Traditional or bet on Florida STR?

[Robert S.]

Hello all, new to the group here. I currently have 6 traditional rental units and looking to potentially refinance one of the properties in order to buy another investment outright. I'm debating a traditional rental in my current area or a vacation rental in SW Florida.

I have family in SW Florida (Venice area) and I'll ultimately end up down there (hopefully in a couple years). My main concern is that I know a traditional rental in Philly/NJ will perform but I'm not terribly familiar with the return on a vacation rental in SW Florida; it's more of a risk IMO. I'm looking for real world input and figures from any folks who run vacation rental in SW Florida (anywhere from Tampa area to Naples), though I'm mainly looking at properties from Venice to Sarasota. Standard 3/2 pool home, private yard/pool/lanai in the 250k range. For it to work in my situation, I'd like to see at least 24k/year from the FL property. I have a friend who has a property in Cape Coral that does about 70k/year in vacation rentals but it's much more house than what I'm able to afford so I can't go off of his track record. 

[Dan Maciejewski]

Originally posted by @Robert S.:

Thanks, Devin. From what I understand Venice is relatively easy to work in, same for Sarasota. A bit further north (clearwater, st pete) seem to have some strict STR regulations. Also, I won't buy in a HOA or community....currently trying to get rid of a place in the Poconos (PA) because of how poorly they operate (getting a speeding ticket for 23 in a 20mph while neighbors have 8 broken down cars on the front lawn).

So, I find myself with these options; 

1 - Buy a single family philly row home in a nice neighborhood (prices still good) and use it as a traditional rental. With this plan, I can also pay down about 80% of my primary residence (possibly all of it) and have no mortgage on that. While I'm not a huge fan of renting out single-family homes, the row houses I'm looking at are 800-1000 sq ft, small, contained, mostly updated, high likelihood of appreciation and stable rental area.

2 - Buy a duplex in Philly for a traditional rental. Have a little money left over for cushion/projects. 

3 - Buy a house in Florida to use as a vacation rental. This is the plan that I get eager about, but it's also a big gamble in my opinion. 

I'm curious what you did eventually. Hindsight being 20/20, an STR in Florida would be cash flowing like crazy with 24 months ago purchase prices!

Vacation Rentals launched to the moon, especially since hotels dropped off for a while.  Hotels aren't predicting a recovery until 2024, but short term rentals never really fell off, while ADR steadily increased.  Especially in the Tampa Bay / Clearwater area! (not in Clearwater itself, but the area, for sure)