All Forum Posts by: Russell Holmes

@Robert Kirkley while I can't speak from experience with the others you've mentioned, Eustis and Mt Dora are poised for huge growth in the coming years. I'd add Apopka, Sorrento and Mt. Plymouth to those as a collective "Northwest Orlando" type market. I'm in Apopka myself and have grown up here for the majority part of my 33 years. Research the "Wekiva Parkway" project. It is the long-missing northern quadrant to the Greater Orlando Toll Road bypass loop system. It is a "project of regional impact" and is huge because it's northern exits all dump onto roads that are mainly rural and undeveloped. Meanwhile Orlando Health just bought 51 acres near one of the exits for a new hospital, there's a 600+ acre mixed use PUD development called Kelly Park Crossing (also info available from Google searching that name), the City Center project and many others. Rents in our area are within 80-90% of more expensive places in Orlando but prices are maybe 60-75%. The market is tight on deals, but more of the good ones I see are in the Northwest Orange and Lake county areas. Regardless of what the market and overall appreciation do, these areas are going to explode in the next 15 years, main catalyst being the new tolls.

@Andrea Proeber wow, thank you for that read! I knew some of these things about the villages but hadn't ever connected all the dots in the way you just did to see how it is all interconnected.  I also don't think I realized that their charter schools had the employee mandate.  I had assumed it was more capitalistic in that they drew the 'richer' kids from the more rural areas, but instead it is a solid path to employee retention... genius!.  That really is a case study in solving problems with development!   

@David Zachery If you do want to look into Mt. Dora I'd be happy to help.  Since you first mentioned the villages, I'd suggest having a chat with Andrea first so if you looked in Mt. Dora you'd see how they compare.  It sounds like you may be able to find an excellent deal just outside the bounds of The Villages with Andrea.  If she's a property manager too, it would be an effortless property.  My brokerage doesn't offer PM, but I do know of a great one locally to Mt. Dora to fill that void.  

Mt. Dora would be good for annual rentals, great for VRBO short term rentals.  If you wanted to rent it for 3-6 months at a time, you may have to try to time that with the season as non "snow bird" times of year see more 3-7 night stays.  You could also get a cleaning service and run it on VRBO or Airbnb for whenever you're out.  Cleaning service, if chosen right, could be your eyes and ears to let you know when maint. was required.  It would be easier to rent in 3-7 night stays scheduled together in a 3-6 mo block while being open to longer ones, rather than only looking for one mid-length tenant.  The couple I mentioned said they'd occasionally get a traveling nurse or similar profession for a 2 month stay or something.  If it was off season, they'd give them a fair discount off the nightly while still being much higher than a long term (12 mo) tenant.

However, if it is important for the home to be in The Villages very near your parents, then that should be an important detail in the decision as well. My MLS covers the area, but it would be best to work with someone who really knew the Villages well. I believe I know of a realtor out there with my brokerage I can recommend, but I'll withhold to see if another BP member chimes in who does. I would imagine if you needed to use the home during the time opposite when northerners come to visit, it would be easy to find one of them to rent the home for a few Winter months at a premium, but there'd likely be some time gap and only one tenant per season. Renting a home in the Villages in the summer for only a few months would probably be tough.

There's really nothing at all wrong with living in the villages, and homeowners likely do see some appreciation.  Builders building is actually a good sign typically since they've run the numbers to know there is demand for their product.  But with The Villages being out past Leesburg and closer to Ocala than it is to Orlando, it sort of becomes it's own isolated market.  It's still obviously going to be influenced by the larger market, but most people, it seems, move to the villages to intentionally get away from the 'hustle and bustle'.  If I'm not mistaken, it was originally designed as an ideal snowbird and/or retirement community where everything needed was right in town.  You'd have to talk with someone familiar with the area to know about short term demand, but if so it would likely only be the kids of residents coming in town for a visit since there isn't much draw if you don't know someone there.

