What Annual Costs Are Involved In A Davenport, FL Short Term Rental Home

I'm going to answer your questions in list form to keep things organized.

1. Question: Can we purchase any property and then be able to rent out short term? Are there restrictions, and if so, what properties do we need to view?

Answer: Here in Florida there two categories of rentals. There are either short term or long term rentals. There are usually no restrictions on long term rentals. But in this case you are asking about short term rentals. There are indeed restrictions on where short term rentals may be done. There are a few communities in Kissimmee near Disney that allow short term rentals. But I think you would be better off looking for a home in Davenport which is only about 15 minutes from Disney. In Davenport, about 90% of the homes built since 1990 allow short term rentals. It's a more desirable location in my opinion as well.

2. Question: What are the average annual taxes and charges in Florida, payable when you own a property?

Answer: There are quite a few costs associated with short term rentals that the owner must pay. Here is a brief list of them (this list is not all inclusive as there may be more or less costs involved depending on the situation):

Property taxes-probably something like $1,000-$2,000 per year right now
HOA fees-$200-$7,200 per year depending on what community you buy in
Home owner's insurance-probably $1,500-$2,000
Utilities-Probably $2,500-$3,500 depending on size of home and how often it's booked
Lawn service-Probably $600-$1,000 per year or so
Pool service-Probably $500-$800 per year
Management fees-Likely 10% of gross rental income
Income taxes-I believe it's 28% of any income accrued
Property maintenance-I would build in about $1,000 per year to maintain the home with

That should give you a rough idea.

3. Question: With regards to prices, we see the properties for sale as, bank owned or short sale, are these the prices we pay, or are there additional amounts that will have to be paid/cleared on completion?

Answer: The listed price is just a marketed price of a home. You could end up paying more or less depending on whether there are other offers on a property or so and so on. I would budget in about $2,000 in settlement fees to be paid at settlement. For a cash purchase it probably wouldn't even be that much but better safe than sorry.

4. Question: As UK citizens and tax payers, what would we need to put in place if we decided to proceed with a purchase?

Answer: In answer to this one I'm going to provide two links to a couple articles I wrote which I think you'll find helpful.

http://activerain.com/blogsview/1746551/davenport-fl-real-estate-the-international-buyer-s-guide

http://activerain.com/blogsview/2411949/5-things-you-must-do-prior-to-your-trip-to-buy-a-villa-in-davenport-florida

Let me know if you have any questions, but I think this will really help clear it all up. Have a great night.