All Forum Posts by: Mike Shulman

Kissimmee and Davenport are very short term rental friendly. All the homes are set up for people that come to Disney the other amusement parks and Convention centers in Orlando. Orlando is the number one location for conventions in the world. Over 50 million people visit here a year. PM me if you'd like to set up a call and I can give you more info

Quote from @Danielle Du Plooy:

Hi @Mike Shulman, thank you for your input. Where in central Fl would you recommend? I did see Orlando is not STR friendly. Our budget is 500-600K for 3/4bdrm so I'm not sure if the coast would be

there are many great locations in Florida to invest in STR. I would focus on locations that have stable rules for allowing it. Central Fl is a great location as its still reasonably priced and more people come here on vacation than any place else in the world. If you have a larger budget I like the coast. Coca Beach, Indian Rocks beach, and Largo are some of my favorite areas for short term rental.

St Pete actually doesn't allow short-term rental. Focus your search on unincorporated Pinellas County, Largo, or Indian rocks beach. It's allowed in those areas. feel free to reach out if you have further questions. 

Hello Stanton , as you suspected you are not allowed to do short-term rental in the downtown St Pete area. It is restricted and you can be shut down very easily and find, there are many people that do it but I wouldn't advise it knowing it's against the rules.  However there are places in that area that do allow it. Unincorporated Pinellas county allows it, largo allows it, Indian rocks Beach allows it. If you wanted to head a little bit more south Manatee county doesn't have any regulations either. Feel free to PM me if you have any further questions.

Quote from @Raj Konda:

I m primarily a SFR investor and stumbled upon Condotel in Orlando, 5 mins to Disney. It is a new construction condos next to Margaritaville. The breakeven is at 60% occupancy. Trying to learn more about this investment strategy, mainly any pitfalls I should be aware of. Purely looking from an investment standpoint and not planning to use it for vacation purposes any time soon.

Appreciate your feedback/experiences. 

Condotels are a mixed bag. Im not a fan of a property that doesn't let you pick your own management company. You are at their mercy if they don't perform well or they raise their prices. With that being said, if the management company has a name-brand hotel running it, you can do well. I believe the way to excel at STR is to make your property special through decor and cosmetic upgrades. That's typically not allowed in a Condotel. I have been selling STR in Central Florida since 2005 and know most of the communities well. I would only endorse a few condotels. PM me if you have any further questions.

most Realtors successful are not don't know much about short-term rental. Tampa has a 7-Day minimum. St Pete has a 30-day minimum. Apollo Beach is a good choice for short-term rental because the rules allow you to have one day rental and it's very close to Tampa and St pete. Red tide effects a large portion of the West Coast of florida. You can't predict it or hide from it. If you're worried about red tide, look on the east coast. In general, the entire area does really well. But it sounds like you need a realtor that specializes in short term rental sales, not just investment. Rules and restrictions change Street by Street and Union expert. Know a great realtor in that area if you're interested, send me a PM.

Quote from @Steve W.:

If your very successful agents sounded surprised, dig into that a bit more. "It sounds like you might be surprised I am considering Apollo Beach? Do you think Tampa has some better advantages that match my goals?" 

Red Tide stinks, it is seasonal, and it affects a lot of areas.

I know the Disney corridor very well, what communities are you looking at specifically?

If you're talking about the encore in reunion I believe they have restrictions on management companies and will only allow you to use one of theirs. That means you're not able to self manage. If you choose to use a management company that's not approved by them you're not allowed to use the amenities. I love reunion encore but would never recommend purchasing there because I don't like to be locked to one management company or not able to self manage.

I feel you wouldn't make a profit with long term, so a $500 a month positive cash flow is definitely the way to go. 

encore as limited who can manage as long as they've been in existence. So I wouldn't expect anything to change. I'm also not a fan of a community that restricts. Firstly the managers don't have a huge incentive to do better as they can't easily be replaced. And if you want to replace them you don't have many any other options. I don't like being obligated to use a vendor. With that being said encore is a beautiful community with some amazing amenities. But it would not be my first choice.

Originally posted by @Ashwin Kumar:

Hi , I am looking at a property in encore that has a reasonable good history of income (primarily from Airbnb) and was doing reasonably well even in 2020/2021 according to the owner and airdna data seems to concur . However I see the hoa restrictions regarding property management companies and see that property prices have been all over the place and ppl having trouble selling .

Do you guys have any idea if the policy  is likely to change ? The prices are up now. Any idea why is that the case ? Is it just that things have improved post Covid restrictions ?   

I intend to employ a property management company but I would definitely prefer the flexibility to choose the company that I like