Purchasing condo for rental and self

Good post. Here is my opinion:

Price below 150 will mean an apartment.

2 bedroom is better.

Closer to the beach = more money.

50% occupancy is very conservative and doable.

Rent of 500 a week in high season is very doable and 2 bedroom is more money.

No idea how management and commissions work.

If you are going to mortgage fund it outside the DR rates here are way too high!

Having had a rental unit on the beach here on the north coast let me add to Planner's response

Commission will be 15-20% of the rental fee.

Management costs (some one to manage you unit and rental clients) will be about $200 a month (that is the cost here on the north coast)

It all depends on location.  If near enough to the beach and shopping that  car would not be needed rental fees and occupancy will be higher.

I will add that a 2 bedroom within a short walk to the beach will be well over $200K in the PC or any tourist area.

Hope this helps

Bob K

Thanks Planner,

thanks Bob K ,

very valuable advices.

Doing my "homework", I realize within that investment range <150K only apartments can be purchased in some managed residencial. The amnety fees are most of the time mentioned in the listings which helps to budget costs. As for mortgage yes, it should be much cheaper in Europe. It is about 1.5% interest in France to borrow euros to the Bank.

15-20% commission on renting I find it a lot of money..but can be reasonable IF it is good service for the money and quality management. I know it is not easy in RD is to find trustworthy people ..
PC and Cortecito area are small so everything is within walking distance (beach, grocery shopping) but that is also valid for small towns in northen Coast like Sosua and Cabarete.

How rental management works ? Do they organize also the logistics : Airoport transfer, establishing check-in and check-out controls and keys (that seems obvious), sending someone to cleaning the apartment, looking after water, electricity issues and repair (if needed) ?

PS.

Is rental fee due plus the management fee or 20% includes all ? 200$ /month + 20% rental fee ?
Are those 200$ due even in unoccupied periods (no rentals) ?

Yes the fee of $200 a month is pretty standard and includes making sure  your bills get paid (even when no renters you have electric, sometimes water, HOA dues, cable, internet etc) that all need to be paid and they take care of getting this done (you of course pay the costs of the services).  It also includes maintaining the property (cleaning, getting repairs done, and generally checking on things

Then they will charge 15%-20% of the rental fees and they will take care of getting the clients checked in, checking in on them through out the rental period, taking care of problems with the condo and the are good problems the clients may have. They should be able to help the clients arrange any transportation needs, recommend places to see, things to do, places to eat and drink. And places to avoid.  Generally the should act as "innkeepers"

I hope this helps.  Like I said we had rental unit for many years that we managed as well as a few other we managed for clients.

Bob K

I do not believe it covers transfers to and from the airport - You can always make a deal with a company that offers that service and then give that info  to your clients.

Thanks again,

it does seem that lots of costs need to be considered. What is the Governement tax on property ? Is there a Local Tax applied by District (Junta)  like we have in Western Countries that comes in addition to Gov. Tax ?

Planner sometimes it does.  We included an airport pickup (we did the picking up)  but not return.

Bob K

Yes you should pay tax on income from the property but most don't declare it here.  However we did declare back in the US.

Property tax will be 0 for properties under about   150K and not really that much for above.

There is no local tax.

Bob K

Bob I meant a management company  would not include that............  but you guys were great owners!

Yes this is true they will usually charge a fee for airport pickup.  But that is one of the reasons we were so successful at it.

Bob K

Hi Eri76,

I sent you a private message about fees and such...

Hope it helps.

Bob K wrote:

Yes you should pay tax on income from the property but most don't declare it here.  However we did declare back in the US.

Property tax will be 0 for properties under about   150K and not really that much for above.

There is no local tax.

Bob K

Thanks