FMBGN-AK-Alex King Group-Short Term Rentals On Fort Myers Beach

“Short-term rental” gets thrown around like it’s one simple strategy, but on Fort Myers Beach it can mean anything from a condotel with resort perks to a canal-front house built for three families at once. We dig into what actually drives rental performance here, starting with the question most buyers skip: what’s your real goal? If you’re a pure investor, you’ll design and buy differently than someone who just wants the home to cover operating costs, build equity, and still enjoy a week on the island.

From there, we get practical about vacation rental design. We talk why bedroom count is trending up, how extended families are reshaping demand, and what layouts consistently earn better reviews, like two living areas, a separate lounge zone, and smart use of space. We also compare property types and rental models, including condotels, weekly rental condos, and monthly streets, plus how management splits and rules can change your net income.

Then we zoom out to Fort Myers Beach geography and the myths that trip up out-of-town buyers. Not everyone wants to be in the middle of the “woohoo,” and Mid-Island and the south end can still book strong when the home matches the guest experience. We cover amenities that matter most, why a pool can be critical for summer and fall rentals, and the maintenance and liability choices that can quietly eat returns. If you’re shopping for a Fort Myers Beach short-term rental or planning a new build, this is the roadmap we wish every buyer had.

Subscribe for more Fort Myers Beach real estate insights, share this with a friend eyeing a vacation rental, and leave a review with your biggest question about buying, designing, or managing rentals on the island.

Alex King Group
100 Lovers Ln, Fort Myers Beach, FL 33931
 (239) 232-6465
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Transcript

Welcome And What We Cover

Intro/Close 0:00

Welcome to the Fort Myers Beach Good Neighbor Podcast, the Alex King Group Series. Each week, we'll be covering all things Fort Myers Beach Real Estate, from market updates to local insight and the unique charm that makes this community such a special place to live. Welcome home where dreams are created and lifestyles are elevated.

What Short-Term Rentals Mean Here

"Cabo" Jim 0:19

Welcome, Fort Myers Beach Good Neighbors, to another episode with Alex King talking about real estate. Today we're going to talk about something that comes up time to time here in Fort Myers Beach in the real estate world, and that's short-term rentals. We want to go a little bit deeper than just whether a property can be rented. We want to talk about how homes are actually designed for short-term rental use, what makes a property perform well, and some of the unique nuances that come with buying and owning on the island. Because not every single property is the same and not every home looks the same on paper as it does in person. So let's start here. When people hear short-term rentals, what what are they thinking? What are they picturing? Well, good morning, everybody. Right? Yep. Alex King here. Um so repeat your question. So when people hear short-term rentals, what what are they thinking? What are they picturing?

Alex King 1:15

It's such a all-encompassing phrase, right? Um, you know, if if we were just like a one-mile stretch of island and it could uh with just condos, it'd be that.

"Cabo" Jim 1:28

Yeah.

Alex King 1:29

But um not only do we have condos on the gulf front, yeah, we have houses on gulf front, we got canal houses, we got duplexes, triplexes, we got six-bedroom homes. It is such a wide net. Um, but as we dig down deeper in this conversation, we can dissect it a little bit.

Investor Goals And Break-Even Reality

"Cabo" Jim 1:50

Yeah, I mean, but but when they're thinking in rental initially, are they thinking investment? Are they thinking, oh, we're gonna make money? Uh, it it just because it's on the island, it works as a rental kind of scenario, right?

Alex King 2:00

Well, yeah, and that that's a very important factor to think about. You know, what is your real goal? So are you an investor? Okay, well, what does that mean to you? Because a lot of folks, it could mean I bought a property, yeah, I put it in a rental program. Um, you know, let's say my basic operating costs are maybe $25,000 a year. And you broke even. Now, you are an investor because you know why you're building equity. Yeah, and that was your goal. Break even, have a free place to stay. Right? Sounds like a great that is a goal for many folks. As long as it breaks even, we can afford that.

"Cabo" Jim 2:50

So once you get past the the vision, the postcard vision of it, uh, what matters most is actually how the property functions, right? So when you look at a property and think, you know, this could be a short-term rental, what are they seeing? What are they seeing in the potential?

