Hi all!
I am looking at beachfront property in St Petersburg (to live in) but, ultimately, to be able to put on air bnb when we move out of it and use as a vacation home. My wife and I are STL natives and have 14 properties there but do not know the Tampa St. Petersburg market. Not necessarily looking for a huge cash flow deal but rather suggestions from anyone familiar with the area on maybe areas or condo associations to look at, specific areas you'd recommend or recommend staying away from. We'd like to be around $400k Mark for 2 bedroom - 3 bedroom and understand we may need to go a little higher. We are 29/30 age group. Beachfront looking over ocean is one criteria.
Thanks for any help and would love to meet some investors in the area when we officially make the move!
See the agents BiggerPockets members work with in Petersburg, VA.
See agents@Matt N. Hello from Tampa. I also heard that St. Petersburg was not happy with Airbnb business. Here is an article talking about making them pay a bed tax in Florida.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/tourism/airb...
There are more articles if you do a Search online. I was looking into an Airbnb business, but, you have to "host" them. I have property in Brazil that I have to get back to and this is my time to semi-retire. I am not looking to Manage a private Hotel...The people attracted to this type of business, seem to live in one part of the house and "host" the part that they rent out. I know of one lady in Safety Harbor who bought one big house. She took out all the carpets and my friend installed dark wood floors for easier maintenance. This lady starting making enough from this one house with Airbnb to quit her JOB and she bought another in Safety Harbor, looking for more on the "A" Class side of the little town.The is another couple who discovered this some years ago and they bought all the small houses and apartments around the Town Center to just Airbnb them. My question was, "Why Safety Harbor?" Turns out that Vacationers were willing to live in a quaint, quiet, beautiful, little Town, near the Clearwater and St. Pete Beaches with some views of Tampa Bay. They did not necessarily want to live, "on the beach." The other attraction was that each year there is an Antique British Car Show.
http://atlantahealeys.org/events/29th-annual-safet...
Lasts a week and everything rents for high prices. Here in Tampa, this would relate to Conventions, The Yankees, The Buccaneers football games. Ice Hockey downtown, Bush Gardens and all the beaches nearby. One other problem is Flood Insurance. This is a Federal program and the Politicians have not solved the problem with how to fund it. Flood was supposed to go up 10% a year until they found a way. There is no way to continue to raise the cost and expect all the Owner Occupied Retired Owners to be able to afford it in their Fixed Income, Less Spending, Retirements. I am living on a double lot, on the Hillsborough River, across from the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa. One of our concerns is how the Flood Insurance problem is going to be solved. You want a St. Pete home to vacation on the Beach and Airbnb? I would do a lot more research from here to make it work out.
I'll be interested in hearing the results with Matt.
If you are looking for any distressed beach front properties I would love to try to find some for you. I come across some off market deals occasionally. I'll connect with you and keep you posted.
I heard short term rentals are illegal in St Pete. The lease needs to be longer than a month. Not that being illegal is the problem, but you might want to check in to see if the city is going to enforce this or not. I doubt they have the resources to police it, but who knows, municipalities have odd priorities.
@Matt N. Hello from Tampa. I also heard that St. Petersburg was not happy with Airbnb business. Here is an article talking about making them pay a bed tax in Florida.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/tourism/airb...
There are more articles if you do a Search online. I was looking into an Airbnb business, but, you have to "host" them. I have property in Brazil that I have to get back to and this is my time to semi-retire. I am not looking to Manage a private Hotel...The people attracted to this type of business, seem to live in one part of the house and "host" the part that they rent out. I know of one lady in Safety Harbor who bought one big house. She took out all the carpets and my friend installed dark wood floors for easier maintenance. This lady starting making enough from this one house with Airbnb to quit her JOB and she bought another in Safety Harbor, looking for more on the "A" Class side of the little town.The is another couple who discovered this some years ago and they bought all the small houses and apartments around the Town Center to just Airbnb them. My question was, "Why Safety Harbor?" Turns out that Vacationers were willing to live in a quaint, quiet, beautiful, little Town, near the Clearwater and St. Pete Beaches with some views of Tampa Bay. They did not necessarily want to live, "on the beach." The other attraction was that each year there is an Antique British Car Show.
http://atlantahealeys.org/events/29th-annual-safet...
Lasts a week and everything rents for high prices. Here in Tampa, this would relate to Conventions, The Yankees, The Buccaneers football games. Ice Hockey downtown, Bush Gardens and all the beaches nearby. One other problem is Flood Insurance. This is a Federal program and the Politicians have not solved the problem with how to fund it. Flood was supposed to go up 10% a year until they found a way. There is no way to continue to raise the cost and expect all the Owner Occupied Retired Owners to be able to afford it in their Fixed Income, Less Spending, Retirements. I am living on a double lot, on the Hillsborough River, across from the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa. One of our concerns is how the Flood Insurance problem is going to be solved. You want a St. Pete home to vacation on the Beach and Airbnb? I would do a lot more research from here to make it work out.
Matt, there are a several condo hotels in Redington, Madeira Beach, Treasure Island and St Pete Beach. These will provide full management from finding short term tenants (1 day upwards) to managing all aspects of you rental. You can also Homestead some of the buildings as well. I know the beaches well, PM your contact details and let's talk live.
Great. Thanks for the help.
As we've driven around this weekend (about to leave), we have enjoyed the Redington area and a lot of the areas down the St Pete beach. About to head to Treasure Island on way to Airport. We also liked the St Pete downtown area (looked like it was being upgraded with new condos, etc) but too far from beach for what we are going for for living.
We are leaning toward single family home that is walking distance to the beach on one of the side streets going down. Still looking at condos that don't have restrictions on renting out if we leave a few years from now for work and want to keep as vacation home.
Our objective is to locate the area that most aligns with our lifestyle (we are 30) and would love some suggestions. Looking for a 3 bed 1 bath that needs some updating but not a full on flip. I own 14 properties in STL and have done a lot of rentals and flips over the past few years and our objective with this one is much different being a house we want to live in. But in my nature not to pay full price for an upgraded property when I can upgrade it as I like. If anyone has any suggestions with the above, I would love to chat! We are really trying to get a feel for the area and have up to 5 months that we can do research, come down and visit, etc. so we have time. And worst case scenario, we can rent for a few months while having feet on the ground. But I would love to meet some of the investors in the area and realtors as I'm a realtor myself, investor and attorney and have gotten to know almost everyone in STL market and starting from scratch! First things first though we are trying to identify the areas near the beach to stay away from and get recommendations from those with experience here on where they recommend for a younger couple. Price range is up to $500k, which I have seen a lot within the price range.
@Colin Mooney i know we are colleagues already and im oretty sure i sent you my enail but if i haven't please let me know because i would be interested in keeping up with any of your off market properties .. i work with a few different partners that team up with me on distressed properties .. on is in the Tampa area .. the last house he had ( not a deal we did together unfortunately ) sold for $599k he is one of my partners that tends to buy bigger homes with bigger rewards and bigger risks .. although i do deal with others that like to be around the $75-140k mark after rehab per property .. all SfH ..thank you ..
god speed,
Michael Short
Would love to hear about what you fine. We are investors from VT, hoping to find something similar, but under 300K for a sf, 450 multi. We love the Redington area, Madeira beach is where we stay when we go down. St Pete has some great neighborhoods, but yes, farther from the beach.