Out of the areas I mentioned that are in the path of direct Orlando growth, Mt. Dora would be the best for short term rentals and I believe they are very friendly to them.  First of all, Mt. Dora is about 45 mins from Disney and other attractions, so its in the ballpark for your 'standard Florida' tourist who thinks outside the box on where to stay.  However, Mt. Dora itself has a booming historic downtown.  The historic main streets are filled with restaurants, outdoor cafes, shops, galleries, and other pedestrian friendly locations, mostly brick roads with pretty elevation changes.  It is also set on the beautiful Lake Dora which is connected to a huge Harris Chain of Lakes.  In addition, there seem to be more weekends WITH events than not, so people from up north come to Mt. Dora every year on different schedules depending on the event of choice, and then many move to Mt. Dora permanently when they retire after loving it at a destination.  Art festivals, national motorcycle meets, and hot rod culture are all huge in Mt. Dora and Tavares.  There's always something interesting to see.  Google image search the "Van Gogh house".  That's in Mt. Dora.  The city tried to make them paint the wall back when they added a mural to help their adult autistic son describe where he lived when he'd wander downtown and forget how to get back, but the city worded it that the wall and house had to match.  So naturally they Van Gogh'd the entire house.  The city threw a fit, the owners and all of the residents fought back saying it was beautiful and should stay, and now the Van Gogh house is a real permanent thing, a city approved thing!  

Anyways, I know a couple with a little 864sf  1/1 cottage on the edge of downtown Mt. Dora, maybe a 10 min walk to the central area, 5 until you hit your first restaurant.  They currently live in it while they build their next house because they sold their last.  But for 3 years it was the Sea Glass Cottage on VRBO and has a solid consistent rent roll of $3000+ per month. They found it to buy after staying in it a few months as a VRBO.  Told the owner they wanted to buy it and ran into him ready to sell two years later in Lowe's, shaking hands on the deal and meeting at a title office the next day.  Now that they live in it, they have regular renters begging them to go on vacation for a week so they can come stay in it.  It's nuts.  They are thinking of selling it at some point, and likely worth about $160k.  I think I'd look for a finance partner to fund and buy it 50/50, managing and cleaning it myself.

@David Zachery if you come south east of the Villages just a bit you'll get into a huge swath of future growth areas. Apopka, Mt Dora, Tavares, Eustis, Sorrento, and Mt. Plymouth in northwestern orange and northern lake counties are all poised to explode over the next 5-10 years with the Wekiva Parkway toll system nearing completion of it's northwestern quadrant, 25 years in the making. Orlando Health also just acquired 51 acres for a new hospital campus in northern Apopka. From a rural feeling location in Mt Dora, you're minutes from a toll on ramp and 25-30 mins from Orlando. However you're also just a short drive to the Villages to visit your parents. The villages isn't bad per se, but residents tend to enjoy that they are tucked away from massive growth in their own community so the lack of appreciation is a bit self inflicted.

For clarity sake I want to add, the Team Leader, Todd, that moved to eXp was a team under another Remax broker locally.  So the items you mention varying from franchise to franchise were beyond his control with Remax since he didn't have his own franchise with them.

@Mike Cumbie It doesn't sound like you run as a team structure which may make the difference. Also I know that cap structures can be different in NY.   I'm actually in the process of moving my eXp license from the state broker address to that of a new branch office nearby.  That branch office is of a former Remax team leader of approximately 18 years, Todd Schroth.  His team is currently himself and his wife, a new buyer's agent, and two licensed transaction coordinators.  He did 71 transactions last year, his wife did 35.  The two transaction coordinators did a few for friends and family and they did something like $38 million in volume last year.  He said the Remax fees were getting excessive and he couldn't bring on brand new agents without either asking them to pay huge fees or covering it for them at a loss until they grow.  With eXp he'll be able to sponsor both team member and solo agents, monetize his transaction management, and grow a more fluid and organic team.  I'm joining their office but not their team, so I'll pay for transaction management but will stay at full cap ($16,000). However, his team members only pay half cap, or $8000.  His team split is 50/50, but they allow team leaders to take down to 25% split.  As soon as their team breaks $40 million in revenue (and a few other guidelines) they'll qualify as a mega team and go to quarter cap ($4000).  