Alex King 3:08

Well, when we're looking at the property for short-term rental, um uh there's geographic location, um, there's uh the way the house is designed. Yeah um uh depending where it is, is it on the beach or a canal? For example, if you're on the beachfront, um you probably will be thinking about if it's a new construction, having a rooftop deck. That's a new invoked thing right now. Because you'll be able to be up there, you have great views, and then in the ground level area, you probably are going to have some paddle boards, uh, you lot a lot of beach toys that you just drag out to the beach. Now that's a little bit different if you're over on the uh on a side street that's a dry street, no canal.

Design Choices That Drive Bookings

"Cabo" Jim 3:57

Yeah, bicycles are gonna be very important. It's it all it all ties together, and I'm guessing that's where design becomes a much bigger part of the conversation. You know, where that location is depends on what they're gonna be offering at that property. So, how much does actual design of the home matter when you're talking about short-term rentals, whether they're building from new or you know, rebuilding something that's existing?

Alex King 4:23

That is such a critical question because um another big part of it is going back to the investor part. Is what is your goal? Is it a hundred percent investment? No personal use. We're gonna design it in a certain way, which you'll go into. Is it uh mostly personal use, just cover operating costs, or is a blended use, or you're you might use it a month a year. That's it. Okay. So if you're just pure investor, heads and vets. You know, we've been getting more and more folks the past two years from Destin, Panama City, Outer Banks, Myrtle Beach, and they go, Y'all don't have any houses with eight or ten or twelve bedrooms. Now, at first I'm looking at them going, are you nice? But there's a massive demand for it because I went and researched, and as many of the builders on the island are looking into this, uh, we're already having a proliferation of six-bedroom homes. Well, that's just the beginning. Yeah. Um, you know, five-bedroom, six-bedroom, and more is coming up.

"Cabo" Jim 5:40

And people, because people want to bring their extended family, their whole family, right?

Alex King 5:44

Not just yeah, and it's you're starting to see a higher demographic. And they want a grandma will fly anyone and everyone. So we get calls all the time. We need a girlfront house, we need it for 20 people. Uh we can rent two or three. Or we'd like three houses next to each other. So what's happening? We're working with the builders, they're building for that. They're now in the investors, they're buying two or three lots together, and they're building three, five bedrooms, two six bedrooms. Um, and now they can do the big families, the reunions. Um, and you're gonna see that happen more and more here on the island.

"Cabo" Jim 6:25

Talk about functionality about that. Is there a certain layout that's conducive to that, or is that can that be say you've got uh eight-bedroom place, can that be divided into four bedrooms, two four bedrooms, or or how does that come into play?

Alex King 6:39

Well, it also depends on the size of the lot. Are you building, I mean, at that level, you'll be two stories above the garage. Yeah, but some of our lots are 100 foot wide, most of them are 50 to 60. So therefore, you're gonna go two stories above garage. What we've been seeing in houses already built that we get the best reviews on is there's two living areas. So upstairs uh on the third floor, you might have uh four bedrooms, but there's set separate lounge area with a coffee station and TV, as well as the main floor. You got a uh VIP suite, and you also have the great room.

Condos And Condotels Income Tradeoffs

"Cabo" Jim 7:20

So, how did this conversation change depending on the property type from condo to single family to beach front, canal front?

Alex King 7:28

I mean, well, it's a great question. A lot of it um is pricing too. Um, but you got to think about it. We have something for everyone. So let's say someone wants a condo, okay, and they look uh Pink Shell attracts a lot of attention. Yeah, all right. Well, it's an amazing place, it's a resort experience, it's close to the pure district, it's a condotel. Now, what is that? Well, it operates like a hotel, but it's a condo. However, they take about 55% of the gross income, and then you take your HA in taxes out of it. So your net, net, net's much smaller. However, there's nothing to do, and you're you're like in a big resort. Now, we do have other condotels on the island that are much bigger square footage. We have three bedrooms. Wow. Now, most of the condos built way back in the 70s and 80s were two bedrooms or smaller footprints. So we have very few three bedrooms. Um, so you can look at Goldwing, a Point Estero condotel. Or you can move just to a regular condo, and we have monthly rental condos and we have weekly rental condos. Now, monthly rental condos can be an investment property too. Maybe you're just going to use it for December. Well, you can definitely make some serious money uh renting it out January, February, March, April. You can rent it out the whole year, however, you can only rent one person per month and and uh probably won't get too much.

