I am thinking about buying some rental property in Galveston. Debating between a short term rental that I would use in the off season vs just buying something to rent out long term.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Watching. I look for a canal home not far from the beach all the time for the same reasons.

I have a great uncle who has tons of long term housing including 8 plexes, etc. We have a vacation rental 2nd row beach house on the west end. Also decided to purchase a vacation rental in Port Aransas.

What are your questions?

We started off with all long term rentals but found we could make a better ROI on short term and have the added benefit of using when not rented. Win win. So we started to mix in some short term vacation rentals. It IS much more work though so you are definitely earning the extra return.

ETA: I'd only get short term rental if I were to manage it myself. In our case it's the wife who has time. The management companies take like 20% and give poor service in my opinion compared to us - so you wouldn't make anything.