Short Term vs Long Term

[Thomas A. Rufo]

Hello Everyone,

This is my first post on the forum. My wife and I currently own two identical condos (3 bedroom/2 bath) in the same community. We were married over a year ago and I moved into her condo and we put the other condo up as a short term rental.  It has been doing well renting consistently.  We want to travel and invest and are considering converting this short term rental to a long term rental to avoid sales tax, paying utilities and general management of the property.  We are considering renting both condos long term and hiring a rental management company to collect rent and manage.  We feel this will give us more freedom and consistency financially.  We want to travel via RV and potentially house hack in multi-family to have a home to return too as well as potentially take advantage of 5% Fannie Mae loan for purchase of multi-family using least amount of our own money.  Does this strategy sound good?  Any opinions on short term vs long term rentals?  Does plan to house hack on Multi-family make sense?  I appreciate the forum's experience and input.  We are newbies to the multi-family investing.  Thank you! 

[Dick Rosen]

Hi Thomas, 

My daughter and I manage long term rentals in the Phoenix market and I can say that in the past couple of years we are seeing a trend of people doing exactly what you are considering. We have been taking over rentals for long term that were previously short term for all the same reasons you've mentioned. I say jump on it Thomas, you won't regret it.

Good luck and Happy Investing.