rental arbitrage in Tampa/ St Petersburg

[Keleisha Carter]

Anyone doing rental arbitrage in Tampa area? I would like to know your strategy for finding these landlords, especially in large apartment buildings if you are dealing with a property management company

[Jared Prevost]

Hi Keleisha,

I know of a number of younger investors who are considering, or have done, rental arbitrage in Tampa. I myself have a 1/1 apartment on Davis Islands near the hospital that I'm considering renting to traveling nurses.

The problem with rental arbitrage is that you need leverage as the renter to negotiate assignable lease terms with your landlord. With rent demand being so high, it can be hard to make the numbers work, and it is so easy for property managers to fill units, that there is little justification for taking on the risk of dealing with Airbnb issues.

To illustrate, I will give a personal example. I rented my apartment a few weeks ago and pushed really hard on the landlord to give me permission to either sublet or assign my lease terms. I told the manager I've managed a portfolio of short-term rentals and that my previous landlord allowed me to do it and loved that it created an incentive for me to take exceptional care of the property. I was firmly denied and told, "we strictly do not allow short-term rentals, subletting, or anything similar". On the day I moved in, I found out the property managers had other units in the apartment complex listed on Airbnb because an Airbnb guest tried breaking into the wrong unit (the police were called). The moral of the story here is that vacancy is so low right now, especially in Tampa, that it is very difficult to get flexibility with your lease. That's not to say it can't be done, but these opportunities are few and far between right now.