All Forum Posts by: Edgar Rodriguez

Hey @Joseph Palladino !

Welcome to the area brother!

I am a real estate agent local to the Tampa market but I do have experience in the five county area of Hillsborough, Manatee, Polk, Pinellas, and Pasco.

My recommendation is, with that budget, to probably look in the Polk county or norther Pasco (think Brooksville, Hudson possibly) area. Most homes in the greater Tampa area are above $100k or need a lot of work or are not in a safe area currently. You may be able to find some condos or townhomes in that range in better areas. It depends on your parameters.

With that being said, you may not mind doing work or living in a C or D class area so that really depends on you individually.

House hacking here has been really effective for a lot of my clients as most of them have been able to at least cover a majority of their expenses with rent from their second unit and/or roommates.

Good luck with your search and if you are still looking for representation, I would love to be considered. Thanks!

Hey Will! Welcome to this crazy world. 

Good luck with your endeavors. Would love to see how we can help each other!

Hey @Miguel Roman!

Depending on your situation, you have some options. 

First, as stated above, you could house hack up to a quadplex with your VA loan. In regards to using this strategy in the Tampa Bay area, there is some limitations when it comes to inventory but it can still be done.

Flips are very popular here as well. This is obviously more of a "job" as opposed to rentals because there is more time commitment. However, I have seen it become an avenue for many investors to get into the industry and learn the different areas and opportunities. 

You could also do the traditional rental property. Depending on what your desired return is, there are a variety of areas that can cash flow ranging from AIR BnBs in downtown Tampa to small multi family in Lakeland. 

Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions sir. 

Yeah @John Ballard, it would be a hard drive for sure especially with those world famous bridges. 

All these decisions depend on personal preference and you have to decide that for yourself. I have sold homes to people that live an hour from work and some homes to people who live five minutes from work. It is really up to the individual and what they feel is important to them. 

Good luck though! I hope you enjoy this area as much as I have!

Lakeland is a very interesting place. It is divided essentially into 4 areas geographically. (NW,SW,NE,SE) People living in each area tend to stay there for a significant portion of their lives as a preference. 

As a submarket of Tampa and Orlando, to a lesser degree, it pretty much goes how those markets go. Prices are up and Lakeland will creep up right behind them. Growth has been doing pretty well and prices are relatively low in terms of value compared to the two larger markets. 

There is also a higher inventory from what I have seen recently of those small duplex, triplex, quad buildings that work really well for house hacking and/or beginner investors as compared to the Tampa market. 

Hey John! 

If I had a piece of advice, I would suggest possibly looking in some of the areas mentioned above that are close to Pinellas County such as, but not limited to, South Of Gandy in South Tampa, Town n Country (there are worse areas here but some are still very nice), Carrollwood. It really depends on budget and preferences but Pinellas is prohibitively expensive in some areas for sure.

Oldsmar and Palm Harbor may also work. 

Feel free to PM to chat further. I am always looking at deals. Good luck in your search! 

Hey Maj,
There are some awesome areas in Tampa for investment. This area continues to grow more and more every year.

My suggestion is to establish your goals for the property. If you are looking for multifamily, you may have to look in a different area as opposed to a different area for flips. The budgets also vary by area as anywhere else.

My biggest piece of advice is to be decisive. Properties that make sense move very quickly and require some fast twitch muscle fibers.

Good luck! 

Someone who is hungry enough will write offers for you. A commission on 850k is enough for me to spend the 30 minutes to 2 hours it takes to write a complete and well done contract. It takes me about 20 minutes from start to sending it over for signatures to write a purchase agreement with no crazy addendums. 

Hey Benjamin,

Do you have any other requirements for your deal? Examples would be location, price point, cash flow, etc? 

From what I can see this property does not make sense as the cash flow is negative and, as a result, there is really no return on investment. I would try to stay away from areas that have flood insurance as that also significantly affects cash flow as well. In this market, for a deal to make sense in most cases you would need to do significant work or buy in a not so good area. 

Hey Francisco, 

I am a local realtor in the Tampa area.  I can do a market analysis for you on the property.