All Forum Posts by: Michael Haynes

Hello Charles Salumn. You have to plan a lot to invest in a Single Family home to rent, that will pay for itself and where you eventually want to live. You say you will eventually transfer to Tampa to work. Be smart and draw a circle on the map within a five mile radius off where you will have a JOB. That should be your Target area to buy. Learn how to use Zillow.com etc. to do your Search for a home for you that you will rent. See if the comparative rents are high enough to pay for the mortgage. I had rentals in South Tampa for 30 years that I managed myself. Tampa is in a construction frenzy and prices are very high. I am selling a 3/1 cinder block house, built in 1955 with outside porch, deck, laundry and two like new 10 x 10 sheds etc. for $200,000. Zillow has high estimates for value for it at $232,000. The range is from $180,000 at the low for similar, if you can find a fixer upper. I just refinished the 900 sq. foot Terrazzo floor. Got a new Roof. Termite tented ten years ago. New counter tops, paved carport, AC, heat pump, fenced yard, No Trees on the 50 x 100 foot lot. It is in North Seminole Heights and ready to move in. New home just built on the corner. New restaurant around the corner under construction. A few blocks away a city block of four story apartments finishing the build on N. Nebraska Ave. just before Sligh Ave. I sold my four Commercial lots in S. Tampa and paid $175,000 Cash for a 3/3, 1600 sq. ft. Townhome. Built in 2006, with garage and pool in a quiet community 16 miles outside of Tampa in Valrico, Fl. With a $200,000 Target price you can buy a new Townhome in Brando area. There were four communities being built a few months ago when I stopped looking. You can also find some bigger Townhomes with two car garages and other ammenities outside of the Tampa, City limits, North of the City limits. South Tampa is very expensive. You should try to live close to your new JOB because the traffic is horrendous in Tampa. Look at the Flood Map for a safe area. You don't want to get into the Flood Insurance mess. Properties are Listed in the mornings and sell by noontime. I made an offer on a pool home for $200,000 Cash and there were 35 offers in two days when the Agent closed the bidding. She sold it to a friend for $180,000. The Good Ole Boys Club is big in Florida. Do your due dilligence and be careful. 

Kimberly Costello you are about to grab an Alligator by the tail. We are at the top of the Market...Sell, sell, sell.

Hello Cheryl Vargas. When I started buying mostly mis-advertised property in South Tampa 30 years ago, my Agent said that the only area in the whole of Hillsborough County that had gone up in value over the last ten years was at the corner of Gandy Blvd and Bayshore. Bill Davidson showed me a Duplex and House on two lots that were being advertised with only a picture of the House, four blocks away and I bought them. The next ones he found were just off of the Bayshore and closer to downtown. Two Duplexes on two lots and they only showed a picture of one, which is why everyone thought the property was expensive. I was able to Finance by the Owner with $10,000 Down at the going Interest Rate for the first year on my first four properties. PITI and all the Emergency Repairs left me with $100 to $150 a month from the rents on each House and Apartment. Some accepted my Offer at slightly less than Asking Price. I tried to get a Real Estate Broker to manage for a short time and when I got off the Oil Tankers in 1999 I just managed them myself. I always had one Handyman who could fix everything and working with him taught me to continue on my own, when they died. We had an Investment Club in Tampa with 500 old guys who each had money that they just wanted to park somewhere and make 20% a year, which was possible at that time. I learned how to trade Mutual Funds while I was on the ships and made $100,000 for my Rental Portfolio Investing. When I was off the ships I would fly to Brazil where I was building a few simple houses for my Retirement. In 2008 we had the Economic Collapse and anyone who did not own their Rentals outright or had saved a lot for the downtrends, lost all or most of what they had. I know a major Developer and a Builder and my Insurance Agent was working for a company and they all lost 120 or more properties by 2010. I struggled for six years with a Lawyer and was able to do five Short Sales with a Letter of Forgiveness from the Bank to save three of my Rentals and two of the ones I bought with my girlfriend. All of our properties were in Primo Locations, especially the ones in South Tampa which exploded with development ten years ago on the East side of Dale Mabry Hwy. The properties we have sold in the last five years have been netting $100,000 to $150,000 profit each. Two of them have been Tax-free sale of our Residence and we split it up to pay off all Debt to end up with a paid off home for each of us and cash. I just sold my four Commercial lots with a house that rented for $1000 a month for 20 years. I netted $340,000 with the use of my Carry Forward Deductions. I am selling my last home in Tampa as my Tax-free Residence of the last two years, for $200,000. It's a 3/1 block house with extras, all fixed up with nothing special. With the money from my Commercial property I moved outside off Tampa City Limits to Valrico and paid Cash for a 3/3 Townhome with one car garage and a pool I can do laps in. I paid off the mortgage on my house in Tampa to eliminate all costs to carry it until I finish the fixups and sell it next month. Being that it is the top of the Market Cycle with all kinds of Economic problems, I am not looking to buy another Rental house or Duplex until the next Crash. All of my other properties are paid off and I can retire to my beach home and collect $3000 a month in Rents with a small farm and mountain property where I am going to raise cattle with my neighbor. From Investing in Mutual Funds I learned how to trade Stocks and then Options on Stocks and partnered with my friend from the Club when it closed ten years ago. He taught me Options. I taught him Futures. Then, he specialized in Micro-scalping where he can make $2000 in two hours in the morning session, trading just the S&P ES Future. He is a retired cop from NY and has not had a losing day in two months. I went after the one signal that works for Entry to short term Trends and after I sell the house in Tampa, I can stay home or travel and make money with my laptop and a fast internet connection. The one thing I looked for anywhere in the world was how to make money Tax-free or Tax-deferred. Real Estate was my Buy and Hold. Futures and Directional Options on the SPY are my Daily Cash Flow vehicles. The idea of making a killing with Real Estate in a short time frame for a Newbie is something that I hard to get them to understand. Trying to teach someone how to make money trading the Markets is even harder. That's why I say that you should find a fixer upper and move in, to make it your Residence. Two years or more later, you can sell it Tax-free which is the best type of Flip. During that time you look for one or more fixer uppers at discounted prices, using Creative Financing if possible. You rent those until you sell your home and make that one your next Tax-free Sale of a Residence as your Investment vehicle. That way you end up buying only properties that you would live in and do your due dilligence to make sure your are right on the Money.

