San Francisco, CA · Member since 2015 · 6 posts · 4 votes
Hi Everyone,
I've been researching real estate investing for the last 6 months and my husband and I are finally going to make some offers on properties this week. I am very excited but also a little nervous to see how it goes. We live in San Francisco and are looking to invest in Pinellas County, FL for our first investment because of our familiarity with the area and many "boots on the ground" contacts here.
Our goal is to create a buy and hold portfolio starting with SFH and maybe a duplex or triplex in the coming year. I was a little worried the market here was to high for a buy and hold deal but I think we have found some solid properties, nothing is a steal but I think that is ok. This week we will find out if any of our offers will be accepted. :)
Right now it's nearly impossible to win any bids on REO's without grossly overpaying above asking price. There is an influx of new wholesalers and investors driving up the initial purchase prices but the retail ARV (the ceiling) is staying stagnant.
Hi Carole, Welcome - I'm a newbie too. I spent a year in Palo Alto - love the SF area, travel there pretty often. I am north of Pinellas but my mother-in-law lives there. I am wondering what areas you are looking in?
Welcome fellow newbie! I'm open to all of tampa bay but being from south pinellas originally makes me more comfortable because I know the areas so well. I grew up on the beaches but that is way out of my price range currently. I'd say my focus has been starting at about Largo and down to around Gulfport. Are you looking in Pinellas or sticking to Ocala and surrounding? We also looked into Gainesville because I went to UF and know the area a bit but just felt like we had more "boots on the ground" in Pinellas.
@Gilbert Dominguez is the fact that there are many private investors a good thing in your opinion or a bad thing? I know that about a year ago a lot of the hedge fund investor groups came through and bought a lot of property, from my judgement that movement pushed up the purchasing prices by about 10% in a few months alone. Now I don't think that they are quite as active and the prices are not rising at such a pace any longer.
Right now it's nearly impossible to win any bids on REO's without grossly overpaying above asking price. There is an influx of new wholesalers and investors driving up the initial purchase prices but the retail ARV (the ceiling) is staying stagnant.
Welcome. Some of the areas mentioned are in the top 10 US markets for student housing.
Locate and attend 3 different local REIA club meetings great place to meet people gather resources and info. Here you will meet wholesalers who provide deals and rehabbers (cash buyers). Find them through Google and meetup.com
You might consider Niche or Specialized Housing like student housing. Rents can be 2-4 times more. Remember you don't have to own a property to control it.
Download BP’s newest book here some good due diligence in Chapter 10. Real Estate Rewind Starting over
@Carole D.welcome to BP! I was in San Fran over the weekend, I forget how amazing the weather can be when I'm in FL humid summers for so long. Where did you find your properties to put bids on? If you're able to close fast I'd recommend finding good wholesalers to buy from. I'm just East of Tampa so I most likely won't come up with any properties that will work for you, but I have friends I can recommend that can. Hope you find something that works for your plan! :-)
Congrats and the best of luck! I think Pinellas will continue to be a solid investment for years to come. I'm originally from Indian Rocks beach/Seminole/Largo area and have watched it grow.
I've always thought that the St Pete/Seminole/Largo/Beaches areas were geographically similar to san fran being a mini penninsula, seems like the isolation has help san fran grow more than surrounding areas so I'm interested to see how that plays out here.
The effects you would feel as an investor is some event kicked up the prices of real estate in your area depends on if you were holding property prior to the hike in prices or after. Certainly if I was holding property and some event suddenly cause the prices in my area to hike up then that would be great for me but if I was only looking around for opportunity, looking for what I can buy I may not see that as a good thing.
I would say that the first and foremost criteria for real estate is, " location, location, location" the next one would be timings.
Real estate is a market and you should know your market well and keep on time of it. know where the market is at and where it is going.
I may want to buy in class B neighborhoods but if I see the majority of the purchases are being done in Class C neighborhoods if my objective is to sell I might decide I am better off buying in C class neighborhoods.
BP is full of useful resources such as forums and blogs. Welcome to the Bigger Pockets community-be sure to check out all the awesome BP blogs under “Learn.”
We bid on a few houses in this last week but didn't win any however it has been a wonderful 101 class for online RE auctions. It felt great to make some active attempts and even though we don't have a property yet Its great to be in the game!