Hey BP family. I will be purchasing my first mortgage property. I'm located in south Florida. My plan was to purchase a 3/2 or 3/3 condo or townhouse for mtr. What are your thoughts?
Lender · Fort Lauderdale, FL (Lending in FL CT GA MI PA) · Member since 2022 · 470 posts · 349 votes
3y
Homeowners associations make condos and townhomes a little more risky.
Be very careful about rental restrictions. Many HOAs down here don't allow rentals at all and those that do often have time restrictions (such as only one lease per year) that could affect medium term renting.
Find out about the financial health of the HOA as well so you don't get hit with unexpected special assessments for community repairs.
Lender · Fort Lauderdale, FL (Lending in FL CT GA MI PA) · Member since 2022 · 470 posts · 349 votes
3y
Homeowners associations make condos and townhomes a little more risky.
Be very careful about rental restrictions. Many HOAs down here don't allow rentals at all and those that do often have time restrictions (such as only one lease per year) that could affect medium term renting.
Find out about the financial health of the HOA as well so you don't get hit with unexpected special assessments for community repairs.
Homeowners associations make condos and townhomes a little more risky.
Be very careful about rental restrictions. Many HOAs down here don't allow rentals at all and those that do often have time restrictions (such as only one lease per year) that could affect medium term renting.
Find out about the financial health of the HOA as well so you don't get hit with unexpected special assessments for community repairs.
Real Estate Agent · Fort Lauderdale, FL · Member since 2015 · 175 posts · 79 votes
3y
@Chris-Paul Blair I agree with @Ash Hegde when it comes to STRs and MTRs with HOA's. Many of them have rental restrictions including no renting for the first 1-2 yrs. Some will restrict you to a minimum of a 6 month lease which could work for MTRs. Also everytime you start a new lease you will have to get the associations approval for the new tenant which could take 3-4 weeks. Have your agent look for townhouses that are "fee simple" they're usually the least restrictive HOA's to deal with. Good luck
The other thing with condos and townhouses, is the condo fees add a lot to the monthly payments and the condo board can change the rules about rentals at anytime (with a majority vote of the owners).
Hey BP family. I will be purchasing my first mortgage property. I'm located in south Florida. My plan was to purchase a 3/2 or 3/3 condo or townhouse for mtr. What are your thoughts?
condos can be great investments but reading those condo docs are a must. You'll want to understand what you can and can't use the property for, and find out how much they can increase the condo fee over how long of a time period....aka you don't want your condo fee to go from $500 a month to $1500 a month and they be able to do it because it was in the bilaws.
Thank you. I will definitely enquire prior to buying.
You can do your due diligence now as others have suggested, but keep in mind that the HOA can change their mind anytime they want. So even if you find an HOA that does allow you to rent the property as you please, they can turn around and change the rules on you as they please. You have to have assurance that the property works as a rental now and will continue to in the future.
Rental Property Investor · Ellsworth, ME · Member since 2021 · 1k+ posts · 2k+ votes
3y
Here's my take on MTR to travel nurses based on a few years of experience.
1. Figure out your policy on pets. So many travel nurses travel with dogs. We do not allow pets based on the set up and furnishings of our units, but we will likely "pet-proof" our next property when furnishing. You can get a pet deposit and demand a higher monthly rent rate. It is probably worth it. Either way, go into the purchase with that in mind.
2. Every travel nurse travels with a buddy. Very few travel alone. That typically means another nurse, a spouse/partner, or a dog. Having 2 bedrooms or a king size bed is a clear advantage.
3. You can self manage from a distance. There is no expectation among travel nurses to tour a property prior to signing a lease. Most of them are not there and cannot tour a place even if they wanted to.
4. Seek professional help on furnishing. I don't necessarily think that you need full scale design, but having a 1-2 hour consultation with a designer to pick out paint color, give ideas for basic furnishings, or to create mood boards is a good use of time and money.
Lastly, buy a 2 bedroom single family before you buy a 3 bedroom condo. 5 years from now, you'll be very happy with that decision as you watch the single family home appreciate at a much better rate.
I hope that helps. Feel free to reach out if you have any specific questions or think that I could be a resource.
Lender · Seattle, WA · Member since 2014 · 2k+ posts · 899 votes
3y
@Chris-Paul Blair- make sure you ontain acccurate mortgage payment for what you are considering and also include a realsitic HOA dues / property tax/ mortgage insurance ( if applic) payment into your analysis ......the townhome options will likely look much better than the condo due to lower dues ...a 3/3 property is also well more valauable when doing a LTR ...dont think its as valuable for MTR or STR
So it would be better to buy a single family? The multi family homes in FL are over 800,000.
@Chris-Paul Blair for what you are thinking about doing it would be better to purchase a single family or multi family property. As far as price ranges go. You should speak to a lender and figure out what you can qualify for. Based on your pre approved amount, the type of loan, and your down payment would give you a better idea of what type of property you can buy and what area you should look in.