"Cabo" Jim 9:01

Makes sense. It's we're a unique market in the sense that we we offer a big variety of opportunities down here. It's not just one, not just condo living, it's not just you know uh multifamilies, you know, or not multi-family, but you know, uh multi-bedrooms and things.

Alex King 9:16

And I think that's important because some folks don't want to be in a hotel-like atmosphere. They want to know their neighbors and buy uh a monthly rental condo um is perfect for them. It'll create income, it'll or break even. They could use it January through March, rent it for Christmas, and probably pay all their expenses. Okay. But if you go over to the housing market, uh we've we're running out of new new construction homes built since 2022. So everyone's asking, what should we build? And I am pushing them to four-bedroom minimum. So that is really important. The demand is for higher bedroom count. But if you're on a budget, um police go to uh four-bedroom instead of three-bedroom.

Geography Myths And Mid-Island Demand

"Cabo" Jim 10:07

So we touched on the the uh uniqueness of Fort Myers Beach. What about the the nuances? Uh what do people need to understand when they're buying a short-term rental here in Fort Myers Beach? Well, I think what is geography?

Alex King 10:21

Um, everyone thinks Margaritaville and Times Square and Pure District and Nelly's and all around there. That's where you want to be. Well, guess what? Um, maybe not everybody wants to be around the Woohoo. Actually, we have tremendous income opportunities right in Middle Island. Hey, I went out, I bought three lots, I built two houses, I got one more to go. I have two five bedrooms, I have one on a dry lot up here near Mid Island Drive. What is that, two miles from uh Times Square? Yeah, yeah, right. Guess what? It's rented all the time, it's unbelievable. So it you don't have to be in that little concentric circle right around all of the woohoo. You can go into it, but come out and require and roll. A lot of people are coming on vacation, they work heart like hard, crazy. They got seven days, they're here to sit on the beach and relax.

"Cabo" Jim 11:21

So, what surprises out-of-town visitors the most when they they come to Fort Myers Beach as far as availability and uniqueness?

Alex King 11:31

There it truly is something for everyone. What we're really seeing is how surprised people are that the center of the island and especially the south end of the island is really creating its own um commercial districts, uh, entertainment districts, but they're also becoming a vibrant place for a rental property. Um, you're you're now really seeing the the demographic and the quality of intentional buyers and renters coming in from Naples, Bonita. They think right now we're at the bottom of the market. That's the number one question I'm getting right now. Alex, you think we're at the bottom of the market? I said, I think everything's gonna get absorbed this summer and fall. If if you want us to feel or deal, this is the time. And uh so I think it's gonna be a tremendous market for a development of uh rental property and single family homes.

"Cabo" Jim 12:33

And those nuances, and like you had mentioned, sections of the island kind of play into depending where you buy and how you're gonna design your rental.

Alex King 12:41

Well, like exactly. Like uh if you're on a really wide 60, 70, 80-foot lot on a canal, well, you're gonna do a one-level home. Yeah, nice four-bedroom, four plus den, or or or two-level, but just a much smaller master suite up top. And it's really you're gonna design it with a big pool deck. The greatest reviews out there for these big wide lots is this massive pool deck. Another thing that's really important on design is a lot of folks really don't want to go anywhere, they just want to stay at the house with their family because they'd never see the family and friends. And so you want to design it so they don't have to leave there. So, what does that mean? That means you need all the entertainment there. Maybe there's a putting grin in the ground level. Uh, there's um, you know, the tossing games, there's arcade games, there's uh outdoor grills. Entertain yourself without leaving home. That's it. Yeah, so that's another component out there. It's it's there's so many different dynamics that you can choose from. There's something for everybody.

