Tim Hubbard describes his on-the-ground process for finding short-term rental (Airbnb) investment properties after narrowing target states and cities remotely. He visited three U.S. states (Tennessee, Florida, Texas) and toured neighborhoods—favoring midtown areas that balance density and amenities—while checking local short-term rental regulations (noting St. Petersburg is strict, Tampa looser). He recommends contacting brokers, staying in local Airbnbs to assess competition, using scooters to explore neighborhoods, and always running the long-term numbers to ensure investments remain viable if regulations or STR demand change.
Questions this video answers
Tennessee, Florida, and Texas.
Florida: Tampa and St. Petersburg; Texas: San Antonio and Austin; Tennessee: Memphis (existing market).
Chapters
So I've been traveling around quite a bit the last few weeks. I went to three different states. A handful of cities went from Brazil, the US And I'm back down here in Colombia. And most of that time was spent looking for new properties, which is always really exciting. But can it be. It can be a little challenging. So I want to break down exactly how I went about the process. We're not talking about the big bird's eye view here. We're talking about the on the ground research and what I look for and kind of just a few steps that I take. So without further ado, let's jump right in to this week's episode of the Short Term Rental Riches podcast. Welcome to Short Term Rental Riches. Quick, actionable ideas to help you along your real estate investment journey, but with a specific focus on short term rentals. Welcome back to the Short Term Rental Riches podcast. Happy you guys are here again. As always, another week and another fun topic about real estate and investing in real estate and finding properties is the topic of this week, which is a really important one. Right. It's the foundation for our investment. If we don't find the right properties, then we're not going to have good returns, we're not going to have good short term rentals. The whole thing's just not going to work. So I've been traveling around quite a lot. I was in three different states in the U.S. tennessee, Florida and Texas. And I went to a handful of cities in those states. And so I want to talk about that process because I was looking for new properties. And we've talked about this in the past. First of all, we've got to narrow down these big broad markets that we want to go to first. Right? That's. We can do that from anywhere. We can do that with research on the computer. We've talked about that before in the past, but this week I want to really break it down. Like when you get to these areas that are interesting to you, where you're looking for new properties, how do you go about actually finding a specific property amongst thousands and thousands of properties potentially, or, you know, bunch of different neighborhoods? So let's just jump right into it. Well, I mean, after we've got those fundamentals figured out, then we can narrow down on some neighborhoods. And in the past, you know, I've talked about really liking these neighborhoods that are between the suburbs, so really far out, and between the real dense urban areas, these midtown areas, because I think they're really well set up for short term rentals. You know, they're near a lot of entertainment, they're near restaurants or near cafes. But they're not too, too dense where the prices might not work out or maybe you have harsher restrictions if you're in a really dense area. So I was kind of honing in on these midtown areas and before I even got there, I knew what prices I was looking at. I knew the unit mix I was looking for. My case, these were, you know, smaller multifamily properties, up to like 12 units. And so I knew that going in, I had some research, I contacted brokers in the area that I was going to check out. And so all of that stuff we can do before we even get to a market, we can do that remotely. But I like to actually go to the market and really get a good feel for the neighborhood. And that's what these trips were all about.
