All Forum Posts by: Ryan Baker

Hi and welcome!  I don't post on BP too often as I'm too lazy to check in.  That being said, I went to school in Tallahassee, lived there for several years, and loved my time there.  I invest in student rentals as part of an overall investing portfolio (rather than buying to build a business).  Best of luck on BP and enjoy!

I have bought and sold a few rental properties in the past, and currently own a small rental house out of town. However, I recently came across a listing for a portfolio of several single family houses that looked interesting to me. Obviously this would need to be done commercially, however I'm not familiar with commercial loans on housing properties. While I personally can come up with a down payment, there's no way I could personally afford this many properties right now. What would this look like? What kind of "down payment" would be involved and how would a loan like this be structured?  Would this look like a business line of credit, or something more similar to a traditional mortgage? I'm sure these are very elementary questions, but I'd love to have a quick outline of what it would take to purchase something like this.

You want in a realtor what you'd want in any parter, employee, or anyone with whom you work.  You want someone who is willing to put in work and hustle, someone who is proactive about finding you what you need and comes to you rather than you having to hunt them down, and someone who knows the local market and is plugged into the local network.

Without a signed sales contract they can do whatever they want.  Once they agree, it's probably best to really lean on them to get the contract back to you.  Four days would be a long time for no response, was your realtor helping with this?  Usually they're a bit more aggressive once a verbal agreement is in place.

Agreed, St Petersburg is definitely a growth market.  Lots of great areas to invest.  Definitely neighborhood specific so I agree, get a good realtor that knows the area.  

I'm located in Sarasota, and I'd like to know of any property managers that can help out with seasonal rentals.  Thanks!

In my market, there is a large millennial demand for homes. The problem they’re facing is low inventory. As such prices are being pushed up, and cash buyers are jumping at good deals. Thus millennials are having a tough time finding houses for the same reason investors are, tough competition. I suspect that as the market cools and rates go up, you’ll see more millennials buying. In our market this trend has been showing up as millennials buy new construction in distant suburbs or they buy refurbished homes in gentrifying neighborhoods.

I know in my local market (Sarasota), there is definitely a market for flipping condos.  It just depends on how the numbers work out, which in the current market climate is tough enough to find...

My wife and I went to FSU and make it up there a few times a year.  We're looking for a student rental property, and would love to touch base with a realtor and property manager in the area.  We're from Sarasota, and are planning on coming up for the weekend on September 20-23.  If there are any investor friendly realtors and property managers, I'd love to touch base and hopefully set up a day to meet.  Thanks!

I agree that lately the stock market has been the way to go. I live in southwest Florida, and while SFH prices certainly aren't SoCal, prices are definitely high and cash flow is hard to find.

The historical return of the S&P 500 is around 8-9% per year. My personal IRA has averaged 14% since 2011 (when I opened it), and 17% over the past year. Yes, these results are abnormally high and non-sustainable. However every investment will have peaks and valleys.

I've noticed that cash-on-cash returns on SFH in this area tend to hover around 5-6% off the MLS. So to increase your return, you work (either working to get a great deal, i.e. direct mail/driving for dollars, or working to force appreciation with improvements). So depending on how you calculate the monetary value of your time, you could come out even further ahead. This also doesn't account for tax advantages/appreciation/loan paydown, which probably help to even the playing field.

My take home message is that real estate is hot right now and, just like any other investment, if you invest in the peak of the market, your returns will be lower. But if you're investing for the long term, this will be but a blip in your historical return. Long term, real estate (including REIT's) is the highest yielding investment (around 10-11%), followed by small cap stocks.

I would strongly argue that a diversified investment portfolio made up of real estate assets, index mutual funds, and liquid cash with low debt is the best long term strategy.