Out-of-State STR Team Building

[Sebastian Olszewski]

Hey BP Community- 

First time poster but a long time lurker. After some extensive research and analysis, I'm ready to pull the trigger on a STR investment in the beach community of St Pete! As most of you know, building a local team is vital and even more so when being an out-of-state investor. I've combed through posts looking for recommendations and gathered a list of potential partners but thought it might be helpful to post a new thread for myself and for others to reference.

For those of you that have been through the process or are currently in the process, can you share local recommendations on the below:

- Realtor

- Contractor

- Cleaning Service

- Mortgage Lenders

- CPA

- Insurance Provider

- Anything/anyone else you believe is vital to succeed in making the transaction as smooth as possible

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I know there is an abundance of knowledge within the BP community and I thank each and every one of you for your help. 

Many Thanks!

- Sebastian

[Dan Maciejewski]

I'm sure you'll get plenty of Realtors offering their services!  I'm here! 90+% of my buyer business this year has been out-of state investors and I'm a resort and second-property specialist with a a solid team ready to go for my clients.

That being said, neither St Petersburg nor St Pete Beach allow STR for less than 30 days. Unless you are exclusively looking for travel nurses or snowbird business, you may want to steer clear of those cities. There may be some purpose-built condo-tels there, but the CAP rates / ROI are usually pretty low after you figure in the costs of the in-house management fees.

I see you're looking for a contractor, is that a GC?  While I usually recommend value-add for local investors, turn-key tends to be the strategy for distance investors.  If not updated and rehabbed, at least move-in ready.  Short term tenants in beach locations (at most non-luxury price points) don't need to have the property updated in the last few months, location is almost always the deciding factor for the initial search for bookings.

Add on top of that that the GCs are writing their own tickets right now with enough business to be turning clients away, and you're usually looking at spending way more than you'd want for a full rehab.  

Most of my clients are doing little things to make it rent-ready, like maybe updating electric when adding a pool heater, changing pool to salt systems for less maintenance, landscaping, paint while decorating, etc. . . Nothing you need a full GC for.