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Port Aransas & North Padre STR Market Explained by a Top Local Realtor

By February 20, 2026Texas Real Estate Pros

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Show Summary

In this conversation, Dylan Silver interviews Melissa Hladyniuk, an experienced realtor specializing in short-term rentals in Port Aransas and North Padre Island. They discuss the current market trends, challenges faced by investors, the impact of seasonality on rental income, and common mistakes made by new investors. Melissa shares insights on maximizing rental income and enhancing guest experiences, as well as her upcoming projects aimed at supporting local investors.

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    Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

    Melissa Hladyniuk (00:00)
    ⁓ What goes down must come back up again, right? So that’s been my experience so far with my clients in particular.

    Three bedroom, two bathroom, you’re probably looking somewhere in the six to $800,000 range. Just again, depending on how the proximity to the beach, of course, that’s going to, if you have beach views, that’s gonna bring the price up a little bit. So probably somewhere in the six to eight for that size.

    Dylan Silver (00:22)
    Yeah.

    Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest, Melissa Hladyniuk is an award-winning EXP realtor serving both Port Aransas and North Padre Island. She’s a three-time Icon agent and top producer recognized for exceptional marketing influence and client service. Originally from Canada, she brings a passion for close living and a proven record of results. You can find her online at melissasellsislandlife.com. Melissa, thanks for taking the time today.

    Melissa Hladyniuk (02:35)
    You’re welcome. Thank you for having me.

    Dylan Silver (02:39)
    Now.

    I want to jump right in here because we were talking before hopping on here about the short term space. And I know from talking with investors really throughout Texas, but also honestly throughout the country that there’s a ton of interest in the area that you serve in in Puerto Rican and North Padre Island. But I also know that short term rentals can be tricky. I’ve worked with people who own them, who manage them and with flippers who, you know, potentially flip and hold these properties as

    short-term rental. So what’s the market like for these short-term rentals and are people finding, you know, more distressed properties to value add and then hold or are they buying these properties on market and then renting them out on a short-term basis?

    Melissa Hladyniuk (03:27)
    Well, we’ve had a huge transition down here since the market boom, of course, in 2020, 2021, where like anywhere else, we couldn’t keep inventory down here. And I think the greater issue and what has spurred our complete opposite market here now is where we have too much inventory. mean, upwards of 22 months of inventory in Port Aransas. And so to…

    to kind of circle back to your point of how tricky it can be owning a short-term rental investment property. What happened during the market boom was a lot of people were buying these properties, know, waiving appraisals overpaying for them ⁓ and not necessarily, you know, gauging their gross rental revenue on what that…

    amount like by overpaying what that, you know, 10 % gross rental income number would look like because the nightly rates didn’t go up. And so we’ve been finding that a lot of people seem to just get in over their head during that time. The rental rates didn’t go up. Everyone went back to work after COVID. And so people weren’t working and vacationing and bringing their kids here as much. And so we’ve really seen, ⁓ you know, an increase in inventory and people having to sell

    We’re starting to see a lot more distressed properties pop up, which in my seven years has not been a very common theme specifically in Porter Ancest. And so we’re definitely in an interesting time. 2025 was a really challenging time in the real estate market down here for sure.

    Dylan Silver (06:01)
    I mean, I think everywhere. people, and I can certainly imagine, you know, when there’s some level of uncertainty, buying coastal property, when there’s ⁓ a large supply, you know, there’s so much that goes into it. Plus, too, one thing we didn’t talk about ⁓ so far is this idea of, you know, Airbnbs have like this seasoning period, if you will, especially if you have like a newer account and you’re relying heavily on your Airbnb account. I’ve been told from investors that, know, it could take a couple months

    for it to start gaining traction, right? And so you kind of have to factor that into the pro forma as well. Now, you also mentioned something which is, you you’re seeing maybe more people who are, you know, flipping and holding these properties, doing some type of value add for the Airbnb investors that you’ve worked with and that you’ve seen be successful. Are they finding these deals? Do you know like off market, like pocket listings, that type of thing going

    direct to seller or are they finding properties that are like heavily distressed on market and you maybe not selling to a traditional buyer and so they’re able to get it maybe at a ⁓ effective rate or effective cost.

