All Forum Posts by: Marelyn Valdes

Have you checked out Homepath.com and put in the zip codes or city you like?  They give priority to a homeowner over investors and many homes are eligible for rehab loans.  These are Fannie Mae foreclosures (some are great bargains and some are overpriced in my opinion).  As an investor, I have purchased a couple of these for cash for buy and holds and so far they have made great rentals.

I, too, have only seen tile baseboards in bathrooms.  They use wood baseboards in Florida, even in very expensive homes.

@Jen Bastian I live in Ocala (since I moved from Tampa in 2003) and it's the Horse Capital of the World, so lots of horse farms, riding trails and horse shows (HITS - Hunters In The Sun, big $$ jumpers in town for about 3 months).  Real estate prices and property taxes are pretty low - check out Facebook page Houses and Apartments for Rent in Ocala to get an idea of what's available and the rental prices.  There is also The Villages (huge high dollar senior area) and Top of The World (not as expensive senior area).  Ocala is also just south of Gainesville which has the University of Florida and is close enough for their students to live in Ocala and also in Levy county (less expensive than Marion County).  There are lots of golf courses, lakes and rivers (kayaks, fishing) as well as the Ocala National Forest (not a good area to own for rentals in my opinion).   We are about an hour to the Gulf of Mexico, two hours from Daytona (Biketoberfest going on now, so lots of motorcycles around), 80 miles to Disney/Orlando and an hour and a half to Tampa.  Lots of homes are still on wells and septic tanks unless you are downtown.  The major change for me was driving longer to get anywhere (it's a large rural county) but there's not a lot of traffic.  Construction is going on everywhere and we just got a new FedEx hub.  If you are thinking of moving here, get a room and check out the county for a week or so, but not during HITS season (starts Nov. for practice, but show is Jan. and Feb. and rooms and restaurants are full).  Florida has no state income tax and sales tax runs 6 - 7%.

I used the equity in my home to buy SFR's that were pretty ugly and needed mostly cosmetic work and upgrades. My mother had a lot of SFR's for years and taught me the lower end rentals are always in demand so the least rent I get is $650 and the average is $800 per month and I paid between $22,000 and $55,000 for the properties. I try to go in and improve a few things whenever I have a vacancy (usually tenants stay at least 2 - 4 years). On the downside, Bank of America called a year ago to ask if I understood my 25 year equity loan (which had payments of about $600 a month on $250K) - turned out it was 10 years draw and then no more draw and 15 years of only payments (now about $2050 a month). I had really screwed up holding a couple of mortgages with only $5,000 down and the deadbeats proceeded to stay and not pay, so no income and added attorney fees and court costs - to say nothing of them trashing both places and stealing the appliances by the time I got them back in my name. BIG MISTAKE - no more mortgages for me! I did hear lease option is a good way to go, with about 10% down and option for 2 years with buyer to find their own financing, but I haven't tried it yet. I paid cash for all my SFR's using either my equity when I could draw on it, or using the money I got from selling some raw land that wasn't producing income and one of the repo houses. I have one SFR that I have depreciated a lot that I am thinking of selling and buying other houses to rehab. It's getting harder to find bargains since there are lots of cash investors and groups of investors jumping on listings and advertising for houses. All my income is from rental properties now, so the banks here are not wanting to loan to someone like me unless they charge a lot of fees and they want about 6% for 15 years. I can borrow a lot cheaper on my credit cards when they send promos and do almost all my repair/rehab material purchases on 0% interest promos. All other credit cards are paid in full every month. I would love to find a decent interest loan on my paid in full rentals to leverage into more rental properties.

Welcome to B.P.

You were not obligated to pay for a motel, just the pro-rated rent for the time the unit was uninhabitable. Is the boyfriend on the lease? If not, I would send the tenant a notice of  non-compliance and evict them. He sounds pushy and if you give in he will continue to find problems. Florida landlord tenant law says they are obligated to notify you in writing of any problems and pay rent into the court if they feel you are not entitled to full rent. Two cabinets do not make the unit uninhabitable - they will lose in court or should.  

I  have insurance through Travelers plus an umbrella liability policy. They are very reasonably priced in Ocala.  So far I have single family homes and horse farms.

Mary, I never bought in Citrus Springs, and most of mine are in NW Ocala (34482) area, which is where I live, some in 34479 and Morriston.  We just got a new Fed Ex hub and there just isn't much rental property around.  Take a look at people begging for rentals up to $1,000 on Facebook Ocala rental pages (I am a member on 3 pages) - list anything under $1,000 and you have a long list of possible tenants to pick and choose from.  I have learned to just post a few pics and description of the rental property about a week before it's available and have people PM me on Facebook.  I can go on their page and get an idea of what they are like - and I also pull their names up on the clerk of court site - nothing like seeing eviction and arrests to put them off my list.  I put in every ad "all adults must be able to pass a background check and have no prior evictions" - gets rid of ones I don't need to waste time checking.  I also do pet friendly with deposit - they are going to sneak them in anyway - and  require pet liability insurance for certain breeds.  If you take pets, you have a lot of people looking for rentals.

Welcome to BP!

I love Florida for investments, especially the Marion and Levy County areas. Small towns with people begging for rentals. No state income tax, pretty low real estate taxes, too. I would stay away from anything with a HOA and be sure to check the crime stats - there are just some neighborhoods not worth owning with theft and vandalism. I personally like SFH's but there are lots of duplexes and quads around that are fairly inexpensive on Homepath.com when they come available.