Hi Joe, If you are paying cash you MAY be bale to break even. If you are financing a property it will never happen. The short term rental market is extremely competitive. Not only are you competing with 1,000s of other homes you are also competing with Disney.
The costs for running a holiday home with a pool will be approximately $1,500 to $2,000 a month whether it's rented or not. You would need roughly 50% occupancy to possibly break even.
Now having said that, prices are reasonable right now and you can get a very good holiday home with a pool starting around $125,000.
If you need help my son Nathan specializes in helping buyers with these types of properties. Check out his investor site at
http://cflinvestmenthomes.com
I hope this helps.
- Sun Jan 15, 2012