    Melissa Hladyniuk (07:15)
    I think in my experience recently, it’s more agents like myself reaching out to a lot of our investor buyers and saying, you know, these properties, we have an overabundance of ⁓ inventory right now. You’re already an investor. You know, what they were paying for them two and three years ago, we’ve had a massive market correction here in pricing. ⁓ And so,

    And then on top of that, you know, obviously using ⁓ Zillow, Realtor and local MLS services. I think they’re seeing the listings there more so because, ⁓ you know, we’re just starting to pick up speed on the, the distressed properties and foreclosures here. ⁓ So I would definitely say it’s more the local agents who have the market knowledge to reach out and know their investors really well to be like, Hey, these numbers make sense for you. We’re not going to be down forever in Porter Ancest.

    Dylan Silver (07:59)
    Yeah.

    Melissa Hladyniuk (08:11)
    ⁓ What goes down must come back up again, right? So that’s been my experience so far with my clients in particular.

    Dylan Silver (08:20)
    I know it’s going to be a range, if someone was buying a three-bedroom, two-bathroom ⁓ Airbnb or short-term rental somewhere, and it’s let’s say rental grade, maybe they could add some finishings, give it a theme, but it’s rental grade, what might that sell for right now in that market?

    Melissa Hladyniuk (08:38)
    Three bedroom, two bathroom, you’re probably looking somewhere in the six to $800,000 range. Just again, depending on how the proximity to the beach, of course, that’s going to, if you have beach views, that’s gonna bring the price up a little bit. So probably somewhere in the six to eight for that size.

    Dylan Silver (08:54)
    Yeah.

    You know, as you said that number, I can almost feel a problem because, know, I’m licensed in Texas as well. And I’m thinking about the average home price in Dallas, right, somewhere around the four or five hundred thousand dollar range. And, you know, people are thinking, well, that’s a lot for Texas. But then they’re looking at, you know, coastal properties where, you know, it’s 50 percent more than that or double. Right. And so if people are pulling back on some other areas of life, then maybe that that extra expenditure could be, you know, speculative purchase

    for them, so to speak. I do want to pivot though a bit here and ask you about the seasonality of owning a short-term rental down there. I’m imagining that there’s going to be some months where it’s of course less busy than others. How does that impact these investors? And then also too, are there some months where some of these properties may sit ⁓ vacant or largely vacant and that’s factored in, you kind of have to make up for it in the busy months.

    Melissa Hladyniuk (10:32)
    Yeah, so I want to answer that in two parts. So our peak seasons, of course, ⁓ basically where you can pretty much rely on about 90 to 95 % occupancy, ⁓ that is your Memorial Day rate through to about mid August when the kids go back to school. ⁓ Our shoulder seasons, which I would consider to be September, October.

    a little bit November, maybe up until about Thanksgiving. You’ll see weekend bookings, long weekend bookings in there. They typically happen midweek. You’re not booked out generally during that time. And the same for, ⁓ you know, after spring break, March and April is about the same. And then we really rely heavily on winter Texans or snowbirds during the winter months because, you know, people just aren’t vacationing here as much. ⁓ And so…

    The only downside of that is generally what you get for a week in rental income you’re seeing for a month, but at least it does help to support and cover your expenses. One thing that people have to take into consideration though, as well, this is kind of like point two that I wanted to touch on, is a lot of our investors aren’t local. Like I own two short-term rental investment properties here on the island and we manage it ourselves. We do it through Airbnb. ⁓

    we actually even clean it ourselves. So a lot of my clients, I would say 85 % of them are not local. And so they have to rely on these third party rental management companies as well. I think I’m sure you’ve had this experience, like being able to be hands on and be your own property manager and save that 20 to 30 % property management fee is huge, but a lot of our investors don’t have that. And so I,

    Dylan Silver (12:07)
    Yeah.

    Melissa Hladyniuk (12:22)
    They’re just not running it like it’s their own business as you might by managing your own Airbnb. They’re really reliant on these property management companies to do that for them. ⁓ So that can also present a challenge in terms of numbers.

