Rental demand all year (Tampa: renters, house, safe area)

[dnc19694339]

Hi, Im looking to purchase a single family home in the Tampa / St Pete area at some point. I will be renting this out and/or staying in it periodically in the winter, eventually retiring to it as a winter home.

I'm trying to understand what type of demand exists for rentals year round. I know winter months are busy but unsure what demand is like other months of the year?

[MortonR]

While you did specify year round rentals, the seasonal rentals are more common the closer you get to the water, and north towards Citrus County due to the "snowbirds" who frequent that area.

Otherwise, year round rentals are pretty common. Since the financial crisis large numbers of sub $250k homes were bought up by institutional investors and turned into rentals. There's a significant demand in most areas. There are a number of rentals in my neighborhood and they appear to turn pretty quickly. To give you an idea, most are in a range of 1800-2200 square feet, some with pools, in a very good school district and safe area. Prices appear to range in the $1600-$2200/month.

RM

[lavender]

If you want to use the property yourself in the winter, you are going to lose the majority of your market, unless you buy a beach property, but I am thinking you are looking at a more average single family home? You have to be careful of zoning restrictions, although these days they dont seem to be an issue for many renters on Air BNB. Short term rental folks like to be near beach/water/attraction, but you might get commercial visitors, but that's a specialist and sometimes frustrating market.
The highest and best use of a rental is either annual - as you pay no utilities and its ongoing income, or seasonal, and that tends to be just jan-march if you are not at the beach, and then you might pick up occasional other times, but you have to pay all the running costs of the home, utilities/ cable/ wifi etc etc when its a short term because guests expect it. Best bet is buy the house if it is for investment, rent it out annually, so you also dont have to furnish it, and just come down in winter and rent a place for a while, until you can move down permanently. Good luck though with the search.