All Forum Posts by: Colin Reid

@Carlo Makapugay, I don't know much about it. Like I said, I wasn't able to make the move on that deal, but it was the first time the idea had even come up in my mind. I know there's a ton of people on BP that do it.

 I wish someone had told me that when I was 16. My friend had his own landscaping business, and one of our teachers hired us to spread a bunch of rock in his yard. He'd take his F250 to the rock supplier, fill'er up, and we'd unload it by hand. Then while we were moving it to the back yard via wheelbarrow, he was driving to get another load. It wasn't fun.

I had one vacancy that I filled in June. It was on the market for a few days and had five applicants.

What about wholesaling it? 
I had never thought of it myself until a good deal fell into my lap at just the wrong time. I couldn't make it happen (again, wrong time), but yours sounds like a good candidate.

I have googled the address with some success. There was an appartment building near me, vacant but not listed anywhere but a sign on the building itself. I googled the address and found a name and address out of state. I haven't verified it in any way, but it did pop up. I also found one old rental listing, some public record details on the layout of the units, and prior tenant names.

I have not noticed any significant changes in St Pete. I'm not necessarily looking at beach front, but waterfront, with a dock. I'm also not seriously looking at it for investment, but a nice home for my investments to pay for. So I'm looking in that whistful dreaming way. "Wouldn't it be nice to have a home on the water with my boat (that I don't have yet either) parked out front." The market will have to seriously tank for me to be able or willing to buy that kind of place in the next few years. But I am watching it.

I'm not in Jax, but in St Pete I found a few that were incorrectly listed as SFR's by driving for dollars. I arrived to a showing early and just drove every street within about 3 blocks, getting a feel for the neighborhood. The next block over there was a property for sale with an inlaw suite in the back, but listed as an SFR. It seems to happen frequently in St Pete.

Welcome Shawn!
I recently moved to the Tampa Bay area, and ended up in St Pete. I was staying with family in South Tampa, right near MacDill AFB, before I started looking across the bay. I was mostly focused on South Tampa, but found it to be a tough, expensive market. The places that need work are being snatched up by developers, who are scraping lots and building luxury new construction. There's very little zoned for small multifamily, which is what I was looking for. Even the abandoned, half-renovated SFR across the street was too high for me to make a profit as a rental.
Admittedly, my search was very limited north of Gandy Blvd, and nonexistent north of I-275. I'm familiar with a few streets up in Seminole Heights (I-275 & Sligh), and according to a realtor friend who lives there, that area has already "come up."

I don't replace things unless I have to. I had one insurance underwriter demand both water heaters on a duplex be replaced before issuing a policy. I also had an air conditioner fail on move-in day in 100 degree heat. Those both cost a good chunk of money before I ever got a dime in rent from those properties.
On the other hand, I've had many other repairs that my tenants paid for in the form of saved cashflow. So if the water heater works, I'd leave it until it doesn't work, and hopefully you have enough of your tenants' money saved up by then to cover the replacement, or at least offset it.

 I know you didn't ask me, but I don't pay my home off, either. One reason is that I buy my home as if it was a rental, because chances are it will become one. I'm hacking a duplex right now, and yes I'm negative cashflow on the whole property. Yes, I'm paying for more equity, as @Joe Villanueve puts it. But I need to pay for a place to live regardless, and the way I see it, I'm getting a huge discount for the neighborhood I live in. Then when I move, I'll be cashflow positive, and do it again.

So until I'm shopping for the forever home on the water, I'll be buying my own residence with an investor's mindset, and considering it an asset. It might perform poorly until I move myself out of it, but long term it's definitely an asset.

And when I do get that forever home, I'm not going to pay that down, either, assuming interest rates below 5% ish. I'll keep investing with my extra money and pocketing the spread.