The 30A carry-cost stack, every category named
Owning a 30A rental costs a stack of categories, not a single number: debt service, insurance placed for a Gulf coast, management or its labor, cleaning, utilities, salt-air maintenance, community fees, licensing, tax administration, furnishing refresh, and reserves. The only lines with published rates are taxes: the county bed tax at 5% south of the bay per the Walton County clerk, and the state layer at 6% plus surtax per the Florida DOR, both collected from guests. Everything else is priced by documents you collect for a specific house.
Inclusion criteria, printed as always: a category appears here if a real 30A owner pays it in money or hours, and each row names where a truthful number for it comes from. No row carries an estimate, an average, or a typical range, because we do not publish invented numbers, and every useful figure in this table is one you can collect in documents for the specific house you are pricing.
| Category | What it covers | Where your real number comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Debt service | The loan payment, if financed | Your lender's written quote |
| Insurance | Structure, wind exposure, flood where the map says so, liability | Written quotes from carriers; flood zone via FEMA's map lookup |
| Management | Percentage of collections or the self-manage labor that replaces it | The management contract's scope pages |
| Cleaning and linens | Turnover economics beyond what guest fees collect | Cleaner bids and a season's turn count |
| Utilities | Power, water, internet at vacation-house intensity | The seller's actual utility history |
| Maintenance and systems | Salt-air upkeep as a rhythm plus replacement cycles | Inspection report and vendor quotes for this house |
| HOA and program fees | Dues, amenity programs, potential assessments | Association budget, reserves, and minutes |
| Licensing | Florida DBPR vacation rental license, condo or dwelling class | DBPR's published licensing guide |
| Tax administration | TDT with the county clerk; sales tax with the Florida DOR | The clerk's tourist tax page and the DOR's sales tax page |
| Furnishing refresh | Mattresses, sofas, rugs, gear aging in rental years | Your furnishing tier, priced by you |
| Reserves | The cushion for storm weeks and repricing years | Your own risk tolerance, in months of costs |
The two lines with published rates
Taxes are the exception to the no-published-numbers rule, because governments publish them. Walton County's Tourist Development Tax, administered by the county clerk, is 5% south of the Choctawhatchee Bay, which covers every 30A address, and it applies to rent plus required non-refundable fees; the clerk also states that no platform is contracted to remit it for owners. The state layer, administered by the Florida Department of Revenue, is the 6% general sales tax plus any county discretionary surtax from the DOR's current schedule. Both ride on the guest's quote. Both are owner jobs to administer, and the administration time belongs in your labor column.
How to use the stack
Collect a real figure for every row before you offer: quotes, contracts, histories, budgets. Rows you cannot document yet get your honest researched guess, clearly labeled as yours. Then put the column into the carry-cost worksheet, which adds and subtracts exactly what you enter, shows its arithmetic, and predicts nothing. A deal that only works when a row is left blank is not a deal; it is a blank row wearing a porch.
Quick questions
What does it cost to carry a 30A rental?
It costs the sum of categories only your own quotes can price: debt service, insurance placed for this coast, management or the labor that replaces it, cleaning economics, utilities at guest intensity, maintenance in salt air, HOA or program fees, licensing, tax administration, and reserves. We list every category and refuse to price any of them.
Which carry costs have fixed, published rates?
The tax layer: Walton County's Tourist Development Tax is 5% south of the bay on rent plus required non-refundable fees per the county clerk, and Florida's state sales tax is 6% plus any county surtax per the Department of Revenue. Both are collected from guests, so they are administration jobs rather than owner margin costs.
Why does this page not include example budgets?
Because an example budget is an invented one. Your insurance quote, management contract, HOA budget, and utility history exist as documents for a specific house; averages we made up would only teach you to trust the wrong thing.