Biloxi condo vacation rental

[monty57]

My wife and I just bought a 2 BR / 2 bath condo in Biloxi. It is right on the beach with beautiful views of the Gulf of Mexico.

 

It is about 1.5 miles down the beach from MGM Stadium where the Shuckers play. For those who have never been there, Biloxi is a wonderful vacation spot with casinos, golf, white sand beaches, and of course the Shuckers.

 

It is on the rental market, and if you have any interest, feel free to PM me for more information.

 

Pictures of the condo complex can be found at the following URL. We're unit 807.

 

http://seabreeze-condos.com/home.asp

[nodakfan17]

That's beautiful. Congratulations!

 

If you don't mind me asking, is it your intention to occupy the property for portions of the year or solely rent it out to vacationers? I ask because my wife and I are considering buying a condo in Door County to be rented out during peak season and enjoyed by our family in the off season. I would be interested in learning about your investment strategy or any of the hurdles you may have encountered. Thanks!

[monty57]

Thanks nodakfan. I'm not a CPA, but from everything I've heard, if you claim it as vacation property you can only use it for personal use for two weeks in order to claim deductions from the property. We plan on using it for two weeks each year until the kids are grown, at which point we will probably spend the winters down there.

 

Thankfully, there is a good management team in place, so this is kind of "turnkey" for me. I could pretty much just let them do most of the work and it will be rented for a good portion of the year. Since it's 1000 miles away from home, this is necessary. Just be careful to check the management fees. We've been looking at vacation rental property for a long time, and the ones we looked at in northern Wisconsin years ago wanted 40-50% in management fees. Since the season is so short, after the fees we would barely have paid the property taxes with the rent we would receive.

 

It really depends on your goals. I hate losing money, but in this case, we're also getting enjoyment out of it and have long-term plans to use it a lot more, so if it costs me more than it makes in rent, we're willing to dig into our pockets to cover the costs. As a pure investment, well, investments should bring in more money than they cost, and about the only way to do that in vacation rental condos seems to be if you can pay cash up front for the condo without taking out a mortgage. That or if you can keep it rented and do all the work yourself without a management team. Even then, be sure to check all your numbers.

 

Hope this helps. If you want more of the boring details, PM me, and I'll try to help any way I can.

[nodakfan17]

Thanks for sharing your experience. I'll follow up with a PM.

 

Go Shuckers!