Fort Lauderdale Airbnb/Vacation Rental Property Questions

[Alan Harry]

Hello everyone, I live in NYC and was thinking about buying a condo in Fort Lauderdale that I would for much of the year use airbnb or other short-term sites to rent out. I may potentially stay there 4-6 weeks in the winter (February into early march perhaps). With that said a few questions that I hope some of you bigger pocket pros could shed some light on for me.

1) If I am taking up a month to a month-and-a-half of the busy season time myself, is there still enough interest in Fort lauderdale year round to make profit on the property? How slow does it get after April until October in terms of these short term rentals. I was thinking of getting something walk-able to the beach.

2) How difficult is it to find a condo to buy legally that allows short-term rentals like this, I saw on trulia/zillow a couple listed, but I imagine many HOA boards are against it, is there anywhere to look to find properties in Fort Lauderdale specifically to rent out under short term circumstances.

Any tips, suggestions, ideas would be greatly appreciated, I've really enjoyed reading these forums so far, a lot of intelligent and thought provoking posts!

-Alan