Grand Isle rent game.

Can confirm that insurance on a modest small family camp is high as giraffe you know. Can only imagine on a big expensive camp. Another thing is competition as it sure seems like 50% of the places down there have a for rent sign.

the cost differences are about competition, grand isle is the only game in town for this state so prices dont have to be low, just low enough to get rentals

as for insurance, dont bother with anything other then liability, any other insurance will be stupidly insane high and all your profits will go to just paying for that so you wont make any money

if you are buying, buy a fixer upper and do minimal repairs and just cover things up with paint. its not your house, its a rental.

in any given year it could be gone with just one hurricane, so dont spend a single penny you dont have to if you want to make money renting it. with luck its pays off what you spent on it before you ever have to deal with major storm damage.

if you are building then learn from others. the permanent structures there are all made of concrete filled cinder blocks for ground level or are overbuilt and designed to let the walls cave in to save the main structure and foundation so after storms you rebuild it fast and easy or in the case of ground structures you can just wash all the mud out the front door and replace the furniture and your ready to rent again.

off hand i dont see it as a good or smart income property investment at all, the risk and costs are high so you are much more likely to just break even then make money. i think most people who do this buy it as their own camp and just rent it out when they dont use it to let the rent pay for insurance and upkeep expenses by renting

Good info here.

For most of my life we have had a family camp and then I had my own little camp but had to sale in divorce. I want to get back on the island but it is hard to make the numbers work (risk/insurance). I am just trying to figure out if renting could be the answer.

Rentals on GI are pretty high.

quote:

---

as for insurance, dont bother with anything other then liability, any other insurance will be stupidly insane high and all your profits will go to just paying for that so you wont make any money

---

OP mentioned taking out a loan to buy/build so he's going to have to carry hazard, wind/hail, and flood insurance.

To OP, if you go the new construction route, your insurance will generally be much cheaper because of everything being up to newest building codes. And you can build higher to reduce flood insurance costs.

Coworker bought a place in a canal off the Jourdan River in Bay St Louis and rents it out the majority of the time and makes good money off it. He sets the rates just below the casinos rates and stays so full that he has to block out weekends way in advance for he and his family to enjoy it

I said cheaper, not cheap. There's nothing "cheap" about insuring property in Grand Isle.

quote:

---

G.I. would be the last place i would look for investment rentals, season is too short, not enough to do other than fish, ghost town from Nov-Apr.

---

I don't know much about Grand Isle rental industry but looked into FL panhandle vacation rentals a few years back. From what I found on that, if you had a mortgage then you'd be lucky to just break even on cash flow after insurance, maintenance, condo HOA dues, and property management company fees. You'd just build equity over time as the mortgage was paid down and hopefully property values increased, with the perk of having a place on the beach to take your own family whenever it wasn't rented.

I'd have to guess Grand Isle would be similar situation. Probably not break even on cash flow, but if you liked going fishing down there often, you benefit by having renters subsidize the cost of your camp.

quote:

---

When I was shopping insurance on an average property off the beach was right at $4,000/year

---

Know someone that is paying close to 10K for a camp on the beach.

quote:

---

G.I. would be the last place i would look for investment rentals, season is too short, not enough to do other than fish, ghost town from Nov-Apr.

---

If you enjoy fishing and hunting that's a great time to be there and use it. If you want to own a vacation rental property, you should really only buy one that you love to use in the off season. If you only love to use it in the rental season, then it is likely to never work out financially to own it.

do they have any lots for $20k/$30K?