Considering buying a STR in Kissimmee

[Murtuza Khoja]

Hello everyone,

I’m a Canadian looking to buy a short term rental vacation home in the Kissimmee area.

Currently we own a long term rental home in Winter Garden which we bought some time ago, and will be paid off completely in Feb 2029.  Over the years, however, we’ve found that we end up coming down to Orlando quite a lot, especially in the last couple of years, and we end up staying in vacation rentals (Reunion, Championsgate, Storey Lake typically).

I would love to simply pull equity from the current property but given that it’s a long term rental and we are Canadians, from what we understand it’s not an option for us.

we love reunion but I feel that would probably not be the best for ROI. We're not married to any Particular development, but ideally we're looking for something newer (less than 5 years), detached with a good sized pool (not splash pool) We've been looking at 4-5 bedroom homes in Championsgate in the under 600k range. However we're not married to that idea either.

Our goals:

1. Have a vacation rental that we can use ourselves as well

2. Would like to obviously make some cashflow.  We exclusively travel during non-peak seasons, so we would be looking to rent out completely during busy/peak seasons, and would stay at the place during slow seasons

Questions for the experts out there:

1. which development(s) tends to be the best for ROI/have the best occupancy rates?

2. Which size of home is typically perform best on a cost benefit analysis? 

3. What percentage of gross revenue does an owner typically keep if they do employ a property manager?

4. we're not necessarily looking to go "all out" in terms of theming, but if we did, what kind of revenue does that bring/ROI can you expect, and which Renos for theming are best to do from a cost-benefit analysis, and what do they typically cost?

4. If there are any owners on this forum that have any first-hand experience with STRs in the Kissimmee area?  Would love any input you would have, especially from Canada, but anyone really.

5. I welcome any input from anyone who is knowledgeable in the area (comment not question, lol)

Your input is much appreciated.

Thanks!