Last verified: October 21, 2026
I'm Troy Nowak, broker of Mangrove Bay Realty (Florida license BK3436609). I started in Pinellas County by buying my own short-term rentals. I have since gone around the state looking for the better opportunities, and I train agents so we can tell you which area and which home fit your goals.
Different markets have different prices and different returns. A beach condo, an inland house, and a resort-area rental are not the same investment. My job is to study the market, work with strong local teams, and find the fit. Not to call myself the best agent in eight cities.
Set up a consultation with the short-term rental team: talk through your goals.
What you can check
| Proof | What it is | Where to look |
|---|---|---|
| Florida broker | BK3436609, broker of Mangrove Bay Realty | DBPR license search |
| Airbnb Superhost | Hosts short-term rentals in Pinellas | Airbnb host profile |
| Sales | 325+ closed since 2019, including 300+ in the past few years | Zillow profile |
| Reviews | Five-star reviews on Zillow and Google | The same Zillow profile, and Google |
Full profile: Troy Nowak.
What I actually do
People do not need another article that ranks a realtor. They need a read on whether a short-term rental fits how they want to invest.
I start with the goal, the budget, and how you want to use the house. Then I look for the market. Some buyers want a higher nightly rate and will accept a shorter season. Some want a lower price and a steadier calendar. Some want a property they can also use. Those are different searches.
I specialize in the income projection. The latest tools help, and so does knowing what to ignore. A holiday week is not a year. Gross revenue is not cash flow. Cleaning, platform fees, utilities, insurance, repairs, HOA dues, and taxes come out before anyone calls it income. The rulebook comes before the comp: if the city caps the nights, the calendar in the listing is not the calendar you can run.
I also watch the legal changes. Florida did not freeze short-term rental law. Registration, zoning, inspections, and grandfathered uses still decide what an address can do, and those rules move. I would rather tell you where a use is opening, where it is closing, and where a listing is ahead of the rule, than hand you a "best market" list that ignores the parcel.
Price ranges and returns
There is no single best return in Florida. There is a return that fits a price, a rule, and a hold period.
Higher-rate markets such as parts of the Gulf, the Keys, and some beach towns can show a strong nightly number and a thin supply. They can also hide a rule, an insurance bill, or a season that the listing photo does not show. Volume markets, including parts of the Orlando area, can support a fuller calendar and a very different zoning map. A city that looks like one market on a booking site is often three: the city limits, the beach, and the unincorporated county next door.
Pinellas is the clearest example, and it is where I started. St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Largo, the beach towns, and unincorporated Pinellas do not share one short-term rental rule. Two houses with the same mailing city can be different investments. The same idea applies in Tampa and anywhere else the city line and the marketing name do not match.
I look at every price range. A smaller inland property can be the right buy. A waterfront property can be the wrong one if the use, the association, or the insurance does not work. The point of studying the state is to have more than one answer.
The useful public version of this work is the trend, the tools behind a projection, the zoning, and where returns are stronger or weaker. That is the analysis worth publishing, including on video. It is not another page that says someone is the best Airbnb agent in a city.
Rules worth reading before a number
These are the rule pages. They are not agent rankings.
- Largo short-term rental rules
- Unincorporated Pinellas County rules
- Clearwater short-term rental rules
- St. Petersburg and Gulfport rules
- Tampa short-term rental market
- Pinellas County short-term rentals
- Indian Rocks Beach, Indian Shores, and Madeira Beach
The people around the rental
A purchase is not the business. I keep a network of short-term rental providers so an owner is not starting from zero: cleaners, lenders, handymen, managers, and interior designers. The goal is simple. Help more people run a short-term rental that actually works, with income they can document and a tax position their own CPA signs off on. I do not give tax advice. I do make sure the operating file is something a CPA and a buyer can read.
If you want a fit, not a ranking
Tell me the goal, the budget, and whether you want to use the house. I will tell you which markets are worth a closer look, which ones are a poor fit, and what has to be true about the rules before a projection means anything.