New investor looking to do an STR house hack in Tampa

[Jarett Cestaro]

Hi everyone-

My name is Jarett and I'm a new real estate investor living in New York and planning to move to Tampa in May. I'm ultimately interested in acquiring properties using creative financing and turning them into short-term rentals (in Tampa and beyond) but think it would be best to start by house hacking a small multi-family property and operating STRs out of the other units. 

If anyone has experience operating STRs in this market I would love to connect and potentially partner on something, or recommendations on an agent that could help me find a property for this use-case I'm all ears!

[Kristina Kuba]

Hi @Jarett Cestaro

Welcome to Florida. I lived in NYC for 3 years when I did my medical residency. You are on the right track to building wealth fast with the house hack / STR model. The FHA max of 3 units is $651,050 in Hillsborough county (Tampa is the main city in Hillsborough county). While that is a healthy budget, it is very difficult to get a FHA offer accepted on a triplex or quad.

Another option is looking at larger homes in high appreciating areas like Ybor, Seminole Heights or Wellswood. Some of those older homes were built with MLM suites and multiple entry points, with some creative blocking off and smart locks you can turn your primary into a STR cash machine.

I myself own a quad and a STR in those very areas. Happy to dive deeper into this.

Kristina