STR Florida beach markets

[Gretchen Shaw]

New to BP, and have been doing a ton of research to see if a short term vacation rental is right for me. My goal is to buy a beach house for my family and use rental income to pay it off over time.

I have been looking in Destin, and down the gulf coast -but it seems like many of the popular beach towns don’t allow short term rentals. Any markets I should look into?

[Matt "Roar" Gardner]

@Elise Hazzard - I own a couple STRs in the area and have helped many investors do the same.  The city of Destin has some geographical and occupancy limitations.  To grossly oversimplify, the city does not permit STRs north of highway 98 (there are exceptions to this), and they limit the occupancy to be 2 per Bedroom Plus 4 (i.e. my 5 bedroom in Destin can sleep 14 ppl).  

These restrictions are minimal in the grand scheme of what larger metros are doing, though. The area does quite well in the STR space. If you'd like to avoid the regulations, you can always look to invest in Miramar Beach (right next door), Fort Walton Beach, 30A, or PCB, where the regulations are minimal or nonexistent.

Best of luck to you!!