$17,000 of February cash flow on a Southwest Florida six-bedroom

Southwest Florida runs on an inverted calendar compared with most of the country. While the Smokies and the Poconos are earning their money in July, Fort Myers is earning it in February, when the entire northern half of the continent is looking for somewhere warm with a pool.

Antonio bought a six-bedroom in Fort Myers at $1,725,000. In February the property produced over $36,000 in gross bookings. After management, cleaning, supplies, utilities, insurance, property tax and debt service, about $19,000 went back out, leaving roughly $17,000 in cash flow for that month.

The size is doing specific work here. A six-bedroom in Southwest Florida captures multi-generational snowbird stays, where three or four related households book one house for two to four weeks rather than separate hotel rooms. Those bookings have long durations, low turnover cost per night, and guests who plan a year ahead, which is a very different revenue profile from the weekend-driven pattern of a two-bedroom condo.

Underwriting an inverted-season market takes discipline in the other direction from the mountains. August in Fort Myers is hot, humid, and in the middle of hurricane season. Revenue in the late-summer trough is a fraction of February, and insurance in coastal Florida has repriced sharply in recent years. Both belong in the model at purchase, not as a discovery in year one.