All Forum Posts by: Levi Bennett

in addition to the websites above, flipkey.com

Those 4 websites combined drive (I'm guessing) 95% of all vacation rental traffic. I have clients that list their homes exclusively on those sites without marketing anywhere else and get incredible occupancy rates. They're exploding with popularity. 

I think it depends on the investment. Our Firm has the vacation rental market on lock down near Disney World. You can find us Carlosandteam.com or google "vacation real estate near Disney" and you should see us at the top. When it comes to short term rental investment, be sure to consider us. 

I specialize in helping investors purchase vacation homes!

I don't think you will find a bigger market, or economy, for short term rental homes than Central Florida around Disney World. There are literally thousands of homes for sale, and the market is very strong. New vacation rental communities are being built, and ROI is very strong. 8% is average around here, but it's easy to get north of 10% if your savvy. Let me know if I can help you.

Homeaway.com is THE website to use for central florida vacation rentals. it's much cheaper than you might think as well. You can usually find homes last minute, and also negotiate month by month leases (usually they're listed nightly). We work with a lot of out of town investors, and I direct all our investors to Homeaway.com to get a pulse on the market for what home rentals are fetching in the short term market. vrbo.com is popular in more temperate states, usually NC mountains, Tennessee, etc.. but the big one here is Homeaway.com

Hi Jim,

I'm not an investor, but I'm an agent in Celebration, Florida, and basically ALL we do is help clients from out of town in purchasing vacation rentals. Some are strictly investors, some want to live part of the year and then rent it out short term, and others want it strictly as their own as a second home. Zoning laws in Florida are very strict regarding vacation homes, so it varies by community, but as a general rule of thumb, short term rentals are not allowed in Orange County (Orlando). So most everything is in Polk and Osceola county (and some in Lake county) south of Disney World. I know this is a really old post, but I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have if you're still active on BP

@Matt Hickok , all we do is specialize in helping investors purchase vacation homes around Disney, our office is also based in Celebration. We may be able to help each other sometime? Good luck, it's a great business and booming in the area. I couldn't be more bullish about vacation homes in Osceola and Polk county. 

I would be shocked if you found a better place to invest than the Disney area South of Orlando.. everything is booming, prices are low, crime is low, schools are awesome, Disney is doing expansion on every level, commercial investment is unprecedented here.. if you got the proper tour, I'm sure this area would fit your critera. Not to mention the vacation rental market here is the best in Florida.

There is a lot of talk about Poinciana, and there is definitely an surge in the market there, but it's not localized to Poinciana, it's going on everywhere around Disney. Stock prices for Disney are way up and beat all expectations.. the CEO has big plans and every park is going through big expansions. Additionally, there is a lot of investment going into the I-Drive area between Universal and Disney.. Orlando is booming, and most people who live here don't even know about Horizon's West, or the 60,000+ homes that are being built South of Windermere, North and West of Disney.. what used to be fields and orange groves have given way to tens of thousands of new homes and shopping centers. Not to mention Disney has a small commercial space reserved near a big area of development that is breaking ground next year, they've been quiet about it, but it's exciting. 

Additionally, short term rental is surging. With the rise in popularity and credibility of Homeaway.com and Airbnb.com.. more people are renting short term rental homes of all shapes and sizes near Disney, and thus, more investors.. 

I was in a new development yesterday where they are clearing land for over a 1000 new homes, some waterfront, less than a 2 miles from Magic Kingdom.. I went to a big event afterwards with a lot of the areas most prominent realtors, and not one of them even knew it was being developed. A lot of the new developments are not anything would see from the road or drive through making them private, yet accessible to Disney.. this is a gold mine in my opinion.. it's just knowing about it, and hopefully jumping in at some of the pre-construction prices for these homes. 

Just to clarify, this huge short term rental market I speak of, this is technically NOT in Orange county, and technically NOT Orlando.. this is Kissimmee, Davenport, Claremont, Buena Vista, etc.. but basically just south of 192 which is the southern boundary of Disney World Resort. I consider this to still be in the "Greater Orlando Area" though.. 

In my opinion, the biggest opportunity with the most upside is the short-term rental vacation community. Of anywhere in the world, Orlando has the strongest short term rental market on the planet. I don't know if Orlando holds records as tall as that one in any other real estate category.. so for me, I look at the potential there. It's super easy to rent out a home short term because the market is so strong. The other big upside is the rise in popularity of Homeaway.com, Flipkey.com, and Airbnb.com. Those websites are continuing to get better reputations as people see the value, hear the success stories, and realize they can get so much more for the same price or less than a hotel. 
Also, with massive commercial investment for in the I-drive area (eye of Orlando, the new aquarium, etc..) near Sand Lake Drive, there is a lot of bullish investors who are making the area a nicer place to visit. This is increasing demand in the luxury short term housing market (which is slim right now, prices are very high because options are so low).. so for the intermediate investor, maybe someone looking to get away from owning 5 rentals, this is an opportunity to invest $1.5M - $2M on a short term rental home that only needs 5 nights of bookings per month to break even.. (all the available units in this range are booked 18+ nights per month through next year).. so.. for the same price as buying a large multi-family in a high demand area, you could buy a luxury short term rental home in a high demand market, and be able to enjoy the entire house for you and your family while making a tremendous cash flow. 

That's what I would do if I was in the market. Not many real estate deals cash flow (that I've heard of) or have cap rates as good as these opportunities near Disney.