Anyone own a vacation home in Orlando?

[jkovick]

Just curious if anyone on the DIS owns a vacation home and rents it out. Do you rent it out often enough to justify the purchase? How has it worked out for you? Thanks!

 

[JANNYANS]

Yes I do
Yes I rent it out - you need to to even begin to get anywhere near to covering the costs .It is hard work and takes a lot of time and effort to make it a success. There have been lots of other threads on this subject

 

[disneysteve]

jkovick - I was seriously considering purchasing a rental home recently. I did a great deal of research, spoke to numerous owners (including JANNYANS) and management company personnel and finally concluded that it really isn't a very good investment unless you can devote several hours per day to handle all the work involved. And even then, there is no guarantee that you will have a positive cash flow.

There is a good online forum that you should check out at:
http://www.orlando-guide.info/forums/default.asp

I read practically every post there and asked a bunch of questions to help make my decision.

The rental home market in the Disney area is quite unique but the competition is tremendous already and new homes are going up all the time. Plus housing prices have skyrocketed in recent years. We rented a house about 6 years ago that would have sold for about $110-120K at the time. Today, the same houses are selling for about $200K. New homes are well above that. Buying a house in that price range and trying to make a profit by renting it out is a really tough endeavor so think long and hard and do your homework, as I did, before you get into the market.

Steve