"Cabo" Jim 13:56

But the the as a designer or as an owner, you know, um, sometimes overthinking that comes into it too. They're like, well, I want them to have ever the opportunity to do everything. Well, it doesn't make sense in every scenario, right?

Alex King 14:10

You you have to go back and decide, but you know, are you a pure investor? Yeah, a blended use, right? Or what are you gonna use it or are you just like somebody else? If you're a pure investor, you're you're designing it totally differently, yeah, then a personal use. Personal use is going to have uh bigger closets, right? Yeah, investors are gonna have smaller closets because all you need are flip-flops and bathing suits are only here a week, right? But if you're if you're designing it for yourself and or you're on a monthly street and you're gonna rent it out for three months, then you're probably gonna design it for more for a living arrangement. Yep, right.

"Cabo" Jim 14:55

So, and on the other side of that, too, are design choices affected by maintenance? I mean, because maintenance could be a big issue too, depending on what you have on the property, right?

Alex King 15:06

That's true too. Um, you know, you have to decide uh, do you really want to be um maintaining a boat dock and boat left? Yeah, is that a requirement for renters? Now, unless they're coming for 90 days, they're not bringing their boat. Right. Or so, and are you going to uh have the liability of renting those out?

"Cabo" Jim 15:29

Yeah.

Alex King 15:30

So, I mean, that's just one element on a waterfront. Um, and and just the maintenance of a older home versus a newer home. Yeah.

"Cabo" Jim 15:40

Pool versus no pool.

Alex King 15:43

But I'll go back to that. Yeah, you have to have a pool if you want summer and fall rentals, period. So if you don't know where to go with pool, we got a lot of pool companies, so you go, we'll help you uh get to all that.

"Cabo" Jim 15:57

So that brings up uh an interesting point. Some some people want a turnkey where they can just step in and start renting it tomorrow. Other people want to come in and say, Well, I want to tweak this a little bit and update it a little bit. Sure. What do you see in that uh most of that? Is it kind of a mix?

Turnkey Vs Remodel And Common Mistakes

Alex King 16:12

Well, we went through a massive uh flow of uh investors and buyers that want to come in and uh fix it up. Um, and they grab tons of it. There's still some out there, uh, but now we got the big wave uh buy and build. Um and uh then there's the next group that they're still working, they've already done tour remodels. Uh they don't want any more, they want to buy it, turnkey, move in ready, and go to red. So we have that for them as well.

"Cabo" Jim 16:50

Are you seeing people stumble along or make certain mistakes that they probably could have avoided uh during that process? Absolutely.

Alex King 17:00

Um, whether you're buying an older house or or a condo or building a house, there's so many you know landlines out there. Yep. And what's important, I mean, the we have a lot of folks buying a house on a street, they think they can rent it out weekly, but then they get a violation notice that they're renting weekly on a monthly street. It's really important to go local. Yeah, whether it's me or anyone else on the island that's truly local, we do know what streets you can or can't, and uh we can guide you.

"Cabo" Jim 17:46

And then, you know, talking about that too, we talked about the balance between people that want to come here maybe as snowbirds or come here occasionally for a week or two. Uh, how do they balance that, you know, as far as the the rental opportunities are concerned? You know, uh the the schedule could be challenging if you're okay, if I'm blocking off four months compared to I'm blocking up this week and this week and that week, kind of you know, it's it's oh that's a good question.

Alex King 18:12

Uh um you know, we see one of the big decision process that be made is your highest uh one of the highest rent weeks is uh Christmas. Now, how far into January do you rent that group? Do you cannibalize a rental in the beginning of January because you rented too far for the Christmas group? You know, where's your cost-benefit analysis?

"Cabo" Jim 18:41

Right. Um, so so somebody listening right now is actively shopping. Let's kind of put this into perspective for a minute. Someone's shopping at Fort Mary's Beat specifically for short-term rental and mine. What should they really be paying attention to first? Location, price, amenities.

