All Forum Posts by: Stetson Miller

Hi @Alex Kovalenko, I would highly recommend Royal Palm Property Management, link below. Thanks @David Vanlandingham!

Royal Palm Property Management

@Brittany L Gramm Like @Ruchit Patel mentioned above, Cape Coral, and really all of Southwest Florida, seems like it would be conducive to you strategy. Multifamily properties can still readily be found in the sub $400,000 price point in decent areas that also retain high rental demand

@Jennifer Gore You picked some big states! Each will have markets that are better suited for different strategies. As a whole though, both are going to be very landlord friendly, so I wouldn't say there's a huge benefit one way or another in those regards

I can't advise on specific markets, but like @Allen Wu mentioned above, Cape Coral and the general Southwest Florida region could very well suit your criteria

@David Gauger Also in Cape Coral as well, but in my experience here, AirDNA fails to capture the market swings that we see between on and off season pricing. During the busy season, mentioned by @Daniel Murphy above, it tends to be a bit lower than actual market pricing. During the off season, it tends to exaggerate market pricing, making the numbers look better than what they actually are, similar to what you're experiencing in South Carolina

I think the platform certainly still has a place in running effective numbers for potential purchases, but it's still important to speak with locals familiar with the market to see exactly what variance percentage can be applied to AirDNA's numbers to get realistic pricing

@Andrew Steffens Think you meant to tag @David Lemont

Hi @Frank Harris,

I just wanted to second everything mentioned above, including that home being a great bed/bath layout, the previously high and now huge demand for housing in this area, and the future growth potential

To answer your initial question a bit more directly though, to Southwest Florida as a whole, it's unlikely that Hurricane Ian will have any lasting impact on the general area as a whole. Obviously there were some local markets that saw total devastation such as Sanibel, Fort Myers Beach, etc. Those specific markets are likely to see the exact issues that you're cautious of running into, but these problems are likely to stay specific to these heavy-hit markets. Cape Coral, for example, which endured minimal to moderate damage on average, will likely easily recover to previous levels within the coming months

Florida certainly did have and still does have an insurance issue, but strong storms are not likely to influence this greatly as this is something that the larger and more reputable insurance companies have already accounted for. This is obviously a complete 180 from what you're likely reading on the news about the issue, but the key word here is 'reputable'. Until Florida is able to legislate regulation on the fraudulent insurance claims that are rampant here right now, you're likely to see minimal annual increases. As that progresses though, I can assure you there's not going to be a mass migration out of the state any time soon

@Aaron S. I would say that largely depends on how soon you're looking to be in the property. There certainly will be some decent buying opportunities in these areas you mentioned, but that would be a direct result of the damage still needing to be remediated. This would mean that you may have a house or even a new construction property to move into, but there might be highly limited or no restaurants nearby to eat at, no great shopping options, and limited access to the things you need daily such as gas stations, grocery stores, etc. 

Hi @Aaron S.,

We're very likely to see some pretty strong decoupling between the areas that were hit very hard by the storm, and the areas that overall saw pretty minimal damage. There really wasn't too much in between these areas, so it's pretty easy to draw the line on both ends of the extreme

Estero was one of the markets that saw very little damage due to a much newer average construction age, so rebuilt efforts are already nearing completion here and the market is already on it's way to recovery from the slight dip of the past week. This is in stark contrast to what you're going to see in areas like Sanibel, Fort Myers Beach, etc, where they are very likely to encounter the scenario that you're describing with drastic price drops throughout the rebuilt effort

Luxury residences in Estero, I would say, are still a very safe purchase right now with high likelihood for appreciation over the next few years, even as these other local markets are still rebuilding

Hi @Jim Windgassen,

Like @Yvonne Gallegos mentioned above, condo minimum lease periods and maximum leases per year allowable are going to pose a challenge to the STR strategy

Since the family you're initially renting to will be in the property for roughly a year or so, and you're interested in running a true STR model without any restrictions, a single family home in Cape Coral is likely to be your best bet. The year that the primary tenants will be in the property will likely provide more than sufficient time for the vacation sector to recover in this area, so that should be a very smooth transition back into that strategy

One thing to note is that whether you're looking at doing a condo or a single family, it's unlikely that either of these will even come close to cash flowing as LTR's, so STR is really your only option for either of these. If you're wanting to keep options open for both strategies, a multifamily property might be better suited for the situation

@Bill Schrimpf Honestly it's too soon to even make a decision like that when looking at the heavily affected areas like Cape Coral (still less than 50% power restoration), Pine Island, Fort Myers Beach, and Sanibel (collective ZERO percent power restoration). For days after the storm hit we saw next to zero MLS activity other than maybe the occasional price change. We're starting to see that come back in now, but it's likely going to be a few months before you could hope to see anything from the highly damaged areas

With that being said, there are many other areas here slightly inland that were largely unaffected and have little to no damage. I would say that buying opportunities have been stable and are exactly what they were before. One thing we have seen a major difference in for these safe markets though is a massive increase in demand for rentals from local displaced homeowners. This, in my opinion, still poses a good investment as it did before the storm, but now has even higher growth potential due to the massive influx of demand

Finally, regarding insurance, it's the answer that no one likes, but it depends. In Florida, there are so many things you can be penalized for, but also credited for when purchasing insurance. Combining those two things results in massive swings in potential quote pricing. To give you an example, a new construction 2,000 sq ft new construction SFH could be fully insured for around $1,000 annually on a good day. This would be accounting for full hurricane roof precautions, impact windows, and other smaller possible credits. Now, for the same layout and size, if you were to take away all those credits and assume the property was built in 1995, and is in a flood zone, insurance could easily be in the $10,000+ range annually. The kicker is that both of these homes could be in Cape Coral, but the new construction could be purchased for significantly less