All Forum Posts by: Erica Muller

I second the golf ball through the window thing. When I first moved to Orlando I lived on a golf course. One day my three year old daughter and I were just standing in the living room getting ready to go somewhere and a golfball shattered the window behind her, leaving her with cuts and the ball missed her head by a few inches. I hopped the fence with my kid in hand, barefoot and literally chased the golfer down the course as I was livid. He knew what he did but didn't stop to address the damage. Turns out he was a golf professional that worked at the local course and it was his student who hit the ball but the club eventually covered the fee to replace the window. . . he didn't even ask if my kid was okay though. The golf course lot is not the dream that everyone thinks it is. It can be dangerous. 

Down payment on a Self Storage facility.  

@Steven Butera what is your 5 year goal? I feel like I can't really give a good response to this without knowing the direction you want to take. Do you want to replace your income? Generate capitol? Just have properties to fund your retirement? This will play into the best direction to go. Beginning with the end in mind is always a smart place to start. 

@Christopher B. Actually that's not even close to what I said, those are all your words on how you interpreted it. I have done exactly what I just advised him to do and so have many of my clients. Maybe you're confusing the word "wholesale" with slumlord or bottom feeder properties? Not sure but we're definitely not talking about the same thing. He has 20K, he can easily grow that. Obviously he can't start out at the top of the food chain like an investor who has 200 or 300K. His options are his options. I'm simply giving him one of them. I hope whatever he decides to do, he's successful. 

@Marcus Cox Buy a really cheap wholesale property with hard money, use the 20K for renovations, flip it and 1099 the gains into the next cheap wholesale property, use the same 20K for your next one, repeat until you have a little bit more built up. First you have to find a property wholesaler. I have no idea who does that in the Knoxville area but I have contacts for Atlanta and Orlando. 

@Bethany Lewis Welcome!! I'm a vacation rental person also. It's a great time to be in that industry! Congrats! 

@Sam Denny I have family in Harwich Port and they own quite a bit of property. I will ask them who they recommend and get back to you. 

@Jason Hsiao I'm curious as to where the bulk of your guests are traveling from? Is it a lot of Western Canadians? In Orlando we get a ton of Brazilian tourists and UK tourists and we've learned their travel habits and holidays so all marketing is geared toward that. I'm wondering if you had more targeted demographic information if you could come up with a strategy to get more of those bookings? 

@Darren Wendroff Gotcha. I had a feeling it was in that area. That's pretty much one of the only areas in Orlando you can still buy for that price. I actually live in Winter Garden which is about 15 minutes away however it's like a different world. The only thing I can say about Pine Hills is that it's definitely not on the upswing. It was in it's prime about 20 years ago, it was once the go to suburban area of West Orlando to live in but after Winter Garden and the Ocoee area started to get built up and then a Wal-Mart went in over by Pine Hills it went downhill. Target closed down their store over there and other large companies like Toys R Us closed down. Target moved over to the Winter Garden Village and everything is being built out west toward the Clermont areas now. The West Oaks mall has lost most of it's big name stores also. As for the long term, I wouldn't bet on it being one of the areas that will drastically appreciate (especially because we're at the top of the market right now) however, there is still a market for that type of location and rental. I think buying it as a cash flow property is a more realistic idea than expecting to hold it and make a ton of money on it. I definitely don't think you will lose money though and you'll certainly generate a much higher return than leaving your money sitting in the bank. I just wouldn't want to be the guy that has to go over there to fix anything or pick up a check. Not sure if you have a PM in place or not? 

@Andrew Taylor Then there is the question of the work distribution after everything is split 50/50. Who is going to handle the booking inquiries and deal with the guests and issues? The booking process and dealing with inquires is almost a full time job in and of itself and if done correctly and in a timely manner you will lose tons of bookings. If I was a part of that deal, I would rather be on the money side than the labor side of that. It's a lot of work.