As the island’s busy winter season comes into sight, most seasonal rental properties have already been snapped up at prices as high as $45,000 a month.
But there are still some good rentals available, and there’s been a burst of new listings in the past two weeks that open the door a little wider for shivering northern visitors.
“Phone calls and inquiries [from people wanting to list their homes] have more than doubled since August,” said broker associate Carol Makolin, who manages rentals for ONE Sotheby’s International Realty. “That is a lot more activity this late in the year than in years past.”
“Availability is always a moving target,” said The Moorings Realty Sales Company broker Marsha Sherry, whose office oversees a seasonal rental portfolio of 70-plus houses and condos.
“Right now, we are about 90 percent rented, and much of the availability we have left is not in the prime months of February and March. But we do have a couple of great riverfront houses still available for the whole season and we are getting new rental listings all the time.
“When someone calls, we ask what they are looking for in terms of property type, timeframe and price. They tell us the dream and we tell them the reality. If we don’t have what they want, we can put them on our waitlist and keep them in mind as we get more properties in our rental pool.”
“We have 22 properties still available for the whole season,” said Dale Sorensen Real Estate rental manager Angela Waldrop, who oversees about 90 seasonal listings, including 45 houses and a similar number of condos that rent for $3,500 to $40,000 per month from January through April.
Waldrop has a larger number of properties where one or two months are still open.
“Three months is the most common rental period requested, which always leaves one month of season available,” Waldrop said. “Typically, April is the most common month available, but sometimes it is January.
“February and March remain the most desirable months to rent in Vero. When I started 15 years ago, March was the clear champion but in the past few years February has surpassed it.”
Some snowbirds go all in and rent for six months – usually November through April – and the biggest contract Waldrop has written so far this year was for $200,000 for a six-month stay.
The most economical six-month rental contract she’s written totaled $16,200 for half a year of Vero’s happy vibes.
“The market is like a big puzzle,” Sherry said. “The way we put it together, we always start with the longer periods when possible – the 6-month seasonal and 3-month seasonal.”
If a Moorings homeowner puts their house into The Moorings Realty rental pool for six months, Sherry and her agents aren’t going to offer it first to someone who wants to rent just for the month of February, because that would take the property out of contention for a 3- to 6-month rental.
That’s what homeowners prefer, because it is less hassle than renting the house out to two or three or more renters during the six month period.
If someone takes the property from January through March, then the months of November, December and April would become available for 1- or 2-month rental.
Even as 3-month rentals create a supply of single-month openings early and late in the season – and in the “pre-season” months of November and December – there is a severe shortage of 1-month slots in the heart of the season.
“The hardest rental to find is a single month in February or March,” said Makolin. “The owners want to maximize their investments and are willing to wait until they get the full three months.”
Sherry, Waldrop and Makolin and their teams make it easy for people who want to list their homes for rent, taking care of almost all the paperwork and complicated details of complying with HOA rules, handling tax payments and escrow deposits, and shepherding applications that can be nearly as complex as when buying a property.
They vet renters, collect rent, show renters how the TV remote works and mediate disputes, but homeowners still must prepare their homes for rent. That can be a big job of cleaning and decluttering, and many people aren’t willing to take the plunge for a single month’s rental income.
Others, because of their personal schedules or financial perspectives, are willing to make the effort.
“If an owner is willing to list for just one month in season, they can command a 30-percent price premium,” Waldrop said.
In general, more island residents are listing their homes for rent now than in the past because of rising ownership costs. With home purchase prices, insurance rates and HOA fees doubling or more in many cases, homeowners see rental income as way to offset the financial burden of living in a paradisical location.
“We typically see new rental properties every season, but this season there seem to be more than usual,” said Makolin, whose top dollar furnished short-term rentals go for up to $45,000 per month. “There are a lot of new owners who relocated to Vero and are willing to rent out for season.”
Sherry said she does not deal with many investors or institutional landlords, mainly because costs of ownership are so high that turning a clear profit can be a challenge.
“We don’t see people coming in buying six properties to make money as a landlord. Most of our clients are our neighbors, people who are renting out their own homes.”
Waldrop and Sherry said the rental market this fall is “very similar” to the market last year, in terms of deal flow and occupancy rates. Makolin said it seems a little slower to her, with renters waiting longer to commit, but added that she expects a second burst of activity in December.
Island seasonal rental prices exploded during the pandemic, and Waldrop said that in most cases they have come down slightly since that once-in-a lifetime surge, but that rental rates are still “way up from pre-covid seasons.”
Rents are still inching up in The Moorings, according to Sherry. “We raised our rates a small percentage this year and the demand is still there,” she said.
“Vero Beach is a fabulous place to come when you have snow and ice at home. That hasn’t changed, and I think our market is as strong as ever.”
“Vero Beach is an extremely special place, especially when on the island. There is nowhere else like it in the state of Florida,” said Waldrop.
“To have unobstructed views at the beach and on the river is unheard of in 2024. Visitors walk into our local shops, bars and restaurants twice in one week and they are remembered and greeted with a sense of familiarity. These examples are a just small part of why I firmly believe our rental and real estate market will always be strong in comparison to the rest of the country.”
In the last week in September, there were about 150 rental opportunities still available on the island, according to Makolin.
That is only a little more than one tenth of one percent of the 12,800 front doors in the 32963 area, and only a fraction of the remaining rentals are available for the full season, so the market is tight. But island agents say there is hope for snowbirds just now zeroing in on Vero.
“The market is never done,” said Sherry. “It is always evolving as new properties become available or are withdrawn from the market and people’s plans change.”
“Many owners are just now putting their properties up for rent for the season, so if someone calls us this week who needs a 3-month rental, I feel confident we could find something for them,” Makolin said.
