Published in the July magazine, In Conversation: The State of Real Estate showcases five local experts in the real estate and construction field. Below is an excerpt from the discussion in which Darcie Duncan of Duncan Real Estate on Anna Maria Island shares her insight with SRQ readers on the state of the vacation rental market from a realtor's perspective. 

HOW HAS TOURISM DRIVEN REAL ESTATE THROUGHOUT THE PAST YEAR? 

In addition to real estate, we are in the vacation rentals market, so I can give you good insight. The impact of tourism is here since we opened back up. We’re almost solidly booked for May, and rentals are completely booked for June. July is looking busy. Are those people buyers? Yes. Some are, they always are. But we have no supply. If you’re not coming in with clean cash, no contingency, you’re not even in the running. We are seeing some buyers that are coming into the market that are not necessarily looking at buying a home as a vacation rental, maybe using it part of the time, but mainly they ask, ‘what are the rental numbers?’ That’s all they care about because they’re not going to use it as their home. There are some buyers [that can afford to compete in this market] looking to relocate their families. I think this pandemic has triggered a whole different mindset, and we have a lot of heads of companies - CEOs, big executives - coming out of the cities. They’re moving their families here and can work remotely. We see that, and that’s great. 

This is an excerpt from the In Conversation with Leaders in Real Estate and Construction published in the July 2021 edition of SRQ Magazine. Click here to see the full article. 

Read More From In Conversation Here