All Forum Posts by: Joseph Amin

@Jennifer Cramer You are at a great starting point so congrats on positioning yourself to buy and hold a  property. I dont have enough eyes and ears on the ground for the areas that you listed beacuse my main territory is SE. Most of my investors primarily invest in areas of Florida. These markets include Jacksonville, Palm Coast, Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda, and Lehigh Acres. All these markets are growing rapidly and are currently more affordable than areas like Tapa Orlando or southeast Florida (West Palm - Miami) where property prices are too high for the numbers to work, not too mention the exclusive tax breaks you receive.

Let me know if I can provide any assistance.

@Sidney Garcia Thanks for your question,

@Anthony Stokley made a lot of good points. For quadplexes, they're harder to come by, but we find that a lot of our investors enjoy buying new construction quads in areas like Jacksonville and Ocala. Duplexes are a little easier to come by with these we tend to focus on areas where the land is cheap and the rents are high. these markets include Jacksonville, Palm Coast, Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda, and Lehigh Acres. all these markets are growing rapidly and are currently more affordable than areas like Tapa Orlando or southeast Florida (West Palm - Miami) where property prices are too high for the numbers to work for most investors. I always recommend planning a good road trip as you are looking to live in a property, you should like the area as well.

Let me know if I can provide any assistance.

@Eric Yu 

Here in Florida, I work with investors who desire verbatim what you are asking for, and often times I'm able to deliver over. My inventory includes new home construction SF, duplexes, and quads. I will dm you so we can connect.

Hey @Ron Dancy, great question.To answer your initial question, Absolutely. If given the choice, all seasoned investors I've worked with prefer new construction. As you know interest rates are high right now, so in order to combat that, developers are giving out great incentives such as free property management, vetted tenant placement, and offering to buy down points. Duplexes in my area have been sprouting up quickly due to high demand. New construction also will give you equity from day 1, not to mention all the years of cost segregation you will report every year. I'm currently in the process of closing and moving into my 2nd Duplex in which I will be living for free. 

@David Dey made a lot of great points that, having worked with several investors to buy in both regions, I agree with. Jacksonville is much more of a dynamic city with a large stable employment and population base. It's not uniform, so each region will be very different. Having local knowledge is key. From my own experience running the numbers on multiple Florida cities, cash flow may be less than other areas but as a coastal city you should see more appreciation over time. Ocala is a cash flow power house, with a lot of population growth. It also has a very large employment base  and you can often get more bang for your buck with regards to purchase price. I actively help investors in both markets and have seen more investors buy in Ocala after reviewing deep pro-formas I put together for them.

FYI- if your looking at pure appreciation, markets like palm coast are are anticipated to get more appreciation.

Feel free to reach out to me if you have any additional questions

@Victor Beaton congratulations on finally being able to start your investor journey. Sarasota and Southwest Florida region is a great place to buy your first investment property because the land is cheap and the rents are high. All of my investors buy here because the population has been growing every year and will continue to go up. If you’re looking for a turnkey process on your first property investment, I would be happy to have a chat with you sometime. 

In short, the builder already owns the land, they are funding the construction costs and usually are selling the property already well under construction: 2-3 months away from completion. This is the avenue that the majority of our investors go with as it's a much shorter time frame and removes a-lot of the risk and work associated with ground up construction. @Erik E.

Quote from @Erik E.:

Quote from @Joseph Amin:

Hey Eric congrats on the start of your real estate journey, I work with a lot of investors who are either looking to do ground up construction or purchase spec homes directly form the builder. When doing ground up construction we recommend investors get pre approved for the construction property before buying the lot. too many buy the lot first without knowing if they get approved for the construction loan or know their total financing and closing costs. This is beneficial to know ahead of taking on a project like this as it can easily be tens of thousands of dollars in unrealized costs. Most lenders will factor in 3 major components before approving the construction loan. that includes the builder, the project, and the investor. So we recommend working with the builder and their preferred lender as they have already previously worked together ( approved them and previous projects before). Once you receive approval for the pre construction loan, you can then look for lots now knowing all of your costs and that you will eventually be approved. The best rates are usually given to investors that have built 5 properties in the last 2 years. If you do not meet this threshold you are more luckily to get a hard money loan at much higher rates. When our investors look at spec or ground up , most go with spec build because it can cash flow right away and avoid build time, hidden costs ,and headaches. Those that go ground up are generally looking to build at least 5 per year. Let me know if you have additional questions.

Thank you & Thanks for the reply Joseph! The builder/GC I'm working with had me purchase the land to create skin in the game. That's how I'm receiving 100% cost of construction from the lender they use. Learning lenders do factor in the builder, project, & me. This is specifically why I teamed up with them on my first few projects. They have the experience! This might be a stupid question but I have to ask to learn when you say spec what do you mean?

A spec build is short for speculative build. In the simplest terms, it is when a developer builds a property without having a specific buyer or tenant lined up first. They're taking a bit of a gamble, hoping that once the building is finished, someone will want to buy or rent it,( however, if your in the growing markets you don't have to worry about that)

These are the Pros :a spec build presents property investors with the potential for high profits, faster project turnover, design control, portfolio diversification, flexibility in property choices, and the ability to leverage market demand for increased returns on investment.

@Erik E.

A lot of my investors believe that Austin like other Texas cities will do well in the long run. When you researched markets like Austin las Vegas Miami, those markets have higher land cost and are more cyclical in nature tend to have larger price swings compared to regions with lower land costs. If your'e looking for purely long term appreciation you will likely do great in these markets but if you're looking to have high cash flow and avoid a potential major pricing downturn. Many of our investors choose areas that have low land cost and steady population growth. @Rishika Garimella