All Forum Posts by: Colin G Murphy

Hi everyone

Myself and some partners purchased a 1552 sq ft single family home at a Pasco County foreclosure auction recently. Our original intention was to renovate, tenant and sell turnkey to investors, but we are rehabbing 7 other properties at the moment and would like to explore wholesaling this instead.

This is a clean and safe location just off Embassy Blvd and with easy access to the 19 into Tampa and St. Petersburg. The property needs new paint and upgrades to the kitchens and bathrooms. There is also potential to add a third bedroom.

The demographics are perfect for landlords with low crime, low unemployment and settled middle class families who are attracted to the area for its affordability. Average incomes in the neighborhood are now over $53,000, a huge jump from just 15 years ago.

Residents in this street have lots of amenities on their doorstep – the Regency Square Outlet with shops and restaurants are just a 5-10 minute walk away.

Property Address: 9126 MARK TWAIN LN PORT RICHEY, FL34668

Sales Price: $59,900

Property Type: Single Family Home

Bedrooms: 2

Bathrooms: 2

Size Sq Ft: 1552

Year Built: 1979

Property Tax: $1,200

Market Rents: $950 - $1050 per month

Local Area Report: DOWNLOAD

Google Map Link: https://goo.gl/maps/dg2n3

Local Info (from city-data.com)

Median Income Growth since 2000: 132%

Median Household Income: $53,667

Median Home Sale Price: $93,927

Unemployment Rate: 4.1%

Median Age of Residents: 45

Please send me a private message if you are interested in viewing and/or learning more.

Thank you very much @Wes Eaves, appreciate that. 

Hi @David Battle

Have only mailed that list twice so far, and will hit it at least another 3-4 times (once per month). Leads tend to be much stronger towards the end rather than beginning of cycle. 

Have probably received 10-12 strong leads from it and we have secured one property, which we are currently renovating and hope to flip for a nice profit next month. 

Hi @Roberta James

The first step should be figure out your real estate goals. Do you want to be a wholesaler, flipper, landlord? Do you want you want to build a passive income stream or equity? Basically, what exactly would you like to have achieved in 1, 2 and 3 years?

Once you do that (and make sure you write them down on paper) then the next step is to work backwards from those goals and figure out what budget, property types, locations and purchase/resale/rental strategies will enable you to achieve them. 

Then you need to figure out how to target potential sellers that match this criteria and structure your marketing plan around that. Direct mail does work, but only when it is supported by well defined goals and target lists.  

Attending local REIA meetings would be a great place to ask experienced investors about how to find buyers, sellers and structure deals. Keep listening to podcasts, reading forums and reading recommended real estate books.

Good luck!

I would agree with @Kweku Ako-adjei

You can use the local tax & county websites to track down absentee names, but it´s very labor intensive. Purchasing a list of absentee owners on listsource.com (using additional filters for property type, age, equity percentage, location, market value and ownership entity) is very reasonable. 

For example, I recently purchased a list of 1230 prospects in Pasco County for $800 with the above filters. It would have taken a lot more than $800 worth of my time to create that using free local resources. 

Good afternoon all, 

Can anybody recommend an investor friendly 4 point inspector in the Pasco County area of Tampa Florida? We are doing a handful of flips there at the moment and I´d love to find someone reliable who can provide reports at relatively short notice. 

Well spotted @Doug Merriott

You will have to take out flood insurance with an FHA loan and it will be quite steep if the property is located in an A rated flood zone. Make sure you get a quote from an approved insurance carrier and add that to your numbers.

Yup, I´d agree with the comments above. Tampa is a not a place where you can get sub $150k multi families in acceptable areas. As an out of state buyer, I would certainly stay well clear of low income areas, you don´t want to be dealing with those tenant headaches. 

Hi @Daniel Allen

Lots of patience and persistency required here. Assuming you have a good list to work with (and there are ways of filtering so you don´t waste money mailing people with $150k mortgages), then it can take several months to get a high response rate, and that´s hitting the same people over and over. The yellowletters.com guys (see @Cody Alexander above) have some good tips and tools for this.

Terrific summary @Bradley Bogdan

As a European, it´s very gratifying to read a post from an American who has a calm and knowledgeable understanding of the situation and doesn´t pivot straight to the "America is in even bigger trouble" argument. America´s unsustainable debt & social security liabilities are no laughing matter but they look like a precision Swiss clock compared to the total chaos Greece is facing. 

The sad truth is that ordinary Greeks are in for a huge amount of suffering and pain in the next 5 years, whatever option they take. Basic government services will struggle to function, businesses will go bankrupt, private loan defaults will soar, savings could be wiped out and unemployment will go way higher than the current 25% (compared to less than 6% in the US). 

Even if they do manage to stay in the euro, it will be as a glorified protectorate rather than an independent county.  Economic logic dictates massive debt reduction alongside tough and wide ranging reforms, but that is politically unacceptable to the major credit nations of the EU, who want the latter but not the former.

Ironically enough, Congress may have to grapple with these issues soon enough as Puerto Rico is in a very similar situation to Greece.