Q:
I’m closing on a 3-bedroom in the Streetcar District next month and running it as a Savannah STR. My lender wants 6 months of PITI in reserves. My CPA says 3. A guy in my Facebook group says “one whole season.” Who’s right? I have $42K liquid after closing. Is that enough or am I about to learn an expensive lesson? — Investor in Boston, refreshing his Airbnb calendar like it owes him money
A:
Short answer: your lender, your CPA, and your Facebook guy are all giving you the wrong number, because none of them know your seasonality. For a Savannah 3-bedroom STR, you need at least 6 months of full operating cost in liquid reserves — not 6 months of PITI. On a property like yours that’s closer to $28,000–$34,000 sitting in a high-yield savings account, not deployed. You have $42K. You’re fine. Most investors aren’t.
Why the standard reserve rules of thumb get a Savannah STR wrong
Externally, the problem is seasonality. Savannah STR revenue isn’t a flat line. According to Rabbu’s March 2026 data, the average Savannah Airbnb pulls $6,498 in March and $2,199 in January — a 3x swing on the same property, same listing, same calendar year. If you reserve for the average month, you will run out of cash in mid-January and stay underwater until late February. Every year. Forever.
Internally, the problem is denial. New STR investors build their proforma around peak months because that’s what they read in the Facebook groups. They write “$5,500/month average” in their spreadsheet without ever asking what the bad months look like. Then November comes, two bookings cancel, and they’re wiring money from their savings account to cover the mortgage on an asset that was supposed to be paying them.
Philosophically, the problem is that STRs are operating businesses, not bonds. They have working capital needs. Hotels carry 30–60 days of operating expense in cash as a matter of basic business hygiene. Investors who treat an STR like a stock that pays a coupon are not running a business — they’re running a hope.
I’ve been operating short-term rentals in Savannah since the early days of the platform era and now run a portfolio plus a property management company. The reserve math below is the math we use on our own properties, not the version we write for lenders.
Step 1: Calculate your real monthly cost, not your PITI
PITI — principal, interest, taxes, insurance — is the floor, not the ceiling. On your $475K Streetcar 3-bedroom at 25% down on a DSCR loan at 6.5%, PITI lands around $2,950/month. That’s what your lender is reserving against. But your true monthly burn is higher.
Add utilities ($300–$450), internet and streaming ($120), dynamic pricing software ($30–$50), channel manager ($25–$50), professional management at 22–26% of gross or self-management overhead, cleaning at $130–$170 per turnover (figure 6–8 turns per month in peak), supplies and consumables ($150–$300), STVR permit renewal annualized ($30/month), Chatham County hotel/motel tax handling, and a maintenance reserve at 5–8% of gross. Your real all-in monthly cost on this property is closer to $5,200–$5,800.
That’s the number you reserve against. Six months at $5,500 = $33,000. That’s your floor.
Step 2: Stress-test against a Savannah January, not a Savannah March
Run your proforma backwards. At a $208 Savannah ADR and 65% occupancy across 30 nights, you’d gross about $4,050 in a typical month. In January, with occupancy dropping to roughly 38% and shoulder-season pricing pressure, you’d gross closer to $2,200. Your fixed costs do not drop in January. Cleaning costs do (fewer turnovers), but software fees, mortgage, taxes, insurance, internet, and capex reserves don’t care that it’s winter.
A client of mine — anesthesiologist out of Atlanta — bought a 4-bedroom near Forsyth Park in late 2024 and stress-tested at his realtor’s suggestion of “3 months PITI.” That came out to $10,500. By February 2025 he’d burned through it and was wiring from his W-2 account every two weeks until April. The property is great. The reserve was wrong. He didn’t need a better property; he needed an extra $20K he never put in the bucket.
Step 3: Build three Savannah STR reserve buckets, not one
Stop calling the whole thing “my reserve.” Split it. Bucket one: operating reserve, 6 months of true cost — your $33,000. Bucket two: capex reserve, $3,000–$5,000 to start, refilled annually at 1–1.5% of property value, for HVAC, roof, water heater, appliances. In coastal Georgia, your HVAC will fail on the hottest weekend of July; budget accordingly. Bucket three: insurance deductible reserve, equal to your hurricane wind/hail deductible, which on the coast is often 2–5% of dwelling coverage, not a flat $1,000. On a $475K property that can be $9,500–$23,750 you need to be able to write in 48 hours after a named storm.
Total liquid reserve target on your property: roughly $45K–$58K. You’re sitting at $42K. That’s tight but workable if your hurricane deductible is reasonable. If you have a 5% deductible, you’re short. Check your policy this week, not after the deal closes.
What a Savannah STR reserve costs if you get it wrong vs. right
Get it wrong: you go into your first January under-reserved, take a 4-star review from a guest who came during a maintenance issue you didn’t have cash to fix, watch your ranking slip, miss spring bookings because of it, and turn what should be a $58K/year property into a $44K/year property. The compounding cost over three years is roughly $42,000. Or worse, a wind event hits, you can’t fund the deductible, and the property sits offline for the highest-revenue weeks of the year.
Get it right: you weather January without flinching, your reviews stay clean, you pick up shoulder-season bookings because your listing stayed in the top quartile, and the property does what the spreadsheet said it would do. Boring outcome. Boring is the goal.
The recap, and where to go from here
Calculate true monthly cost, not PITI. Reserve six months of true cost. Stress against January, not March. Build three buckets, not one. Check your hurricane deductible before closing.
If you’re in the Streetcar District buying for STR and want a second set of eyes on the reserve math, book a deal review with Team 912. We’ll model the property at peak and trough months and tell you whether you’re reserved appropriately before you close. Cheaper now than next January. Use the Team 912 ROI calculator first to pressure-test the deal yourself.
Already operating? Sid Was Here manages 100+ Savannah short-term rentals with revenue management that adjusts pricing and minimum stays around the seasonality this article is built on. We’re happy to audit your current proforma against our portfolio data.
Have a real estate investing question you want answered in this series? Email julie@team912.com with the subject line ASK TEAM 912. We answer one a week.
About the Author
Julie Gates leads Team 912, an all-investor real estate team at RE/MAX Accent in Savannah, GA. She has been investing in the Savannah market since 2004 and has helped clients across the country buy income-producing real estate in coastal Georgia. Reach the team at julie@team912.com or (912) 600-2893.