Hello Kelly Peng, I grew up in Palo Alto, CA and left there 50 years ago. The only reason I was not a millionaire by the time I was 25 was because there was no one who knew anything about investing in those days. I had the money to buy a store downtown and a home to live in. I am now 72 and selling my last rental house in Tampa. I worked on Oil Tankers and if you look at the Historical Hurricane map you will see that the only time Tampa was hit by a Hurricane, was in 1921. I made sure that this was the safest place in the Gulf of Mexico to invest in rental properties. What you are trying to do with Absentee Ownership of Single Family Homes to me is the start of a nightmare. SFH's almost never pay for themselves and you need a Team to do all the work for you, if you are not going to self-manage, which I did for 30 years. You cannot expect Price Appreciation to continue at the current rates. Look at the Real Estate Cycle and not just the current Comp Data. With $300K to invest, there are many other ways to Passively Invest and not have the headaches you are looking for.

Hello Kimberly Costello. I did not know what a Park Model Home was so I Google Searched and there are plenty of them. Are you going to buy a lot and put the home on it like my friend has done over the years with used double wides and pre-fab homes? He would have to dig a well and set up a septic system on the lots. Eventually, he also started buying small, abandoned trailer parks. It's a good idea to live outside of the City where that is allowed. 

Hello Randy Bates. You worry about having rentals in this pandemic and you don't own any yet? Then, why start?? Imagine that you could find and buy a cheap trailer park...You have to fix it up like new to pass the Section 8 requirements and keep everything running like new because a tenant can call their worker and you are immediately confronted with Government Bureacracy and heavy fines etc. Trailer Parks are the best Cash Cow vehicles. You sign up with HUD and fill them with Section 8 tenants. Do you know what kind of people live in Trailers? My friend owns 90 single and double wides on individual lots with septic and water pumps or small trailer parks. He manages all of them by himself and drives around with thousands of dollars in his pocket, collecting rents for 30 years. SFH's make less Cash Flow than MFH's. Your starting out and you can't afford to buy a small block of apartments. Your Goal is to rent them with a Government Guarantee at a time when all the Rules may be changed by the new Administration. Why? Because BP teaches methods to Make a Million in Five Years with Rentals? Why not eliminate the specific Risk with having to manage Tenants and just do a Flip house? Do you own your own Residence? If not, why not? Doesn't anyone see that the first thing you need is a Residence and that after you fix it up in two years you can sell it Tax-free and move into another house that you just fixed up? I just get the impression that Newbie's are renting and working and they think that they can get out of the Rat Race if they just buy a bunch of Rentals. Good luck.

Marisa Alvarez. You sound like you don't know how dangerous it is to live near the beach on the West Coast of Florida. Do you know your elevation level for the building from Mean High Water level of the Ocean in Clearwater? It could be 3 feet like most of the properties on the Peninsula, South of Kennedy Blvd. in Tampa. That's why there is no way to make the Storm Sewers work in a hurricane comming up the Tampa Bay. It's like playing Russian Roulette with that one storm that could hit your area and wipe it all out. Do you know the situation with private Home Owner Insurance companies in Florida? There are 25,000 Claims that have not been settled or even looked at up there in the Panhandle after Hurricane Michael wiped it out for the second time. The Insurance companies are waiting for people to move away and die and just not pay because they don't have the money. We lucked out with the hurricane that just past us last month. Here is an article about the subject https://www.forbes.com/advisor...