So let's start with the first one. I went to Florida. If you are a US citizen, you probably know that Florida has been booming. It's been booming for a long, long time for a lot of reasons because it has a lot of the good fundamentals that we look for as real estate investors. It has great population growth, it has low cost of living, it has landlord friendliness, it has diverse employment and growing employment. So these things are common in the three states. I was in Florida, Texas, Tennessee, they all have that. So I was able to narrow that down, of course, before going to these small neighborhoods. Now Memphis in Tennessee, if you guys know, if you've been listening podcasts for a while, that's where I have a lot of properties, dozens of properties already. So I might already familiar with that one. I'll kind of leave that out for this episode and talk about Florida and Texas, which were new to me. I've been to both those states several times, but I hadn't really been there actively looking for properties. So they both have good fundamentals. In Florida, I was looking in Tampa and St. Petersburg and two different cities with two different sets of rental regulations for short term rentals. So that's a big thing, right? That's a big piece that we need to consider when we are looking to invest in short term rentals because if we can't do them there, well, that is not going to work out. Right. So St. Petersburg actually has really strict short term rental regulations. I really like the market. I wasn't necessarily looking for multifamily properties that I was going to do 100% short term rentals, was looking at potentially just keeping some long term rentals. But that's one thing that deterred me from St. Petersburg, Tampa. Tampa is a little looser with the regulations, I would say. But again, this is like a neighborhood to neighborhood things. We really need to find out which neighborhoods we're interested in first and then check the regulations to make sure that we can actually rent these properties as short term rentals. So I checked out a couple properties in Florida. As with everywhere right now, prices are kind of crazy, right? We just printed trillions of dollars here in the US And a lot of that money's going into asset prices. And so things are compet, things are competitive right now. So I really liked Florida. I'm still looking in there. I at least this trip gave me a better understanding of where I'm actually looking, specific areas. I contacted brokers, so I'm on some lists now and I kind of, I have my eyes out. And then I headed to Texas and San Antonio specifically. Well, actually went to Austin also, but to meet up with friends. And then San Antonio was looking for properties and San Antonio's kind of been on my list for a while. Texas, again, just like Florida and Tennessee, has really good fundamentals. It's been growing really, really quickly. A lot of people moving there, a lot of employment growth. And San Antonio is a good size city. I like to invest in cities that are like over 500,000 people, you know, so they're pretty diverse and a little more spread out, there's a little more going on. That also means that there's more, going to be more people traveling there, right? I mean, if you're in a tiny little town of, you know, a thousand people, well then you're for sure going to have less business travel. And I know business travel is maybe a gray area now because everyone's work, working virtually, but not everyone's working virtually. We still have people staying in my properties all the time for work and people are staying longer because they're able to work virtually. So by being in a bigger city, you're still going to be able to capture some of that business travel, but you are still going to be able to capture people visiting, family.
People going on vacations, exploring a new city. And if you're in one of these markets where people are moving to, well, then a lot of people are checking out the city before they actually move there too.
You know what's a good way to kind of check your airbnb competition? Well, it's to stay in Airbnbs in the neighborhoods where you are, where you are looking. And that's what I Did. So I had a little area on the map drawn out that met what I was looking for, you know, close to these cafes that millennials like to go to. And, well, everyone likes to go to, you know, just. Just kind of in the action in these midtown areas, but not too, too dense. So I stayed in one. I gotta say, I wasn't impressed with the Airbnb. I stayed in, and it was also a high price and there was hardly any available. So that's a good sign. Right? But by staying in the property, you really get a feel for the competition you're going to have around that area. So I checked out some properties. I've got a specific spot drawn out on the map now, which I can give to brokers, I can give to real estate agents, say, hey, if anything pops up in this area, definitely interested, if it's between this price, if it's in this condition. So as long as we know exactly what we want, it's going to really help the search. But by being there on the ground, we get to really fill out these neighborhoods. Because, you know, a lot of cities, you might have a great street. You cross the street and it's not so good over there. You can check that out on Google Maps. But if you're really at the point where you're getting ready to pull the trigger and invest some money, then it's nice to be in the actual neighborhood you're looking to invest in.
So once we make it to these neighborhoods, how do we get around? Well, you know, I was driving around, getting a good feel for the city, getting a feel for kind of the surroundings where I'm at. But once I kind of narrowed in the actual neighborhoods, you know, I was driving around and I keep stopping because I'm checking out properties and I'm on my phone, you know, looking at LoopNet and looking at some of the listing sites where we can see properties that are available. And then I see this scooter. It's kind of like Uber. You put your credit card in or whatever. And I jumped on one of those bad boys. And I gotta say that that was a really good way to get around a neighborhood and really know, get a feel for the neighborhood. It was also fun, too. And that's really how I do my on the ground search. You know, I've already cut out most all of the cities in the U.S. i guess you could say, like the majority of them narrow it down to these states, narrow it down to cities, and then I'm looking in these specific neighborhoods, and then once I get there I'm just getting a good feel for it so it's fun. Of course you know these are tax write offs too if you're investing check with your cpa. I'm not a professional tax advisor. You know you can have a good time doing this and it's, it's, it definitely gives you an idea and I would say it makes you more comfortable about pulling the trigger in a new market and the most most important thing after all of this is that once we find these properties just run the numbers with the long term rentals and make sure that they still work with your financing so that if whatever happens to short term rentals or you know regulations change or whatever that you still have a good investment for the long term haul. So I hope that helped give you a little idea just kind of how I go about the process. Hope everyone's doing awesome out there and I will catch you next time. Take care.
