My clients ask me about investment properties all the time. So let me give you my honest take, the same one I give them over coffee: buying here is going to be more of a return on happiness than a return on investment. If you get that order right, you will be thrilled. If you get it backwards, you will be frustrated.
The real rental math
Here is what actually lands in your account, not the hype. Across the year, you can realistically expect somewhere between 40 and 50 percent occupancy on a well-run rental. That is an average, because we have seasons. From December through March, sometimes to Easter, you can be booked solid. Summer is a shoulder season, we still get a crowd for wind and kite, plus families and students traveling. Then September, October, and early November go quiet, and your income drops off a cliff for a bit.
You will hear some residences quote 70 percent occupancy across the year. I think that is possible in a standout building, but I do not think it is the norm, and I am not going to pretend it is.
The costs nobody puts in the brochure
Whatever you earn, you also spend. If you buy a condo, you are paying HOA and condo fees. If you buy a villa, you are paying for maintenance and the pool guy and everything else that comes with owning a house in the tropics. Add management if you are not here to run it yourself. To actually come out on the upside, you have to pay careful attention to what you buy and where, because those fees and that maintenance eat into the rental income before you ever see a profit.
When the investment does work
I am not saying you cannot make money. You can. My very first client came to me looking at a $190,000 property and we ended up buying a two-bedroom condo in one of the most respected, best-managed communities in Cabarete, about a 30-second walk to the beach. She spends part of the year here and part away, and when she is gone it rents with no problem. That works because it is the right property, in the right building, run by the right admin company. That is the formula. It is not luck.
If you want the detailed numbers, gross versus net yield, what management and taxes and vacancy really take out, I broke it all down in my Rental ROI guide.
Buy for happiness first
Here is the honest bottom line. You could get lucky and land a great investment. But in my experience, if you buy for lifestyle and happiness first, and treat any rental income as a bonus rather than the plan, you get a much better return on the whole thing. Make sure whatever you buy brings you joy, because it cannot only be about the money. That is not sales talk. That is what I have watched play out for years.
Real talk. No bulto. Want me to run the honest numbers on a specific property before you get attached to it? Message me on WhatsApp at +1 829 252 3417.
Tracy Shayhorn is a real estate agent on the north coast of the Dominican Republic and the founder of Real Talk Realty RD, with The Crest Group Dominicana. She has lived on Kite Beach in Cabarete since 2010, owns property here herself, and runs a kite school and cafe in town, so she walks buyers and sellers through the real process, the good and the bad. Real talk, no bulto. WhatsApp +1 829 252 3417, tracy@realtalkrealtyrd.com.