All Forum Posts by: Nada Mohamed

FYI, short-term (weekly) rentals are prohibited in Orange County (Orlando), be aware of that if you buy a property there for short term rental. The properties that rent best for short-term are typically 5 to 6 bedrooms and 3 to 4 baths and must have a pool. Typically, the garages include pool table and ping pong tables..

There are some great properties with great short-term rental histories available, some of them even include bookings already.

If the short-term market is something you are looking into, do your research, because most of these owners only BREAKEVEN!!! With that being said, some do really well, but these owners spend a lot of time managing and marketing the property on top of what the management company provides.

Thank You Gavin! I obviously have a lot of research to do, and will start compiling a list of questions to ask realtors/developers while I am there. I have seen a couple of short-term rentals for sale that have rental histories and bookings through mid year - this may be the only way to go if one is looking to avoid too much risk . . . lots of work to do :)

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Originally posted by @Adrian Smude:

@Nada Mohamed if you decide on the beaches in the Tampa Bay Area I know a company locally that is managing your property as an Airbnb. If you are looking for the Orlando market you should listen to episode 82 of TheRELoop podcast by @Gavin Welch.

I will definitely listen to the podcast, thank you Adrian!

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Originally posted by @Andrew Thorell:

Originally posted by @Nada Mohamed:

Thanks for your input, can you recommend any specific subdivisions? Are there any to steer clear from?

Nada

Nada,

I would stay clear of going into Haines City, which borders Davenport to the south and east. Plenty of great places North of I-4, which they are developing heavily and expanding Highway 27 from 2->3 lanes going each direction. Also, if you go a bit further north to 192 & 429, that's restaurant row and a very touristy area -- and pretty much on Disney property. This whole region was built with rentals in mind, so most of the communities are already setup to support this model and are fairly clean / safe.

The only catch down here I've found are the HOA Fees. In a number of cases, there is the HOA fee for the subdivision, but usually the "Gated" community has a Master which has an HOA fee on it as well. I've been noticing a lot of listings this way don't include the master.

If you happen to have someone who can go on the house and is 55+, there are even more options for even nicer communities in this region.

If you feel you might want to use the house a longer term rental, Lake Davenport Estates on Florence Villa Grove Road is a nice little community (not gated). It sits right next to a high end park with several football and soccer fields; all built with artificial turf. There was a house in there which ended up on our final list to buy a few years ago; the park was a big feature for us and could be a draw to a long term family with kids. I take my son there a lot.

Thanks for the details Andrew!! You have been extremely helpful!

Nada

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Thanks for your input, can you recommend any specific subdivisions? Are there any to steer clear from?

Nada

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Thank you everyone, I really appreciate all of the input!!

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Originally posted by @Michael Seeker:

Originally posted by @Nada Mohamed:

Originally posted by @Peter Davis:

I agree with Adam. Cape Coral is a good value and there's a strong demand for rentals.

Thank you Peter, are there certain times of the year that Cape Coral is busy or is it busy year-round for tourism? Are there restriction for Cape Coral when it comes to short term rentals?

Nada

Hey Nada - I've lived in Cape Coral for about a year and a half now and have a couple family friends that own vacation rentals in Cape (5+ years). The average occupancy as quoted from their management company's whole book of business in the city is 32 weeks. I've crunched the numbers on several "affordable" FL areas and the only one that appears to make any sense is near Disney where people visit year round but demand from buyers/investors is also very high. Good luck with a seasonal rental in FL in the summer!

Thanks for the input, the more I do my own research, I find that Orlando may be the best option as low vacancy is very important to me.

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@Carolyn Morales

I will be in the Orlando area, but do not mind driving out to other areas to take a look . . . I have a week to kill - not there for tourism, husband has business to take care of over there.

Nada

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Originally posted by @Kaizen Christian:

Definitely be sure to ask your realtor where in the area you can buy a "vacation" rental. I'm almost positive it's restricted in Orlando itself, and you would need be looking at areas more in Kissimmee, Buena Vista, Celebration etc. I'm not a realtor, I just work for an accommodation website. I know we deny applications for houses in Orlando. I don't know the specifics because I'm not in the department that processes those applications. Disney is not technically in Orlando. it's in Lake Buena Vista. However, Sea World and Universal is in Orlando.

I just found a post made yesterday. It came up in my keyword alerts as I'm going through. Maybe you can contact him.

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https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/530/topics/26...

@Chris Romany

I am a Realtor as well as an Investor based right here in Orlando. I just wanted to underscore Leslie's comments made earlier; she is right on the money! Short term rentals are not approved for many areas of Orlando (including some of those near Disney); further, for some of the gated communities that are approved, the HOA fees and property taxes can be onerous, so make sure you check over all your numbers prior to investing in one of these units.

As far as an environment for vacation rentals, you probably can't beat the Orlando market. We had over 62 million visitors in 2014, and it may be even higher in 2015.

Best of luck to you.

Thank You Kaizen for your input. Can you suggest particular areas where short term rentals are available? I will keep my eye out for that when searching for sure.

Nada

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Originally posted by @Peter Davis:

I agree with Adam. Cape Coral is a good value and there's a strong demand for rentals.

Thank you Peter, are there certain times of the year that Cape Coral is busy or is it busy year-round for tourism? Are there restriction for Cape Coral when it comes to short term rentals?

Nada

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Originally posted by @Adam Bartomeo:

@Kaizen Christian

@Nada Mohamed

In my opinion kaizen is correct. There are plenty of properties in these areas to choose from. I own a long term rental in Kissimmee, we lived there for 6 months and we go to Disney or universal 10-20 times a year. Stay close to irlo Bronson Blvd or international Blvd.

If your looking at the west coast then Naples is great if you have A Lot of money to burn. If not then start looking north of there. There are plenty of vacation rentals in Cape Coral and the prices aren't that bad.

Thank you Adam, do you find it profitable at year's end after all is said and done? How competitive is the short term vacationing rental sector if you know? Should I expect a lot of vacancy? I do not plan on vacationing in Florida as much as you since I am out of state - probably a couple of weeks a year so short term rental is definitely what I am looking for.

Nada

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All Forum Posts by: Nada Mohamed

Nada Mohamed has started 4 posts and replied 73 times.

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