes it is a forum attached to a listing site .I recommended it to you ,as in the section mentioned there are loads of answers to questions from people who have asked all the same questions as yourself and the answers they got .Some have decided not to go ahead after reading the "warts and all "2 type of answers they got .
jess
Posts: 27
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2005 5:57 am
Location: Adirondacks, NY

Post by jess »

janny wrote: HOA
MC Fees
Electricity
Gas
Water
Property Insurance
Liability Insurance
Property Tax
Grass cutting
Pool maintenance
Pest Control
Repairs and replacements
Licence fees
Telephone
TV
Tangible property tax
Accountants fees
Termite protection insurance
Sales tax on all bookings
Sorry to but in, but I have some questions---

What are MC fees?
Why are you responsible for sales tax?

Thanls!
jess
TriciaM
Posts: 15
Joined: Tue Jun 14, 2005 7:13 pm
Location: Disney, Florida
Contact:

Florida villa fees

Post by TriciaM »

Hi there

MC is your Management Company who look after your home for you ( pool and lawn care etc). They charge a flat fee per month for this service ranging from $90 - $130 per month.
Other costs for pool. lawn, cleans , utilities etc are on top of this.

Sales tax is usually paid by your MC on bookings that they have placed. But to make your investment work you must find bookings yourself as well. Don't rely on MC promises. For these bookings you have to pay sales tax of around 11%. Some owners send out quotes plus tax, some inlcude tax. We have just come the end of our first year as owners and we have found $8k bookings ourselves and our MC has contributed $8k also. But I did this in 10 weeks, the MC 17 weeks at a much lower rate.


We are still happy that we took the plunge as the equity increase in our place in 15 months far exceeds our hopes. :lol:

Hope this helps.

Tricia.
jess
Posts: 27
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2005 5:57 am
Location: Adirondacks, NY

Post by jess »

Thanks for the reply! I'm not sure how I missed it until now.

Do all of you use MCs? I've been hanging out online with peple who do it themselves--- I guess the long distance thing would be hard, but does anyone here do it themselves?

I was under the impression that sales tax was paid by the guest--- that's why I'm confused by that one.

I really like that lidt--- we've made our number crunching sheet based on it.
jess
ChrisR
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Sep 21, 2004 4:05 pm
Location: Orlando, Florida
Contact:

Post by ChrisR »

Its pretty impossible without at least a caretaker MC to cope with the simple things such as leaky taps, turning on/off pool heat, changing lightbulbs etc. There needs to be someone on call 24 hours a day for your guests.
They can also sort out your hotel licenses, fire extinguisher checks etc.
How did you think the guests would pay the sales and tourist tax? It has to go on your ITIN tax return for all rentals received and is paid monthly or your home can be foreclosed (repossessed!).
CjBoatman
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Mar 10, 2006 2:05 pm
Location: Florida
Contact:

Post by CjBoatman »

If anyone ever tells you that you will be able to rent your home out to cover all your costs just walk away.

There are never ending costs involved with owning and renting a home. I do not want to appear that I am negative, or trying to talk you out of buying, but you have to be realistic.

We did a lot of research before we bought our vacation home, we bought a Condo rather than a pool home which for us is much better.

Really look at the costs invovled and the monthly outgoings and calculate to see if you can afford to pay these costs without any rentals. If the answer is no then I would think again about owning a second home.

[post edited according to forum guidelines]
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