Short Term Rentals in St Petersburg, Fl

[John Vitta]

How are investors doing Short Term Rentals in St Petersburg if you can only do STRs 3 times per year? I see STRs all year long, are they just taking a chance?

[Didier Bizimungu]

Correct on your last question. But there are also a few smaller cities around St. Petersburg where you can look up their short term laws.

Gulfport, Lealman, & Kenneth City to name a few. 

[Robert H.]

I think areas on the St Pete peninsula zoned as Unincorporated Pinellas County are legal with no use limits.  

[Luke Rorech]

@Robert H. is correct. If you look at a municipality map for Pinellas County, you'll notice there's a lot of areas that are unincorporated. Those areas have no nightly minimum. You can check to see which municipality the property resides in at the county appraisers website. It's also true though that many people illegally rent their units more than regulations permit. Most never get caught but it's a risk you run if it's not allowed.  

[Dan Maciejewski]

Quote from @John Vitta:

How are investors doing Short Term Rentals in St Petersburg if you can only do STRs 3 times per year? I see STRs all year long, are they just taking a chance?

 If you're talking about St Pete proper, most are doing it "under the radar."  The city hasn't been enforcing it like Clearwater.  But if I was a betting man, I'd wager that they will realize they can ease the housing shortage a bit by cracking down on all those illicit STRs -- eventually!  Every housing unit counts.

As to a comment above -- Gulfport only allows short term rentals in a very small area.  And unless you have a very tight budget, I would stay out of Lealman and Kenneth City -- they have a lower ROI than other areas. There are profitable areas that have St Pete mailing addresses that are actually unincorporated. Many of those do very well.

Vacation rentals in Pinellas as a whole are still looking like great investments.  Especially compared to most commercial and multifamily markets here (and nationwide).  Plus you get a vacation home in sunny Florida if you choose!

West Central Pinellas is where most of the above average to luxury STRs are right now.