Hello Jonathan Roberts. I just sold four Commercial lots with a teardown house in S. Tampa and paid $175,000 Cash for a 3/3 Townhome with one car garage and pool, behind the Home Depot in Valrico. I did my research in the Brandon area for six months before the sale gave me the money to make some offers. My Target area was North of Brandon Blvd. 3/2 with garage and pool. I think you are putting the Cart before the Horse. You don't have Cash and need to see what you Pre-qualify for as a Mortgage with your Banker etc. You can't use "projected rental income" to get a Mortgage. You will find that living in the same house with your Tenants is a nightmare scenario in the long run. I gave that up 50 years ago in California when I tried to be a Hippy. That was before the Yuppies in Silicon Valley and now the Millenials. I can't imagine that on $12 an hour you could qualify to buy a 1/1 apartment off of Hwy 60. But, that is a place to start. There is a Trailer Community over by Plant City that will Finance with 3% down and they are cheap enough and big enough to live in one room and rent out the other two, with Carport and Pool etc. You could study "Deals on Wheels" or "Making Money with Mobile Homes" by Lonnie Scruggs and start like that with low money down and easy financing. There are hundreds of Trailers and Pre-fab homes over on 78th St. South of Hwy 60 that rent with No Down Payment and First Month Rent up front. Get the biggest one you can find and rent the extra rooms to your "friends" and save up to move to your own Home. The main question is if you own your own home? No? Then, why do you think of buying a Rental and not taking advantage of all the First Time Home Buyer Loan and Tax advantages? Huh? Study this with BP and do that first. I am selling a 3/1 with side porch and washer/dryer/storage room, just off the Sligh and I275 exit, behind the Post Office on Nebraska Ave. 6710 N. Harer St. Tampa 33604 for $200,000. All fixed up, new roof, 900 sq. feet of refinished Terrazzo floors, paved carport, two pro-built sheds in back for storage, no trees on the lot and really good neighbors. Check it out. I bet you don't qualify to buy it. Estimated value this week is $217,000. You may do better to study first, research your areas on Zillow, find an Agent who has time to talk and help you follow some of your picks as they get listed and go up for offers and sell to see what the Market will give you to try for. Get back if you want to talk shop. 

Hello Aron Ost, It is really hard to think of making any money here in Tampa R.E. with $100,000 and being an Absentee Owner. It gives me the creeps to think that Bigger Pockets would give the impression to Newbie's that you could make money with that Plan, at all, ever in a million lifetimes. I keep  asking people like you if you have a JOB and own your own home? If not, why not? That's your first move to find a fixer-upper where you live and use the Tax-free Sale of your Residence in 2 out of 5 years to Work Smarter and not Harder. I can make $100 an hour, trading with a $5000 Futures account, using just the ES Future or the SPY with Directional Options. If you do all the research and work to arrange a "Door" to Rent in Tampa and the most you are figuring to make each month is an average of $100, why would you even consider doing that? Doesn't anyone who is studying the lessons on Bigger Pockets plug in their numbers and see what a horrible idea it is to be a Landlord or Absentee Owner or put up with 24 hour headaches at this time when no one has to pay the Rent if you lost your JOB because of the Virus? The Vehicle is there. The Lessons on what to do are there. But, are you really seeing the conditions necessary to make any of this work for YOU. Because you are on the blog and asking questions is an indication that you don't know. Knowledge is Power. Money is Mobility. My example at the moment is that I am selling my 3/1 home in Tampa that I just paid off with the profits I made from selling my 4 Commercial lots in S. Tampa that I HELD for 20 years. When I sell my home I will net $200,000 Tax-free as Sale of my Residence. I could then look for a fixer-upper where I moved to, just outside the Tampa City limits where it is safer and quiet. I can buy a 3/2 with swimming pool for Cash and get $1800 a month in Rent, about 1% of the projects Value. A lot of research, a few Offers until I get accepted, some rehab and rent to a bigger family with a JOB History and good Credit and I could get a good enough return on my Investment for a year until the Rents show on my Taxes and I get a Mortgage from the Bank. Later on I can move into the property and Homestead it in Florida to Sell after two years Tax-free as a Business Model for my Retirement. 

Lauren C. If you are not familiar with AirBnB rentals, then do one where you live and see if it works. I was looking into that here in Tampa, Fl. and it turned out to be a big expense to set one up with the Host/Manager that I contacted. They wanted me to give them the Cash to fix up, decorate, furnish with all new furniture, set up a barbeque in the back with bigger patio etc. as they saw fit. They wanted security cameras throughout and then sub-contract the management to a Third Party Agent! The final nail in that coffin was their Hosting/Managing fees would use up 50% of the Rents and after a few years they would want to spend another $10,000 on new furniture etc. Then they backed down because of the CDC mandating that no one has to pay rent until the end of the year etc. They said they would try to keep their current list of rentals going until after the CDC ruling. I decided to just sell my home in Tampa and not even think of renting again until after the CDC Rent Ruling is stopped and see if we have a downturn in the property values where I could pick up a fixer upper for cheap and do a BRRR. My neighbor rehabbed a 4/1 block home with two 1/1/1'a in the back two years ago. He has been occupied in the front house at $230,000 a day, almost every day, for months with lots of Commercial guys with big trucks etc. He is making it work, but, he had one before this and he manages with his own Team and not an expensive Host/Manager. I could not make my property work without self-managing. Plug in the numbers and see what you get.