First short term rental

[Monica Pacheco]

Hello, newer member to BiggerPockets!

I would like to know what are the best cities for short term rentals in Florida. I would be getting a conventional loan for the purchase. What I am looking for is something that will have some cash flow but I am more interested in building equity while being able to also use the short term rental for family vacations!

A realtor contact that I have recently made suggested St. Petersburg and the surrounding areas, any ideas?

thank you in advance!

[Dan Maciejewski]

Quote from @Monica Pacheco:

Hello, newer member to BiggerPockets!

A realtor contact that I have recently made suggested St. Petersburg and the surrounding areas, any ideas?

thank you in advance!

You definitely don't want St Pete itself -- they only allow 3 leases under 30 days in a rolling year. There are unincorporated areas in South Pinellas that do allow it. Some of those are in locations that will maximize ROI.

Some people refer to the entire County of Pinellas as St Pete.  In that case, there are plenty of great returns for vacation rentals in Pinellas, even at the inflated purchase prices we are seeing.  You can get a turnkey (or almost turnkey) place for a 9+% cap rate fairly regularly.  You probably aren't getting a 16+% cap rate like another Member suggested recently, though!  

I don't think that our 20+% appreciation will continue, though.  And I question FreddieMac's prediction this week that we will see a 10+% appreciation for 2022.  I do think we will continue to see some appreciation this year -- we see a lot (50%+ in some market segments) of cash buyers, and they aren't going away or getting weaker as interest rates rise.  Our particular metro will continue to draw jobs and grow for the next few years, at least.