    Dylan Silver (12:38)
    Yeah.

    I mean, no, no question. And not just really in any one segment of real estate. I just spoke with a fund manager in Dallas and earlier today, and we were talking about how the right property manager can make a deal. The wrong one can break a deal, especially when you’re dealing with economies of scale. But if you have the wrong management team on an Airbnb or any type of short-term rental, that can cause ⁓ so many issues, not just for the tenants, but also for your

    Exposure in your account, right? So mean if you get one bad Airbnb review that can take a whole profile from what I understand ⁓ I do want to ask you, you know, I’ve heard some pretty ⁓ remarkable ⁓ Really like surcharge or seasonal rates that people can charge in some other coastal areas of the country I’ve also seen like for events that are popping up like ⁓ I believe it’s the World Cup if I’m not mistaken in Los Angeles and then I was talking to someone in Wyoming yesterday they have this ⁓

    Melissa Hladyniuk (13:16)
    Absolutely.

    Dylan Silver (13:38)
    large like Frontiers Day, believe, as they call it. so local ⁓ short-term rentals and Airbnbs can really charge ⁓ quite a bit more than at other times of year. So I’m thinking like that Memorial Day weekend, right in in Port Aransas, in North Padre Island, you’ve got to probably get top dollar premium ⁓ rental rates. For an Airbnb that’s doing like outstandingly well, right? What’s some of the higher ⁓

    booking rates that you’ve seen maybe on a weekly or monthly basis during that time of year.

    Melissa Hladyniuk (14:14)
    It obviously would depend on the size and how many bedrooms, but I can tell you ⁓ on our little one bedroom, ⁓ one bathroom, it’s about 495 square feet. It does sleep five, believe it or not. We’ve got that configured pretty well. But I think that on Memorial Day weekend, we can get roughly about 250 a night, 225 to 250 a night over that weekend. So, and that’s for a very small rental.

    When you get into some of those luxury resort developments that we have down here, Cinnamon Shore, Palmia Beach, Sunflower Beach, I mean, those are premium luxury resort developments. And so I’ve heard some of those larger sleeping beachfront units can be, you know, up to 1,500, 1,800 a night, I guess, maybe even higher on the

    Dylan Silver (15:48)
    I’ve heard people charging like $40,000, $30,000, $40,000 a month. And probably you wouldn’t see that as often. That would probably be less common, but you could certainly see a week. So you could potentially do $10,000 for the week. And what is probably factored in there is like, hey, we’re gonna be able to get this much in this time period. We have to really maximize

    this, because this is going to be our bread and butter. I’ve also heard that because people may have, you know, the ability to charge more that people are offering more. I’ve heard people believe it or not include like a chef include like, hey, we’ll do like laundry service. I’ve heard someone say, hey, we’ll have jet skis and a golf cart, you know, waiting for you until if you want to do that. So people are almost doing this like concierge service. I’ve seen some of that with Airbnb, too.

    Melissa Hladyniuk (16:46)
    Yeah, no, it’s a great idea. Definitely a concept that’s being adapted here as well. Again, more so in those luxury resort developments. And you bring up an interesting point too, when people are considering buying an investment property down here for short-term rental, a lot of people want a vacation here as well. So you really have to take into consideration, are you investing in this more on the vacation side of things or are you investing in this to make money? And that’s something I tell my clients.

    You know, if you really want to capitalize on your investment, leave the summer as hard as that may be, leave that to rentals and then come down Thanksgiving, Christmas, that sort of thing, or just really be choosy over the weekends that you’re picking because you can certainly capitalize on some more than others.

    Dylan Silver (17:36)
    Yeah, I mean, that’s a great point. I’ve spoken with quite a number of short term rental investors who, you know, have a passion for this because they want to go there themselves with their family. But you can imagine if you’re going on Memorial Day weekend, when everyone else is going, you’re missing out on potentially huge, you know, ⁓ spreads there, you know, ability to get lots of stays and really high price stays as well. You know, I do want to pivot a bit here before we wrap the show and ask you about folks who may not be ⁓

    Melissa Hladyniuk (17:59)
    Thanks.

