All Forum Posts by: Mike Arlington

Hi Virginia,
I think the common thing to do is that when you analyze the property, just look at the unit you'll be living in as if you were renting that unit as well.
If you have a good deal based on all the units being rented, then you can consider it still a good deal if you end up living in one of the units.

I live about 10 minutes away from that area.
Like Scott mentioned, I would agree that it is mostly younger people that live in the area. It's a pretty nice area with a lot of hip places to eat, close to downtown but not in it.
If you're looking for family areas, you'd probably want a little outside of the Mills area. The area I'm in (College Park) is really good with families, has good schools, and is close to where you are looking. It's hard to find properties that cash flow though.

If you only need $1200 for a 2/1 near Mills, that shouldn't be hard. I don't see anything less than $1400 for 2/1 in that area, with some of them much higher. Like most metro areas, there are good streets and bad streets though. If you wanna PM me a street name or two that you're looking at, I can give you better feedback.

Thanks a ton for writing this up, Anton. It's both helpful and motivating. I particularly like the idea of evaluating the price point you're looking for before hand and just writing it directly in the letter.

I actually just mailed out my first batch of direct mail letters, and I didn't bother to do the math before hand. I just got my first response and looking at the numbers after, I'm not sure it makes sense to buy the property anyway! At least, not with the end result I originally had in mind (buy & hold).

If I may ask, did you have experience with cold calling before? I'm super new to this, and somewhat of an introvert, so the idea of talking to strangers on the phone is terrifying. Any tips for building the confidence to just start calling people?

I can also recommend CFRI. I've been going to the Orange County monthlies for a few months now. There have been some really informative presentations and everyone has been very friendly.

If you want to just check it out, the meetings are $10 to attend for non-members, and if you decide to become a member after, you can apply the $10 towards the membership cost.

@Josh Calcanis
I've been poring through the zoning guide PDF on the City of Orlando site, and I can actually shed some light on those mother in law suites regarding zoning.
I'll paste the relevant info from the PDF below, but from the looks of it, it is OK to get those small out dwelling type buildings permitted as long as you follow a couple guidelines regarding their size, the lot size, etc.

I'll +1 the Clearwater/St. Pete area. I live in Orlando, but Clearwater is one of my favorite beach areas that I've been to here in FL.

I'll also chime in with one additional area to look at in Orlando: The Lake Nona Medical City is a rather recent (last couple years) development and it has a bunch of plans to continue growing. There is currently a children's hospital, a VA medical center, several medicine-related colleges, a research center, and will have a teaching hospital eventually.

It's just South East of the Orlando International Airport. I imagine the area is due to appreciate because of the medical city's growth plans. Might be worth a look.

Have you tried throwing it in the rental property calculator here on the site?
When my girlfriend and I were looking for our house hack property, we just performed the calculations as though we were paying market rate rent on the unit we'll be occupying.

I wouldn't be too worried about what the other places nearby are going for if none of them have a comparable out dwelling. Especially if the plan is to buy & hold with a focus on cash flow, provided the math works out to be a good deal.

Likewise, a market correct won't hurt a buy and hold investment *as* bad (compared to a flip or something). Since you'll be holding it for cash flow, if you want to sell in the future, you'd just have to wait until another crest in the market comes along. You still have to worry about market rent rates dipping below your expenses, but even then, in a house hack situation it's still likely to beat the alternative: paying rent in an apartment and not building any equity.

If you're looking for rent estimates in your area, I've found Rentometer to be the easiest to use to get a quick estimate. I feel like it comes in a bit high though, so I prefer to adjust it down a bit to be conservative. Zillow and Craiglist are the other well known places to check comparable rents for your area.

I was under the impression that R-2A zoning only allowed single families and duplexes.
I was going off of the Planning and Zoning Reference Guide on the City of Orlando website, but I don't fully understand everything written in there and I am fairly new to this.

Do you have any more information about the kind of deal you're looking at? For example, is it a rental property? Fix and flip? Single family vs Multi family? Who are you purchasing from?

I think the answer to your question will be different based on a lot of these factors.

I'm a complete beginner, but here are some things that I've read about that you could try looking up on the net and seeing if any fit your needs:
- Looking for a partner. If you can find someone who does what you want to do at a local REI meet up, and show them the numbers for the deal, perhaps you can work out some sort of funding situation. You do the work, they put down the cash.
- Seller financing. Essentially, instead of getting a loan from a lender, the seller acts as the bank. This may require some good negotiation skills though, because most people may still want some sort of down payment.
- Personal credit line. If you already own personal property and have equity, you could look at utilizing that using a HELOC or cash out refi. I've also read about people that used credit card cash advances, though I personally would be hard pressed to use that. You'd have to have a great deal to beat those interest rates, but if you do, and you can pay it off quickly enough, it may work. Again though, not strongly recommended.
- Lease option. You wouldn't really own the property, but depending on the situation, this could work for you.