STR in Port Saint Joe Florida

[Mike Shaw]

The Golf Course Villa is almost ready to make us some money, finally. It’s paid for & we don’t want a heloc because we don’t plan on buying anymore properties. We feel that this property, in this area close to the beach & on the golf course is a winner being a Francis Lloyd Wright-esq Villa.
Anyway we want to rent it from Memorial Day until the end of October.  This way we skip the heat, humidity & hurricanes. 
We have a very large attic to lock up our personal items. I will be building a shed to store & lockup tools etc.
We will need to use a property management company because sometimes we will be traveling out of the country. I do all of my own house repairs but I have a good person to do repairs while we are away. I’ll also need to find a good cleaning service/person. So we get to the questions-
Is Evolve a good property management company? 
What Is a good book or resource for the financial aspects?

Thanks for any tips & help on this journey.

[Glenna Wood]

I would go with a local property manager to start... You have a unique challenge. The area took a tremendous hit from Hurricane Michael 2018 so many rental houses were wiped out along with the tourism infrastructure.  Nothing wrong with being in on the rebuild but with the disruption in tourism, local folks like cleaners have had a hard time making a living. Some have moved on. At this time I believe you are better off having a property manager hire the right locals and oversee the work. Evolve charges 10%, local managers charge 15-20%. There is a absolutely shortage of rentals now. Also a local manager would be up to date on which restaurants reopened. Many of the best seafood places were leveled and haven't rebuilt even though there are many web pages still up referencing them. Guests will need to realize how far they will be from basic services. A dream for some folks, others will hate it.

I'm assuming you are on the old St Joe Country Club golf course. If not, ignore the rest of this post... If you have been working there you already know the good news/bad news.  It's the ONLY golf course in the county.  It was going bankrupt and has been for years. The county just bought it to try to hang on to the jobs.  They will lease operations and see if it's profitable in three years. The online reviews of this course are terrible so you'll need to be creative in marketing your golf villa. There are many top notch courses 40-50 miles away in Panama City as competition.

You are in the beach boonies on that stretch of coast. Although the bay is close and maybe walkable it's the marshy end. (Maybe add kayaks or paddle boards your amenities?) Otherwise it's a drive to the beach access on the Cape or back toward Mexico Beach (for little kids and seniors there is never a rip tide there). The beaches are spectacular! Crystal white sand, completely uncrowded and very mellow. It's also one of the few beach areas that allow horseback riding and off road driving. No boardwalks or carnival attractions here. As a beach STR you are competing against gulf front or walking access STRs in Cape San Blas, St Joe Beach, or Mexico Beach.

There was an airstrip at the Country Club. I think the county took this over too. If it stays open to private aviation, I always thought a fly in rental would be a unique opportunity.  I looked into this about 15 yrs ago. Problem was getting basic services (car rental, groceries, etc) once you land and it's too far to bike. Maybe there are Uber drivers now. 

Wish you all the best! I will always love the area and plan to rebuild. If you like pre-Disney small town Florida, you can't beat this area of the "Forgotten Coast". If you check out the history of Port St Joe it's been beaten up a few times and always comes back!  PSJ is the "Constitution City" since the FL state constitution was signed there. The two main FL cities in the mid 1800's were Pensacola and St Augustine. Neither of those cities wanted the other to host the signing so they met in the middle of the panhandle at little Port St Joe. Politics never change...