All Forum Posts by: Christian Paez

Jesse, glad to see you are jumping in on analyzing a deal and possibly investing, the key to a healthy investment career is to simply get started.

It is good to see you have help with getting private money and someone who can help with cost estimates, it is important for you to get a detailed list of what needs to be repaired or replaced, this will make a difference in your eventual profit, sometimes even savvy investors underestimate the rehab costs, and that can end up killing your profits, something as simple as having to replace an AC system will cost a lot of money.

Purchase Price - $55k  - depends on the area, you will need to determine if this is an A,B or C location

3bd/1ba (incorrectly zoned as a 3bd/2ba - is this common?) - This is more than likely zoned "residential" you will find the property specification in the county website https://polkpa.org, this is where they specify the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, if the property is showing as a 3bd/2ba, it would be very uncommon for someone to remove a bathroom, but I would check the property to see if there was evidence of a previous bathroom, however there is value in having a 3bd/2ba vs a 3bd/1ba, this holds true for selling or renting.

931 sqft - I like these smaller homes, as there is potential to make them bigger, you should check to see if there are any roof covered areas such as a porch, where you can expand the square footage of the home, any time you are pricing a home you base the value of the property on the selling price of similar properties, and you determine the price per square foot, you can then apply that to your property, so if you add square footage to a property you are rehabbing, you can add value by expanding the size.

Year built: 1961 - Be sure to have it inspected, you should always inspect a house you are going to buy, especially if you are just starting out, having a professional asses the property can be priceless. Because of the age of the house, the items to look out for are Electrical, plumbing, HVAC, foundation and roof, which should be assessed in the inspection report.

Lot size: 0.1 acres

Good luck with the project, and let us know how it goes.

@Rosa Lepore

Your welcome, and I am glad to see you are gathering knowledge.

When I specified to get involved locally, I was not suggesting you should stay in your area, if you decide to invest out of state, in this case here in Florida, it is always a good idea to get involved with groups and local people, who can become part of your team to help you find good investments.

Rosa, you are on the right path, and you hit the nail on the head when you mentioned "However, I think my problem is not having connections yet" as with any business dealing, Real Estate is dependent on relationships, and not just any relationship, they must be quality relationships with various different resource providers i.e. Contractors, Property Managers, Financial providers, Insurance providers, Real Estate Brokers and list goes on and on, you get my point.

I know it is very easy to want to find a deal and purchase something quickly, I see it happen over and over again, people coming from out of state or even people coming from the Tampa, Orlando and Miami areas who start looking in the area, and find deals which "SEEM" like a good deal simply because $140k price tag is low compared to the persons market, and they make the purchase, they end up with a property with barely any equity, and they end up renting it out at a loss, example below:

The below is fictional examples and estimates, always do your due diligence before investing

Purchase price: $140,000.00

Rehab: $15,000.00

Closing costs: $4,000.00

Holding Costs: $3,000.00

Total Purchase price: $162,000.00

1% of purchase cost: $1620.00 mo. (this is the minimum amount you should receive in rents)

Estimated market rents: $1300.00 mo.

Loss of $320.00 mo.

It is very easy to get into a situation where you end up having to sell or hope for appreciation, which is a not a good investing strategy. I highly recommend getting involved locally, no matter where you end up investing, by finding local meet ups or REIA groups which generally have a good group of people with experience and local knowledge, and always work with someone to check and double check the numbers before you make your investment.

 Let me know if you have any questions, glad to help.

Link to Polk County REIA:

http://pcreia.com/

@David Paez 

Hi David, you have probably seen that Lakeland, FL is a popular investment city these days, some of the reasons for this is that Polk County/Lakeland is ideally located centrally to Orlando and Tampa, we have many warehouses strategically located throughout Polk County, to include warehouses for Amazon, IKEA, RoomsToGo, PepsiCo and Publix which make this area strategic for distribution throughout Florida, something else worth mentioning Amazon is building one of their major Air Hubs at the Lakeland Airport, they will be taking over 47 acres to service their planes, not to mention Publix is headquartered in Lakeland, and we also have a large presence for Coca Cola bottling and Juices in Auburndale, FL which is about 10-20 min from Lakeland.