I've known him for 5+ years, longer than I've been licensed, but I'm not the one who approached him about eXp. As a newbie to the industry I didn't feel it was appropriate to pretend I knew how running a massive team works.   However, if you are curious at all to compare costs on a higher level I could give you his contact info to discuss.  He and I aren't in the same line of sponsorship so if you were to join with him I'd gain nothing, so I'm not saying this from a personal gain perspective.   I'm just providing a neutral personal anecdote.  His massive-volume Remax team and name recognition literally everywhere in town it seems intimidated the crap out of me, so I wasn't about to pitch him on the exp Kool Aid. I'm also not trying to do that to you either.  I respect you guys with massive momentum regardless of who you hang your license with. 

All of that being said, if I get heavily into investing in my own projects and find myself getting away from the sales side, say in 5-10 years, I would heavily consider getting my brokers license to become an independent broker with no agents, so that I'm bound only by the more broad state laws as opposed to brokerages, which always have liability-limiting rules more strict than the state.  

On the note of sponsored agents not sticking around the industry, it actually goes even further.  You get equity bonuses at times for things your 'downline' agents do.  However, those agents have to not only stay in the business but stay with eXp for three years in good standing from the time of bonus in order for it to vest.  If they leave after year four, everything from year 2-4 goes away.  Revenue share gets paid out along the way without vesting. I buy stock with 5% of my commission for a 20% discount which doesn't have to vest, but all equity bonuses must vest 3 years.  I think these people trying to mass sponsor don't realize much of the long term revenue is heavily regulated to be sure its sustainable.  Which means flash-in-the-pan type growth will net almost nothing, especially if those agents sell nothing and quit or change brokers. Somebody like Todd who already has a growing team could grow with exp, Remax, KW, or whoever, so it is just picking the best brokerage vehicle for your scenario.

@Riley Truitt My apologies if I came off a bit harsh.  I noticed that you hadn't posted elsewhere and had very little info on your profile. Oftentimes when someone who has very little info makes their first post to tell someone what they do is illegal etc they go on to do the same on multiple threads before getting called out on it and kicked off.  It often pops up on older threads because they search out specific topics to blast off their two cents to as many threads as they can before moderators pick up on it and kick them off. But in honest cases of searching out an interest like you did before getting around to filling in your profile, I falsely assumed "troll".  My bad!  

I did some cold calling for awhile and may again at some point in the future, but I'm having better success and enjoying hustling for leads in more organic day-to-day networking and conversation.  I'm on the road a lot around town with a service business I also run as I phase out of it, so I'm around people constantly who I talk with and rarely home with an hour to kill to call people I'm not in front of.  I've usually got plenty of research/communication to handle with my buyers and sellers when I do sit down in front of the computer.    Cold calling definitely works to grind out some leads, and if someone did 1-2 hours a day 5 days a week  for a few months, momentum and sales would be built.  But I will say it's not my best use of my time. 

@Riley Truitt while I wasn't the OP of this thread and my reply was from six months ago, I'll still entertain your question assuming you're not just trolling. Unsolicited calls are not illegal in a blanket sense, if you believe they are then you likely spend a lot of time threatening every solicitor who calls you with federal jail time. Most good auto dialers scrub numbers against the do not call registry, so no laws have been broken. Furthermore the scripts I used were conversational and friendly, adding value to those I called even if they weren't interested in selling. Whether or not I still utilize cold calling is beside the point.... I suggest you try to find value in these forums, as they are a literal gold mine, rather than digging up old threads to try and stand on your soap box. It won't get you too far in life. I'm not going to put my career on the line to try to sleaze my way to illegal leads. Carry on...

Hello all, and first of all Happy New Year!

