Sarasota Florida buy and hold

[Andy Zorychta]

I am Looking to buy about 50 homes in 2020/21. Idea is to buy and rent them out for next 10-15 years. I want to do Airbnb. Each house will cost about 235-275k fully remodeled good to go for next 15 years. Thoughts?

[Russell Holmes]

@Andy Zorychta are you firmly set on Sarasota? It's a great area, my grandfather sill owns the house a quarter mile from Siesta Key Beach that he built in 1960 and my Dad grew up in. He bought a canal front lot and built a house for $68k back then. My Dad and his brother used to dirt bike throughout the dirt roads on the key before tourism took hold. My grandfather's house has never flooded but is only 9' above mean high tide while regulations now require 11' above to be mortgage-able and insurable. His lot alone is worth at least $800k and neighboring houses have been demolished and rebuilt on 3' of fill. I'm not incredibly familiar with the RE market in Siesta Key or mainland Sarasota since most of my time there was far before being licensed, but I know the demand is very seasonal. Population triples during the Winter and it's very quiet during summer months. It's a different town entirely during snowbird season compared to the rest of the year, so I feel that STR demand may not be consistent throughout the year. Obviously people do visit all year, but there isn't the huge rush all year like there is October to May.

I'm up in the North Orlando area where there are some great pockets for STR. Obviously there's a lot of STR down around the theme parks, but it's a double-edged sword since it's highly competitive with a lot of supply (both those for sale and those for rent). Downtown Mount Dora (Lake Co.) in particular is a great STR market which is just 40 mins north of Orlando and still within a quite straight shot to Disney down the SR-429 toll road. Many call historic Downtown Mt. Dora 'festival city' due to the year-round festivals drawing people to the city.

https://www.visitmountdora.com/

Nice little single family homes walking or biking distance from downtown can be found for $200-250k that rent for $130-180/night with year-round demand. They pop up on the market and go pending quickly, but they also are easy to keep rented all year. In general, Orange and Seminole counties are not very STR-friendly but Lake and Osceola are more so. As always, make sure if in an HOA that STR is specifically approved since if it isn't, it will likely be banned.