Lakeland is also home to the yearly SUN 'n FUN held in April, which is Florida's largest annual convention, which spans over 6 days on 2200 acres, and it has been recorded to have had a $64 Million direct and indirect economic impact on the I-4 corridor (From Tampa to Orlando). https://www.flysnf.org/about/

I have been investing since 2002, and my investments are mainly in Lakeland, Bartow, Auburndale and Winter Haven, I also like Lake Wales and Haines City, there is good population growth, and high demand for workers in these areas, of course keep in mind we are in a pretty descent economy right now, whatever you look at, make sure the numbers make sense, and if you purchase something, leave enough room for an economic downturn, I see many outside investors purchasing at higher than normal prices, because the prices seem cheap compared to other markets close to Lakeland, but this can become a trap if the market shifts in a negative direction.

I would be glad to help you with your search

North Lakeland is a great area, especially when you can get close to I4, that gives you a great advantage for renting, because it places people who work towards Orlando or Tampa close to the interstate allowing them to jump on the I4 quickly. The Colleges can be a little tricky, especially close to SouthEastern University, the North side of SouthEastern University can be a rough area, however the University is needing more housing for the students, so you see many of the properties being bought for student rentals, just be sure to check out the area before you buy.

Lakeland in general has great investment neighborhoods, where I find most of the value is in some of the class C neighborhoods, which you will find areas which have a mix of older to newer homes, and you can tell in areas where some investors are picking up lot's to build, which is a sign of a thriving neighborhood, I have recently picked up a couple houses where they are building two new houses in the same block, and we picked up the houses for a steal.

One suggestion I have is to check out the local PCREIA, they meet every first Thursday and third Thursday of each month, you will find many local investors and a great community to learn from.
http://pcreia.com/

@Stephanie Simmons "I’m going to be selling it and wanting 3-4 units" are you looking for multifamily, or are you looking for 3-4 single family properties? are you looking for Turnkey, or are you willing to rehab? do you have an idea what class neighborhood you are looking for i.e. A, B, C? Is there somewhere specific in Lakeland you are looking for i.e. south, north, specific zip codes? do you consider properties in cities close to Lakeland i.e. Mulberry, Bartow, Winterhaven, Auburndale? do you have a price range in mind?

@Alex Olmo try Wesley Joyner at Pilot Bank in Lakeland, they do commercial loans, but you will have to have had the property for at least 6 months and they will do market value, just be aware that processing these types of loans take longer than your traditional residential loan, they are also investment friendly, they know how to deal with Land Trusts and Partnerships.

David , most of my deals are off market, every once in a while we will come across a good deal in the MLS, since we always have multiple projects going on at the same time, we will often have people in neighborhoods reach out to us because they are looking to move or they have family who inherited a property and they are needing to do a quick sale, so if the deal makes sense we will purchase it. I will consider any type of property, in any condition, it can be wood frame, block or mobile home, we generally stay in C and B class neighborhoods.

@Francisco Jasso I will agree with most in the forum, finding something rent-ready for 40-50k is a tall order, however I have been able to purchase and rehab for under 70k, that is a full remodel rent ready property, which would be located in C class neighborhoods throughout Polk County (Lakeland, Winter Haven, Auburndale, Bartow, Mulberry) which are ideal for rental property and getting them rented took little time at all, I am posting a few of my most recent deals, let me know if you have any questions

• Single-family residence Purchase price: $17,500.00

• Single-family residence Purchase price: $25,000.00

• Small multi-family (2-4 units) Purchase price: $75,000.00 Cash invested: $40,000.00

• Large multi-family (5+ units) Purchase price: $180,000.00

• Single-family residence Purchase price: $65,000.00 Cash invested: $15,000.00 Monthly cashflow: $200.00

• Single-family residence Purchase price: $18,200.00 Cash invested: $50,000.00 Monthly cashflow: $600.00

1 vote for evening or Sundays