All Forum Posts by: James Elden

I'm in the process of looking at buying a home that I would live in about half of the year and rent out the rest of the time as a short term rental. From talking to some lenders I may be either able to use a primary home loan or a second home loan (with 10% down). I'm wondering if generally for any loan where you are getting it as a house to live in, is it usually the case that after one year you can convert it to a full time rental? I may end up buying a different home after one year to live in full time so that's why I'm wondering.

@Michael Baum ok thanks that gives me some confidence, I guess I should just have a few companies on hand and get confirmation from them everytime they finish work (cleaning, repair, etc) and call someone else immediately if they aren't being responsive.

I'm looking into buying a property for use as a short term rental in Florida and will be out there part of the year but other times I won't be there. My wife is good with online marketing so I'm not sure we need to pay a property management company to find renters for the property, however, we will need services like cleaning the place, fixing emergency issues, etc. 

I'm not sure if property management companies would be open to just doing this part of the service without the finding renters part for a reduced fee? Or, alternatively I was thinking about forgoing using a property management company completely, I'm not sure if trying to find vendors myself like a cleaning service, handyman service, etc is asking for trouble without me being there year round? I figure it may go smoothly most of the time but if someone doesn't do their job as expected just one time when I'm in another state it could cause a lot of issues.

Would appreciate any insight from those more experienced, thanks.

I have been having a lot of confusion around this, my understanding is that based on Section 509.032(7)(b), Fla. Stat most cities in Florida are not allowed to ban or heavily restrict short term rentals, even in regular residential neighborhoods, unless they had laws in place before sometime in 2011. However, when searching on this topic for various cities I get all kinds of conflicting information. Some of this is probably outdated info, I would think. I'm wondering if anyone has info on this that can clarify this or external resources? For example I have been looking at Jacksonville, as well as some other cities, and I see info saying they are not restricted then I see info that conflicts and says they are. Is there a concise list of cities in Florida and their status in regards to short term rentals? Thanks for any info.

@Adrian Pagano ok thanks, I'll have to dig more into the listings I'm seeing, I'm guessing then the rentals I'm seeing that are un-rented for a while are overpriced.

@Joe Splitrock this makes some sense to me but also is a bit confusing as I think the level of renters in a C-class property aren't going to be desirable for an owner of a B or A property as they would have lower credit scores, incomes, etc and I'm guessing most owners of these higher end properties would rather the house sit empty than take what they view as a risk? Also I am considering section 8 renters as well so I'm fairly certain owners of higher end properties would not take these tenants on in this situation.

@Chris Davidson I'm mainly concerned with vacancy rates and, to a lesser extent rental prices, I expect that the house prices would go down but I'm intending to hold long-term so as long as the property was rented I wouldn't be overly concerned with the value of the house. My main concern would be a situation where a house in this range ended up sitting empty for a long-time due to lack of renters. My goal is to setup a portfolio that is resistant to vacancies. 

Your answer explains it well also, thanks

Question for those who have been around a while, I haven't been able to figure this out myself from research. I'm referring mainly to larger markets, say over 1 million people at least, during a housing crash / downturn where house prices go down and rental vacancy rates go up would houses in the cheapest parts of the city be less affected than the more expensive homes? My assumption was that the people in the lower end neighborhoods would have less mobility so would stay put while people that are moving out of the more expensive areas may be moving away to other cities, etc but maybe I'm completely off base. Would appreciate any input from anyone who has been around a while in real estate.

I had been doing some research about Jacksonville and am going there soon and it seemed the rental market was hot with low vacancy rates. I'm looking now at listings for properties that are lower end, in the urban core area and west of there so I then checked Zillow rentals to see what's out there in terms of the rental prices and times on market, etc and I'm seeing more rentals than I thought there would be, some have been on over 30 days as well. Some seem like decent houses for the neighborhood (interiors up to date, not super run down or anything), I'm wondering if anyone has any insight as to whether the rental market is cooling off in these lower end neighborhoods or maybe some of these are just landlords trying to stretch too much and asking more for rent than the market currently is bearing? 

I'm looking at some houses that are priced a bit lower than the minimum price they would need to be to get a loan (like $5k under) so one thought I had was whether it's possible to pay above asking and get money back from the seller at closing? I'm not trying to do anything illegal or unethical so I'm just asking if this is something that is normally done? Thanks for any info.