All Forum Posts by: Kristina Kuba

@Lance Gordon

If you want the conventional way of househacking, stick to the Tampa urban core. Lots of properties with mother in law suites and other accessory dwelling units called “carriage houses”. You can rent a room plus the MLM suite in the back. That is essentially “2” units that can help you rent free.

Use https://landlordy.com/ to manage the house hack and it will make your life so much easier.

In my experience, Tampa is not a cash flow market, rather an appreciation market. Do not give up hope, with the higher than average appreciation rate here in Tampa and the equity you will gain, you can upgrade to a large multi in 2 years.

I also work with a specialized lender that specializes in non-QM loans and investor specialized loans that can help answer any questions and see if you can qualify for higher.

Feel free to reach out with any questions.

@Kalea Sanders

Tampa hands down. Even in recession. I was just able to raise rent by 7% on one of my multifamily properties just this month. 

Here is a good article from 2 months ago.

Florida, Tampa Bay rent prices on the rise while other big metros slow

My husband and I have built a $4 million rental portfolio just in Tampa mostly by unconventional house hacking in different formats. We bought a condo on Harbour Island which we used a 3.5% FHA down (it is rare to find condos that are FHA available in desirable areas). Years ago we bought another house with a MLM suite and rented the back unit out and lived in the front and then sold it. We used a conventional loan to build our primary home and then turned it into a STR and took a HELOC out to build another one.

If you want the conventional way of househacking, stick to the Tampa urban core. Lots of properties with mother in law suites and other accessory dwelling units called “carriage houses”

Use https://landlordy.com/ to manage the house hack and it will make your life so much easier.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!

@Gopichand N. 

You are buying far out in the county and you will experience low rental rates and low appreciation. I would recommend sticking to Tampa. I built my old house in North Hyde Park for 412k in 2018 and in 2022 it appraised for 875k. You will never get that kind of appreciation out there in the county. Unless it cash flows well, I would skip it.

@Zac Boelkow

Ruben Cruz at Crulliance is a great CPA in Tampa that actually works very proactively meaning he will do tax projections in Q3 and Q4 and proactively let you know where your tax bill is and give you documented written out options in order to decrease your tax liability. His wheelhouse is all things real estate related.

Cruillance

400 N Tampa St 15th floor, Tampa, FL 33602

@Robert Deland

Many of my investors have purchased non conforming properties in Tampa. Run the risk/reward on it. The nice thing about it is most overlay districts in Tampa allow you to build an ADU accessory dwelling unit in the back. That's the hack. Call the city zoning dept and ask if the parcel is in an ADU eligible zone.

If it burns down or a hurricane crushes it, you lose your triplex and you rebuild as a SFR with an ADU. You go from 3 units to 2 units. Again, make sure you are comfortable with the risk/ reward on it and the numbers would work.

Code enforcement tends to be strict in the urban core of Tampa… pulling the correct permits would be in your best interest. As you pull the permits if the job value hits a certain threshold you lose non confirming status and you have an illegal 3 unit.

Your fastest and most efficient solution right now is to extend the contract with an addendum that the seller must receive a “formal decision” with corrected zoning status thru Accela (Tampa online portal) prior to closing. If your current seller can show that the property was leased consistently and has the lease documents, the city might not ask for the architectural drawings in order to sign off on this property to be rezoned. It is a case by case. This process will take at least 60 days and not more than 90 days.

Lastly, if you are using a real estate agent that invests themselves, they should be educating you on this whole process as this is a common yet solvable situation.

@Valentina Hendrick

If you are looking at it from an investor point of view, your property taxes will be far lower in Florida. Most parts of Texas are 2.8%... on a million dollar property that’s almost 30k a year.

@Tabb Pitt

The actual LLC formation is very easy on Sunbiz. You can do it yourself and tie it to a USPS mailbox or if you want another layer of anonymity, you can hire an attorney to act as your registered agent to receive and process all documents giving you some evel of reduction of liability. Applying for the EIN on the Federal website takes less than 5 mins once you have your LLC issued. Pay the extra approx $50 to get the Florida sunbiz oducments sent to you via email. (This will save you weeks).

I would recommend Venerable Law in Tampa for the formation and asset protection if that is important to you.

Ruben Cruz at Crulliance is a great CPA in Tampa that actually works very proactively meaning he will do tax projections in Q3 and Q4 and proactively let you know where your tax bill is and give you documented written out options in order to decrease your tax liability. His wheelhouse is all things real estate related.

Cruillance

400 N Tampa St 15th floor, Tampa, FL 33602

@Bryan S.

Try "Tampa Bay Plumbers LLC" at 901 McCloskey Blvd, Tampa, FL 33605

They do Cured-in-Place-Pipe Lining (CIPP) . I have had investors do this before on residential properties with a lot of success and they avoided the hassle of digging.

@Victoria Lopez

I have a great CPA in Tampa that actually works very proactively meaning he will do tax projections in Q3 and Q4 and proactively let you know where your tax bill is and give you documented written out options in order to decrease your tax liability.

Ruben is a ninja on real estate ins and outs and how to maximize the little things like meal / vacation decisions. Also, the secure portal and phone app make it a breeze to manage years of taxes and docs so you're not scrambling for items the next time you are applying for something big like a mortgage.

Ruben Cruz

Crulliance

400 N Tampa St 15th floor, Tampa, FL 33602

Tell him Kristina and Ryan sent you!

I have done these in small spaces in a STR. Might help you increase quantity/ bed size.