Do vacation rental homes really "pay for themselves?"
Some do, and some don't. There are too many factors to answer that question easily. Your best bet would be to check out the local competition. Google "vacation rental" and see what neighbors with similar amenities are charging, and how full their calendars are. The "big boys" are VRBO and FlipKey. Making up a couple of examples here--a villa with 7 bedrooms might be worth every penny to the right group, but how often do groups of 14 travel together? It will take a while to recoup your investment. Similarly, a one or two-bedroom that looks at the back of another condo instead of the beach is going to be among the last rented, if at all. Old adage here: Location, location, location.Hurricane season is July through November. Occupancy is far lower during that timeframe, and only the best units will be rented. If, let's say, only half of similar condos get rented, you'd need a better view, better amenities, and a better rate than the other half. If you get hit with a hurricane, people often stop coming to that location for a while. Think of Cabo as it was rebuilding. Big mess, palm trees down, beaches eroded, etc. If the place you're thinking of has been rented in the past, ask to see those numbers. If you don't live in the area, you'll need someone to manage the property for you--and they'll be in charge of maintenance, housekeeping, being the point person for guests, etc. I don't know about financing in St. John's, since it's a US territory, but in Mexico (where we have a vacay rental), you either pay cash or buy a property with seller financing. Most sellers do a 5 year balloon. That also will make a big impact on your buying decision.Good luck and keep researching!
Is the University of Chicago in an unsafe neighborhood?
It looks like this question needs to be answered by a “unsafe” aka African American person. So I'll answer since all these other people have no idea what they're talking about. I was born in and raised in Chicago on the far South Side in a area called the Wild Wild Hundreds. Its called that because they shoot so much its like the wild wild west and all the addresses start with 100.The Hyde Park area is very integrated area. Both poor and rich people (Louis Farrakhan, Muhammed Ali, Jesse Jackson, Barack Obama, etc) have lived and lived in this area. The campus itself is swarming with Pigs, the people you refer to as police, of the University of Chicago Police Department and Chicago Police department because its a touristy area. It is one of the “safest” neighborhoods located on the Southside of Chicago.The majority of the crime over there will come from either the notorious gang known as the Black P. Stone Rangers, or “The Moes” for short, and the high school kids that attend Kenwood and Hyde Park Academy which is rare.Basically do not go North of 47th street or South of 59th street. You can go as far East as you want until you hit the beaches and Lake Michigan. However, I do have friends who were held up at gun point, robbed, forced to remove all there clothes ,and molested on one of the beaches near Hyde Park.Just remember this. All Chicago is “bad” and anyone can find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time just like anywhere else in the world. But trouble is easy to avoid in Chicago as long as you don't go looking for it, mind your business, and don't go places where you have absolutely no business being.