Investment properties in FL, especially Tampa, Any Tenant issue?

[Sammi Liu]

I live in CA and am looking for some out-of-state property.

I am currently looking for mostly SFH around FL, especially around Tampa,St. Petersburg, Clearwater and Sarasota areas.

The numbers seems to make sense overall, my biggest concern is tenant management. Any idea how is the tenant issue and vacancy rate there? Does it make sense to hire management company to do all the maintenance job?

Any advice is appreciated. Thank you!

[Dan Maciejewski]

I would definitely put it under management unless your goal is to become experienced in out of state property management.  It's not that hard but you would have to commit to being available to handle issues and lease ups between tenants.  You can hire a PM just for lease ups but since that's the most expensive part, I would keep them for everything.

As far as vacancy rates in the Tampa, St Petersburg / Clearwater area, we seem to be dong well overall.  For those of us that screen well, everybody seems to be paying on time and employed.  Collectively we have seen some people need to get different jobs, but they are remaining employed.  

One of my friends with 30-ish SFRs did have one tenant give notice that he couldn't afford the rent and had to move in with family.  After a quick paint and repair, it rented up with no problem at a higher rent.

Anecdotally, the few people that have had turns because of this admitted that the tenants were already paying late and not the greatest risks well before the pandemic.