Multiplex short term rental in Fort Lauderdale

[Jean-Philippe Marcotte]

Hi everyone,

I’m a French Canadian real estate investor and flight attendant based in Toronto. I currently owns 4 rental properties in Florida. I have two condos in Fort Lauderdale and two houses in Kissimmee. They are all rented to long term tenants. I’m currently looking to buy a duplex or triplex in Fort Lauderdale in order to do short term rental, to manage it myself and to live in one of the unit two weeks per month during at least the winter months.  I’m mostly looking to do short term rental in order to get as much cash flow as possible since all my properties including the next one will be 100% financed.   I'm also planning to commute and live in FLL to escape cold canadian winter. Being a flight attendant and having two weeks off per month woudl enable me to jump on a plane for 50$ and fly and live in sunny Florida two weeks per month.

I know that short term rental require more expenses, that the market is quite competite and that incomes are less stable then long term rental but since I need a lot of cash flow to pay off my multiple mortgages, I feel like it would be my best option. Duplex and triplex built between 1950-1980 in desirable locations that I'm looking at are between 250k-350k. Based on other investors, monthly expenses excluding mortage payment are between 2000k-3000k depending if you have a pool or not. Monthly incomes for a triplex are between 8000k-10 000k per month after vacancy. I would also substract 1000k per month if I live in one of the unit two weeks per month. Therefore, NOI would be between 5000-6000k per month. My mortgage payment would be around 2000k per month and would I be left with about 3 500k of cash flow per month. What do you guys think of these numbers and of this real estate investment plan? Is it too risky to buy a multiplex built before 1980 and turning it into short term rental? Thanks in advance!
JP