Thinking of buying a condo to rent out short term

[Jason Lemus]

I want to buy a condo to rent short term, any pointers or down side to buying a condo ?

[Anna Laud]

@Jason Lemus

Hi Jason!

This mainly depends on where you're thinking about having this condo as a STR, both in city location and the building itself. I think you're aware the PM fees for STR are on average higher than long term rental PM fees (it's just more frequency of work), but really it's going to come down to city legislation and the building condo association.

Florida is a state where it can be very tricky to get in a STR area- in some cases it can be even divided within the city by street for being legal to do, and some of these current SRT were simply 'grandfather-ed' in under legislation that no longer allows STR properties.

The other part to this equation would be the condo association and making sure that there isn't anything in the covenants to prevent STR if the area allows for it.

I suppose my best advice here would be to connect with an agent that was very familiar with STR laws in the area you're thinking about, and would only show you condos without association covenants preventing your STR goal.

I would advise checking out the condo association dues (if there is an association) wherever you're considering buying as these can be pretty hefty in some cases. For example; On the lower end of things here in Indy there's one condo area with a $600/mo, while in Miami I recently had a client looking at dues of $12K/mo (a very high end property). Low end or high end, worth keeping in mind in fees along with PM fees. 

Hope that helps!