All Forum Posts by: Shawn McCormick

@Antonio Sparapani

Sounds like you got some good advice. I am local and would be happy to talk thru some options you might want to consider. Condos have different lending requirements that may limit your buyer pool to have them qualify (or the condo association qualify). Best of luck, let me know if I can be of any help.

@Brittney Smith I sent you a message.

Glad she worked out for you. Happy to help anytime!

@Juan González The Orlando/Kissimmee market doesn't have a whole lot to offer in the way of multi family in a consistant supply. Most of what hits the market is gone almost immediately and anything left if left for a reason (you wouldn't want to live in the area, the house is too old, isn't really a multi family unit etc, etc). Tampa has much more inventory and therefore the prices are a little more attractive. 

Depending on if you are willing/able to live in the middle somewhere, you will have a better opportunity Polk and Hillsborough counties will offer some better pricing, little less competition, but generally less diversity in your tenant pool. Tradeoffs. Look in Lakeland, Haines City, Auburndale, Winter Haven, Bartow and then all the way over to New Port Richey. 

Good Luck!

@Wayne Woodson You have gotten pretty great responses here. I will add that if you are able to travel to view the property before getting it under contract or during your inspection period, take tons of photos and video...measure everything and meet with your agent and have them help you. Much can be done remotely, but no one will do it to your standards. 

In my market, Orlando, our STR homes come fully furnished and ready to rent the day after closing and also future bookings almost always convey with the property. So this can be a challenge to even put lipstick on your rental since it is booked when you take over. I advise my clients to block some time off the calendar during a traditionally slow time and pre-book all your work to be done during that time. Pre order all of your furniture, theming items etc and store them so that when the time comes, you are ready to knock out any updates and not interrupt any guest experience. I would even suggest incentivizing the first few guests after your redo to give you great reviews.

Hope this helps and good luck!

 @Frank Zhao, did you not have a real estate agent help you with the purchase? They should be your number one resource for just about everything you will need and it sounds like you've already closed on the home, so you are even further behind. Reach out to @Jay Breitlow, he manages properties for several of my clients and he has been fantastic with them. 

@Trent Paulk are there specific areas of Orlando you are looking in to? Orange County as a whole does not allow it, that is why all of the surrounding counties do well. For Disney area rentals, Osceoloa has the most STR communities, then come Polk and Lake....many of which are designed specifically as vacation/resort communities. If you are looking outside of the Disney area, be more diligent on your research, Seminole, Volusia, Brevard will all have different rules and even those will change from area to area (like some towns only allow STR in 1 bedroom condo units, not 2 or 3 bedroom, crazy stuff like that.)

Of course that is just from the county level, you then will have to make sure the HOA allows it. A very basic way to help determine it would be to find the home/neighborhood you are interested in..go to map view and then satellite. If every home in the community has a pool, you are cool, if only a few do than you probably won't make any money there anyhow, even if the HOA allows it.

Hope this helps a bit.

@Hilary Stalder if you are near the UCF or Valencia campuses, it is very common for a home to be rented out by the room and have each person's parent be on the lease and if any of the kids break the lease, drops out etc...the other parents are on the hook. This should almost be expected that the parents will know and accept those terms and if they don't, there will be plenty lined up behind them.s

The local REIA (CFRI..net) has meet-up groups that will cover these types of things for you and they actually just had a landlord workshop this weekend.

 @James Roux I live in Clermont. One of my go to agents if you are having issues is Colleen Pacheco with Secured Insurance locally. 407-407-725-3413

@Jordan Thompson The numbers can/will vary greatly based on community, size of the home, theming, and number of beds. I have a basic breakdown by the community of what to expect by size of home that I can share. However, you are running a small business and your ROI will be different depending on how you operate it, the reviews you get, how you manage etc.