Needed: Advice on purchase of first STR in Orlando area

[Melanie Martin del Campo]

I am in the market for my first short-term rental and I am looking in the Orlando Disney Area, specifically Championsgate, Windsor at Westside, and Storey Lake.  I have an agent with the Short Term Shop.  I am having trouble deciding on a strategy - am I better off buying a fully themed, ready-to-go eight-bedroom home and paying a large appraisal gap (which seems to come with the territory with the themed properties) or would I be better off buying one with little to no theming, hopefully a smaller appraisal gap (no guarantee) and theming it myself?  I know the more bedrooms the better, but I have seen some data to suggest that smaller fully themed homes can perform as well as larger, lightly themed homes.  Here is our situation:  we have been approved for a jumbo ten percent down vacation home loan up to 1.5 million and have a home equity line to draw upon for theming.  Our concerns are 1) how long will a property be offline to be fully themed (three bedrooms and a garage game room is our goal), 2) are contractors readily available there to do the work and are they being affected by the shortages?  At this point, it seems like we will be lucky to get any property at all because bidding is so competitive.