All Forum Posts by: Rob Denis

Good morning Forest. While I agree that the City is taking it a bit far, please note that the proposed ordinance only affects STRs in the RS-1 zoning district. This is the city's single family residential area.

@Lindsay Diven

Hi Lindsay. Congratulations! My wife and I also live in the Orlando area (Seminole County) and invest in the Cocoa Beach/Cape Canaveral market. Right now we have a mixture of 10 units between KSC and Patrick.  By any chance...is the lot on Buchanan Ave?  :-)

I'll also be interested in how you fare. I am closing on a redevelopment property in downtown Cocoa Beach this month and exploring options. A good, honest, and fairly priced GC is always in demand.

Best to you,

Rob

By the way, here is an excellent blog (full disclosure: this is my realtor, but we have no financial relationship) on investing on Florida's Space Coast. URL:  http://southcocoabeach.com

Aside from an up-to-date accounting of the market, some of the "Favorite Posts" (along the right side) are classic information that is a must read for investing in a vacation rental market.

@Damien Clark

Sure thing. Happy to give you information and resources.

You can email me at [email protected].

By the way, just to add numbers into the mix...In Brevard County (because it's what I know), you can get a 1 BR vacation rental with a nice ocean view from $130K. With good active management, these can get $15 to $20K per year in gross income. Two BR oceanfront units start at $250K and can get $25K+ in gross income. These are true condos and not a condo-tel or other ownership. 

As for foreign investors, Canadians became quite active as the bottoming of real estate values coincided with the a period of exceptional strength for the Canadian dollar from 2010 to 2012. They are still active, but less so as the dollar has made a comeback against the Looney over the past year.

Good luck and I hope this information helps!

@Damien Clark 

If you're still looking, coastal Brevard County in Florida is a year-round vacation rental destination. Winter is "high" snowbird season, spring through summer is popular with families, and there are year-round military and space related visitors. I own both vacation and long-term rentals there and think it's a good compromise between property cost and potential income. Please feel free to PM me for more info.

You are totally correct. But, I have seen instances where the brownfield designation was more political than based on facts. As far as the initial question, I'm just a lowly engineer and can only speculate. However, I would think that having multiple realtors searching (based on a potential %) for specific property characteristics associated with potential contamination (former dry cleaners, processing facilities, petroleum facilities, etc.) would be an effective way of searching. At least it couldn't hurt.

In addition to the realtor angle and depending on the scope of your plans, you could pull data on brownfield/contamination areas and cross-match it to parcel and property appraiser data to prepare a target list. Hope that helps.

Darrett:

Not sure that a "brownfield" site is the right term for what you are looking for (at least in Florida). In Florida, local governments designate areas as "brownfields" to qualify for incentives as provided in State statute and some aren't even truly contaminated. You can link to the FDEP's (Florida Department of Environmental Protection) main page on brownfields at:

http://www.dep.state.fl.us/waste/categories/brownf...

Information on other types of sites requiring environmental remediation can be found at:

http://www.dep.state.fl.us/waste/default.htm

Let me know if these help because there are tons of resources out there if they don't.

Rob