anyone ever bought a beach front condo for retirement an investment?

[c3troop]

Currently looking at buying an orange beach, beach front condo to rent out all year but two weeks when we would stay there. Plan is to use the rent money to pay it off in thirty years then move into it for retirement. Anyone ever done this? Good idea or bad?

[disneysteve]

Currently looking at buying an orange beach, beach front condo to rent out all year but two weeks when we would stay there. Plan is to use the rent money to pay it off in thirty years then move into it for retirement. Anyone ever done this? Good idea or bad?

Have you checked out the rental history of similar properties in the area? How many weeks are rented per year on average?

Have you considered whether or not you would really want to retire to a 30+ year old condo?

How far from your home is this property? Being a landlord is hard enough. Being a long-distance landlord is considerably harder.

Would you do all the work yourself? Would you hire a management company? What expenses will you incur? Can you afford the costs comfortably when it isn't rented?

We considered buying a rental property in Florida years ago but after I ran all of the numbers, spoke to management companies, spoke to owners in the area, I determined it just wasn't worth it.

[c3troop]

Hey Steve yeah I did all that. After everything is said and done with management companies we would conservatively break even on bad years and make a little on good years. So i'm guessing break even but hold it for the increase in market value and opportunity to retire to it later. seems like a safe addition to our portfolio. Already have one rental property that is turning a ten percent profit. Currently put 17% into stocks so I think lower that and add another property.

[amarowsky]

I wish I would have seen this earlier, because I just posted a my hypothetical rental situation. It's in the Investment/banking section of the forum if you have anything you could add on your experiences. Quick question though, What type of mortgage do you have for your current rental, and what type of mortgage would you plan to get for this 30/yr additional property your thinking of buying?

[Scanner]

My ex-gf has 2 condos - one in FL and one in Myrtle Beach - one is beach front, the other is a retirement village . .she had a property manager type of arrangement at each situation where they took out a percentage of what she rented out, something like 25% if my memory serves me correctly.

All in all, it appears that what someone said was true - she about "broke even" when you examined everything for property maintenance, accounting costs, keeping fresh linen in the place, having to travel there, etc.

The situation becomes complicated and you will need a good CPA to file everything correctly with the IRS.

Her CPA did like the fact she had a lot of write-offs with the property but from my business perspective, it was kind of hard to see the profit there.

You may expect equity accumulation, but don't expect a monthly check or anything. Something tells me the property managers have a better deal going in situations like this.

[AccountantSalary]

Be sure to take into account rising sea levels, or your property may be uninhabitable when you decide to move into it. There's at least one community here in Southern California that's decided to abandon a coastline park because it's becoming to expensive to maintain against the onslaught of rising waves.

[Blessed]

I have a family member that owns several. He bought them all at rock bottom prices and paid CASH. He pays a rental agency to manage them. He is not making much $ on these at all. He says you can never count on them always being rented but the price was right and he could pay cash and he felt it would pay off down the road when the market went back up. I personally wouldn't buy one if I had to mortgage anything for 30 years and especially not a vacation home unless you can 100% afford the payment and maintenance without it being rented.