All Forum Posts by: Chris Mury

Hey everyone! 

I'm moving from Long Island, NY (originally from the UK) to St. Augustine in a couple of weeks time, and would love to get to know people in the area! 

Looking to connect with fellow investors, lenders, contractors, wholesalers, realtors and everything in-between! 

I'm looking to get started by doing simple cosmetic rehabs on ranches & small multi-families (long shot I know haha), converting them to STRs in St. John's County with a focus on the St. Augustine area (east of intracoastal). I have some experience in real estate back in the UK, where I was a land development consultant, but just getting started in this market, so any advice / help would be very much appreciated!

I just bought a condo in St A , The Greens, in St A Shores. Can you share any handyman or vendor contact acts. Need flooring, paint, repairs, etc. Thanks in Advance ! Don , 704-962-0979,

Hello folks, we are in the process of purchasing our first STR in FL. We have previously only purchased LTRs in TX, CA, and CO. We live several states away and have relied on a local/investor-friendly realtor to hire a home inspector for us. Time was of the essence, as we are buying a property that is already a furnished, fully-booked STR, and the seller stated we could only have access to the unit on March 30 (when no guests would be there) to conduct an inspection. Our purchase contract stated our inspection period ended on April 4/ tomorrow; meaning, Monday, April 4 is our final opportunity to cancel the sale and keep our earnest money, if we are unhappy with the inspection results. HOWEVER, we have still not received any inspection report and learned from our realtor's office today that they could not reach the inspector all weekend. So, we asked for an extension of the inspection period until Friday, April 8, BUT . . . questions abound:

1). Is the home inspector in violation of any FL laws, code of ethics, etc. by delaying our report this long?  What options/recourse do we have?

2). Would you rather hire a different inspector at this point?  We learned today the realtor's office had never used this inspector previously but the realtor's office hired him based on online reviews.

3) We never received any invoice or estimate of cost for the home inspection prior to the realtor hiring the inspector and today asked our realtor for documentation of any agreement, emails, etc. which would show the realtor did clearly give the inspector inspection deadlines, etc. but so far we have nothing . . . meaning we do not know what our charges will be, etc.  What would you do?  Ask for discounted service from the inspector?

4) To complicate things further, this inspector also did a mold inspection for us and we are waiting for the lab results to come back but that might not be until as early as Tuesday and we learned he did find mold in the vents. (To clarify, we have NOT received any inspection results yet, not even the basic home inspection which covers HVAC, appliances, etc.)

Any other ideas/thoughts/ suggestions?

Thank you.

@Kevin Schellinger

Hey Kevin, 

I just purchased a STR in Gainesville as well. I could give you the name of a few STR managers I know here but I would consider self managing. Feel free to pm me anytime!

@Chris Mury is it possible to still buy a house in St. Augustine Beach that has a current STR permit and takeover that permit OR when purchase the property does the permit cancel at the end of the term (and I would be stuck without a permit)?

Hi @Taylor Robinson. I think you’re on the right track. If you were on the mortgage and your partner was going to be only on the deed, we wouldn’t look at the partner’s credit profile or real estate owned. And the same would be so when the partner makes a purchase and has you only on title. 

The partner would not be able to contribute to the down payment, closing costs, deposits, or reserves, but if their contribution was old enough that it didn’t show in your most recent two bank statements (for the accounts used for down payment, closing costs, deposits, or reserves), the funds would be effectively seasoned and therefore allowed.

Hope this helps. Happy to discuss further.