Alex King 19:03

Well, back again. Uh, I mean, it you really have to decide where do you want to be on the island geographically? And if you're not familiar with the island, get you a guide that'll take you around and teach you the six or seven geographic areas of the island and what that means for lifestyle. Yeah, I think you really have to decide you know how much you're gonna use it. And even if you're 100% investor, we know you're gonna use it. You are. You are one week, I tell you, you will.

"Cabo" Jim 19:36

You're gonna come down here like we gotta stay here, right?

Alex King 19:38

But anyway, so you have to decide geographically number one.

"Cabo" Jim 19:43

So, what what separates a smart buy former property from uh promising at first glance kind of scenario?

Alex King 19:52

Well, buying on Fort Myers Beach is very emotional. Yeah, um, most buyers come here with their family and friends and they get excited. Uh, but uh, but typically they'll come back, it's you know, they they don't buy when they're with their friends, but they come back during our circle back season. And that starts right after Easter. And they come back with the kids and without their drinking buddies and the kids, and they're here April to August. And so now they're able to think clearly and really dial down into making a purchase decision.

"Cabo" Jim 20:26

So I think you know, to kind of wrap this all up, I mean, we we have opportunities for every size and every opportunity. You touched on the demand for for larger bedroom units, um, but then there's a demand for for smaller, maybe canal versions where people just want to come in, relax, just them and them their wife or you know, close family. Um how do we how do we kind of wrap all this up? You know, uh how do we sum up rentals on Fort Myers Beach?

Market Timing, Trends, And Final Advice

Alex King 20:56

I would sum it up, say this is one of the most exciting places in the United States to get into the rental market. Even the rack rates we're seeing, and I hear it now across the board, are just unbelievable. And that means the nightly rate. Yeah, and we we haven't even come alive full renaissance yet as a commercial comes up. Um I think it's gonna be the greatest investment opportunity of this next year, year and a half.

"Cabo" Jim 21:32

And you're seeing a lot of you know, you're seeing a lot of demand. Are you seeing certain things trending? Obviously, we're changing here on Fort Mario's Beach, but you're gonna see certain things trending.

Alex King 21:42

Well, yeah, I'm we're we're seeing the trend for um larger uh footprint houses. Um you know, we have a lot of um duplexes and triplexes that have been here for a while that are. Older. So there are still demand for classic cottages and uh classic houses on those beautiful Spanish Oak Line streets like in Falkirk or Coconut. Um, but there's a much bigger demand for newer. And even if it's an older home, they're expecting it to be totally redone. Really relaxed inside.

"Cabo" Jim 22:27

Got update, got upgrade, everything. So great insight today. I think the conversation really kind of helps people understand, you know, the sex six the success they need to position themselves for short-term rentals here in Fort Myers Beach. You know, it comes from choosing the right property, understanding the market, and making smart decisions about design amenities and what they want to offer and really what they want to focus on. Are they going to be here or are they not going to be here? Um, so thanks again for you know joining and listening to us. Any last words for our listeners today?

Alex King 22:59

Yeah. Um you know, it's also critical to choose the right rental agency. And each of them are good at certain things and specialized in geographic and houses or condos, and we know, yeah, as a realtor, we know what they're good at and bad at, and and we try to guide you to achieve your goals. Um, so I think it's real important. Um, work with your local um agent or or whoever you choose here, make sure they're local, and that way we can really help you make great decisions.

"Cabo" Jim 23:33

Yeah, and somebody that's knowledgeable about the area and what's going on here and has the heartbeat of it, sure. It's more apt to get you what you're able to do. Absolutely. Very good, Alex. It's been a pleasure. All right. Have a great day. We'll see you at the beach, right? See you at the beach. All right.

Intro/Close 23:45

Thank you for tuning in to the Fort Myers Beach Good Neighbor podcast and the Alex King Group series. Join us again next week as we continue exploring all things Fort Myers Beach real estate and the unique lifestyle that makes this community jine. Where dreams are created and lifestyles are elevated. To learn more, go to AlexKing Group.com. That's AlexKing Group.com or call 239 232 6465. Until next time, remember to keep being a good neighbor.