<prompt> Human: My retirement age parents 62 and 58 are planning on buying a condo at the beach in Gulf Shores, Alabama. They have been convinced by talking to others who own condos that it will pay for itself if rented during the prime part of vacation season. I feel like this is probably not the case, as the market would have accounted for this fact, right? Anyway, here is their general financial picture:Income:5800 month business profit post business expenses, pre taxes and any other deductions step father only400 month from an old pensionDebts:1000 credit card balance Ive convinced them to wipe this as holding it is dumbExpenses:90month property tax300month term life insurance !?All other poorly budgeted regular expensesnbsp;So the condo; I think I see why it wouldnt make money, but I dont really know all the possible changes that would make this the case. Heres a break down of what I gather on a monthly basis:PI on 200k: 920Taxes: 100HOA: 400Insurance contents: 40Total: 1460 17520 annualnbsp;But they WOULD be renting it out; if you take some conservative assumptions and believe the rental history they showed me which shows like 80 occupancy in the summer and 25 in the rest of the year:Gross rental income annual: 17120Net after property manager 25: 12840Net after taxes 35?: 8346nbsp;Am I missing something? How could this possibly be construed as paying for itself? Are the people telling them this only looking at the NET rental income and ignoring these other glaring expenses? I think one of these people might be managing the property themselves, which would obviously help a lot. What other numbers am I missing?  <response>: Lots of folks near me own cabins on a lake. Two non-monetary issues I often hear about. They lead to family arguments and bad feelings. Your parents should have a plan in place to handle these things, and to place a cost on the trouble:When you own, there is an incentive to always vacation at the vacation house. Do they want to travel to other places? Will they get bored with the townneighborhood around the condo?When you rent, there is always the incentive to structure your trips around the bookings. Are they willing and able to change plans on short notice? Do they want to use the condo during prime earning times - holiday weekends, etc? 