Condo investments (STRs) in Brickell Miami

[Ruth Huard]

Investment Info:

Condo buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $415,000
Cash invested: $415,000

Purchased two condos in a hotel-condo building in Miami (Brickell - financial district). Each was about $400K. They are currently STRs (using Airbnb and VRBO)
- https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/53422834
- https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/555741066345416184

These are my first STRs and self-managing at this time; learning a lot about being an out-of-state host and revenue management.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Wanted to enter the STR market and looked for markets that were growing and with different markets (e.g., business travelers and tourists).

How did you finance this deal?

All cash from a cash-out refinance of another property.

[Ruth Huard]

Hi Ruben - I just listed the condos earlier this year, so please keep that in mind with the numbers I’m sharing. I also understand that May-August are the “off-season” months for Miami visitors - that, coupled with recent economic challenges, my revenues for the timeframe that I’ve listed them probably will not extrapolate to a representative year.

For https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/555741066345416184 - listed mid-February, the average monthly payout was $4300.

For https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/53422834 - listed mid-May, the average monthly payout was $3500.

The largest monthly costs that I need to cover include: insurance ($175/month), property tax, and HOA (about $675/month). Before purchasing, I reviewed HOA docs and HOA minutes carefully to ensure that STRs were allowed. The governing docs of the building we're in explicitly allow for daily rentals (it is a hotel-condo residence) - these are hard to come by! I make sure to attend the board meetings just to be sure that I can weigh in if there are concerns about STRs (there have not been any so far; and the board members rent out their units).