I've got a seller consultation with an owner of a 39-acre hobby farm on Saturday in Paisley, FL, a small rural town about an hour from Orlando and right on the southern border of the Ocala National Forrest. Seems like a lot of Orlando area folks I know have hunting or camping property up there.   The consult won't be super high pressure/competitive since he's the father of a friend of my wife's and I'm the only Realtor he's reached out to. However, I want to give him top notch service and get him the most money possible without giving him false hopes and a long time on market.  He's got a price in mind that I think is in the ballpark based on analysis I've done, but I want to be more solid on a few things.  I've got a good handle on what the property is worth, but am sticking a bit on the value of planted pine.  

Property is 39.0 acres composed of 27.5 acres of dry land (not flood zone) and 11.5 acres of wetland. There's a nice 3/2 manufactured home (permanent wood framed per tax record) and a nice mobile home. Lots of comps for both of those on smaller lots, and manufactured/mobile seem to out number traditional builds in this area being so rural. There's a small pond on the land, but most of the 'wetland' is just due to elevation and it runs in a narrow band diagonally across the nearly square parcel, dipping the most in the center where the pond is, the rest is dry most of the time....just not build-able where zoned wet. Of the 39.0 acres on the county property appraiser, 25.5 acres is zoned timber, 2.0 zoned residential/AG, and 11.5 wetland, an arrangement common in my area for either Timber or Cattle to save property taxes. They typically require one acre per home to be zoned at higher-taxed residential/AG. I haven't been to the property yet, but in talking with his daughter who has communicated with him (he's elderly and she'll be there to be sure we communicate clearly), he has 18-20 acres of planted pine that is 19-20 years old. It appears from the FEMA flood map overlay on satellite image that much of the wetlands is planted with pine, meaning more of the usable/build-able land is clear while still growing pine for profit on all the 'useless' land.

I've found a nearly identical 40.0 acre nearby sold comp for the raw land, down to nearly identical ratio of wet to dry land. Adjusting for the 2.5% difference in total area, it gives me a solid idea of raw land value.   I also found several dry parcels near to the amount of dry he has for further support.  It appears raw land comps in this area between 15-50 acres all hover around $8000/acre for dry land, $500/acre for wetland.  Surprisingly a few of these land parcels have sold in the last 6 months in under 30 days! I've always thought land was slower to sell.  

I've been able to find some good comps for the two homes on site, a permanent manufactured home (per county tax records) and a mobile home, both maintained well and with additional decks/porches etc.  He's also got a 5-7 stall horse barn with tack room and a large tractor/equipment building with A/C office space.  Those structures I plan to discuss their cost to construct new as well as examine their condition to estimate a value.  I figure the value of a utility structure like those is based around its rebuild cost diminished by an amount for age/condition.   

The one area I'm further from confidence on is the planted pine.  From my research into USDA agriculture sites and other forestry guides, it appears that average clear cut harvest yield per acre for 15-20 year old southern planted pine is approximately $1330/acre.  The owner is going to talk to his forestry contact  who has managed the timber and interim thinning to see if he can walk it to give a harvest price.    Even if he solidifies my $1330/acre number or adjusts it, I still don't know if the value of the pine left growing intact on the land is equivalent to the harvest value or some multiple of it.  I could see justification for it being above or below that clear cut harvest value.  Depending on exact acreage of timber, it looks like he's got about $25,000 worth of timber at the estimated price per acre I found.

With so many variables on this land and no exact comps down to the structures, I know that I can only do so much to find market price and the rest will be listening and watching the market reaction, adjusting accordingly.  I plan to talk with him about how some buyers won't see value in the second home being mobile, no matter how nice, while others may keep both as rentals and be more concerned about costs to build their home on the opposite side of the land.  Market price is really only what somebody will pay, but  I just want to nail down as close to a justified value as I can. 

What have some of you experienced in selling land with planted timber that could be harvested immediately for a definite value, but will be sold in growing form?  I know I've read of investors buying land with timber that ends up paying for the land itself to then develop, but I can't recall hearing talk of valuing the timber on sale.  Hopefully some of you have some experience in this field!  Thanks!