Investment direction - opinions?

[Roger Calixto]

Hello

I've bought and sold my first house (was my primary residence) and relocated to a beach town through work. I'm looking to put my earnings to work into an investment property and have spent the past 4 months studying the local RE market. I have 3 different directions to take and would like to hear some pro's and con's from people who've had experience with either.

A summary of my local region is: major summer tourist destination, slow winters. Shortage of RE on the market for rent, many second homes unused much of the year. Took us 6 weeks to find a place to rent, multiple times after exhausting all available options and waiting for new properties to come onto market.

The directions I would like to pursue are either:

1) Buy 2 short rental type apartments (think AirBnB) which are very common on the market but kind of impractical layout for permanent tenants (hard to rent out to tenant)

2) Buy 1 house in a highly rated tourist region to maximize throughput and monetization (think AirBnB)

3) Buy 1 house in a relatively nice neighborhood for rental to permanent tenant

I will not landlord. These properties will all be close to my home. I will finance 80% of any purchase I make.

The main attraction for 1 and 2 are that I can probably get rid of them easier when I want to offload, even though I am creating a separate business with a whole new set of rules and regulations (short let).

The main attraction for 3 is that I currently rent. If something were to happen to my finances, I can always reclaim my rental property and make it my main residence. Property sales here (Europe) can take anywhere from 3-6months to finalize, so even with a hot market I will have the liability for an extended period of time if I decide to offload.

Any thoughts on the matter are highly appreciated.

DrC