All Forum Posts by: Joey Hamaoui

Hi @Tanveer Ahmed I agree with @Jay Hinrichs that this sounds an awful lot like the Morris Invest approach. I also tend to agree with @Chris Clothier that this model does not really provide the kinds of returns that a lot of providers are presenting. 

That being said I don't think the approach is faulty as long as you know what you're getting yourself into and you have the right team in place. Here in Jacksonville the majority of the investors I work with both local and abroad tend to avoid these areas but we do have some investors who specifically want these High Risk, High Return areas. 

Having spoken to several property managers to find someone who could control assets we would purchase in those areas we found that while there is a much higher risk, you can mitigate that risk with a couple things.

1. Do quality repairs. Don't just put lipstick and bandaids on the problems. Many investors do this in these neighborhoods and the result is that a few months into the lease these same problems come back up and the tenants stop paying rent ultimately resulting in an eviction, headaches and lost rent. If you do quality repairs however I am told you will actually get decent tenants who won't give you problems. 

2. Pay the price for a quality property manager. A lot of these same "investors" will place a tenant that was not screened properly just to show a "turn-key" property. This results in a poor tenant and again may result in an eviction or many headaches.

3. Know the actual numbers. Many of these investors present you GROSS returns and even if they show you NET returns the often don't take into account costs like property management, capital expenditures/maintenance, utility startup fees, carry costs, etc. 

If however, you know the real numbers, you do quality repairs and get a quality property manager I see no reason why you shouldn't invest there. The only reason that I could see would be to save the money for investing in a larger property that costs a bit more. In my mind I see it as being a good starting point for a year or two and then 1031 into the larger property. 

I would be happy to connect and let you know more about what is going on here in the Jacksonville market. 

Hi @Anthony Musacchio, 

Best practices from the standpoint of an agent is to reach out to your agent and have them contact the listing agent to arrange it. Your agent may have a team member who can show you the place instead of the listing agent or can arrange with the listing agent and ensure their commission is safe and you're protected from an awkward situation. 

Best of luck!

@Maximus Nguyen if you're looking at 4-6% in Houston I strongly recommend you consider Jacksonville. Even in the more expensive areas I'm seeing at least 6% return. Most of my investors are looking at 8-12% return. Cash on Cash you can get a decent property here with a higher return.

I'm happy to connect you with good property managers locally or discuss with you if you have any questions on Jacksonville. 

Hey @Howard Johnston welcome to BP and a future welcome to Jacksonville. 

I think it's great that you want to get into flipping some houses here. I think you will find that with $100K you will barely have enough to cover most acquisitions in Mandarin, and the other areas mentioned. When you add on the cost of renovating (even if done yourself) it will be hard to make the numbers work. 

A lot of investors who are flipping homes now are focusing in areas like Murray Hill, and small subdivisions off of Collins Rd. Jacksonville is so large though that there are a lot of flips going on everywhere as long as the numbers are right. 

I'd love to connect and share our experience. I think I could learn a lot from you on the construction side of the business and I would be happy to share my experiences in Jacksonville working with investors, which I'm sure would be helpful to you getting started here. 

@Matt Mueller with $75K it would be hard to flip a house to a regular homebuyer unless your leveraging the money here in Jacksonville. Most of the homes that could work with those numbers will be in rough neighborhoods and not worth the money. 

I'd suggest looking in 32210 or purchasing via the auction. Maybe a townhome or condo. One gentleman I work with flips a lot of condos and townhomes that he gets off of the auction. 

Hi @Jorge Mendez I'll be happy to connect and answer any questions you may have about the Jacksonville market. It definitely has a lot of long term potential. More and more jobs are moving here in different sectors and the city is doing a lot to invest in long term growth such as the deepening of the river to allow for larger cargo ships to come in. Its really a great place.

For taxes in Duval and most of Clay county you can use the following formula and it is usually pretty accurate. This is what we use:

(Purchase Price * .92) * .01865 = Annual Taxes

The theory behind it is we take about 92% of the Purchase Price which is usually still a bit high for tax appraised value but we like to be conservative. Then we multiply that value by the millage rate which is usually .01865. 

I will also look at the tax record to see last year's taxes if our number seems off. 

Hope that helps.

Hi @Anthony Musacchio, 

Welcome to BP and Jacksonville.

I will be happy to connect and help in any way. Duplexes are a little bit harder to find in some of the more decent areas of Jacksonville but you can still find some by the Beaches or San Marco area. Condos are everywhere I really like Touchton in Southside

Hi @Javier Campanini,

Welcome to BP and the Jacksonville, FL market. I'm happy to connect and help out in any way. 

@Trey Pryce feel free to shoot me a PM and see how we can help each other grow.