    Dylan Silver (18:06)
    familiar with the area looking at investing in the area, what are some common mistakes that you’ve seen people make? know, whether it’s short-term rentals or just buying property in general ⁓ in Port A and North Padre Island.

    Melissa Hladyniuk (18:19)
    That’s a great question. I can name a few. ⁓ Obviously not knowing about ⁓ flood insurance and taking that into consideration when you’re looking at your numbers. ⁓ So making sure you get a good insurance quote and taking that into account. ⁓ One other thing that’s really important is to know from a financing standpoint, if you’re going that route, some of our condominiums down here are

    referred to as being non-warrantable in terms of financing. you have to go a non-traditional route, either through a credit union or a bank or a DSCR loan and something like that. if you’re not working with an agent who’s very familiar with the condo development specifically down here, I mean, you can ask me any condo development here, either on Padre or Puerto Rances, and I’ll tell you whether or not.

    it’s going to be considered a condo tell, but there’s a lot of agents that will, you know, sell from out of market and not have that understanding and they’ll get under contract with traditional financing. And a lot of those deals will tank before they get to the closing table because they just cannot get the financing. certainly working with a great agent who has that market knowledge is your best bet. But then on top of that, just making sure that

    Dylan Silver (19:21)
    you

    Melissa Hladyniuk (19:40)
    they can lead you to a lender that’s gonna put you on the right path so that, and again, that comes into a different kind of financing. So that’s also going to impact your numbers, right? Your interest rates a little bit higher, your down payments a little bit higher. Typically the term is a little bit shorter. So when you’re only amaterizing over 15 years versus a 30 year that you had in your mind, that’s gonna affect your bottom line in terms of what kind of money you’re bringing home on your investment property.

    Dylan Silver (20:07)
    Yeah, no question. I mean, you hit on so many things. The flood insurance, I’ve heard we could probably do a whole other show about that. I’ve heard, is this true that there’s instances where it’s more than the mortgage?

    Melissa Hladyniuk (20:18)
    ⁓ It’s usually incorporated in the HOA dues and we do have a couple of developments that could be the case.

    Dylan Silver (20:27)
    That just seems so, I mean, gosh, I hope.

    That’s a whole other wrench to throw in there. you know, when we talk about investing really in any market, know, some of the things that you mentioned, you know, understanding that, the type of financing that you have might not work like, hey, the agent that you’re working with might not be aware that there’s, you know, this happening here and the deal could fall apart, you know, before the finish line because of some things that really someone who’s got more local knowledge would be able to direct you better on. But Melissa, we are coming up on time here. Any new projects that you’re working on and then also to what

    Melissa Hladyniuk (20:32)
    Yeah.

    Dylan Silver (21:01)
    the best way for folks to reach out to you or your team?

    Melissa Hladyniuk (21:04)
    Sure, ⁓ definitely want to talk about a couple of new websites that I’m coming out with. One is North, ⁓ NorthPadreIslandlife.com. The other one is IslandlifePortAransas.com. ⁓ Those are going to be great assets for local investors, ⁓ people that are looking to have an Airbnb here. ⁓ I’m going to feature local partners on their businesses, restaurants, retail, that sort of thing. ⁓ Any of my clients who own

    investment properties, their Airbnb will have the opportunity to be featured on there. So when their guests check in, they’ve got easy access to all of our local ⁓ restaurants and such. Believe it or not, a lot of our restaurants don’t even have ⁓ websites or Facebook pages for people to find them online. So I’m hoping to really bridge that gap and increase the value for my ⁓ investment property buyers as well.

    ⁓ And you can find me at MelsellsIslandLife.com and I’ve got some really great calculators on there that will be able to help you with 1031 exchanges, help you with your Airbnb and calculating your rental income and stuff. if you’re curious about that at all, head over to my website and check that out. Anywhere else you can find me at Mel Sells Island Life, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, even my Peloton handle.

    Dylan Silver (22:26)
    Mel, thank you so much for your time today. Thanks for coming on the show.

    Melissa Hladyniuk (22:31)
    Thanks so much, Dylan. It was pleasure.

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