All Forum Posts by: Tom Parris

Hi @Mithun Bondugula,

Everything @Will Barnard said is 100% correct. I would go the GC route just so you have an opportunity to learn, while the design build route is a hands off experience. Look around at your competition, see what they're picking. They aren't going to anywhere fancy, you'll walk into a home depot or floor and decor and see the same lighting, floors, and hardware they picked out. The GC should have accounts at various cabinet stores, wholesale granite yards, flooring outlets etc to get you a certain level of quality and might get a discount. 

Talk about the decisions you make with the GC. Your decisions can have a butterfly effect causing a new problem that your previous decision made. So just take a step back and work out potential problems and go from there. Enjoy the process, it's my favorite part. 

Hi @Brad Stein,

8-10% is what we charge based off of how far away the property is, and it's condition. We also charge a percentage of the 1st month's rent to procure a tenant. That can be anywhere in between 50-100% again depending on the difficulty. 

Hi Armend,

I would refer you to evict.com which is owned by Heiss Weiss and Wolk. They are the experts.

Hi @Dianne Daraitis,

You type the @ and then start spelling the person's name to hyperlink their name and notify of a response. 

I went to Bob Hogue School of RE years ago. I recommend going to the class sessions, since it's easier to absorb the info, and hear stories with the material instead of dry online classes. You have to take the Florida State Real Estate Exam, but before you do that, you have to pass the course at any accredited RE school. The school will give you the step by step process to get licensed and active. 

Hi @Stanley Cenatus,

Nothing better than when the government strokes you a check, and they're good at it. With everything real estate, it's going to be down to the type of tenant and quality of property. You can get someone that lives there for decades that can take care of your property, or you can get someone that destroys it. You can do as much as you can to control it, by being vigorous with your screening, and doing regular inspections yourself to make sure the property is being maintained in a certain way. Most of the time it's educating your tenants, because they're used to slum lords who don't fix anything, so what I hear is that they don't report any maintenance issues. If you're proactive with it, and ask periodically if anything needs fixing, you can prevent small issues becoming larger. 

It is governed by the local HUD office. So you do have to be an approved section 8 owner (your PM does also if you have it managed), and your property needs to pass their inspections, which they do at the beginning and can whenever they want.

Hi @Dianne Daraitis,

Welcome to the community. Happy to answer any questions you might have. I'm a local agent, investor and developer myself. Happy to grab a coffee, or walk a property and share what I know. 

Hey @Sean Lovan,

Welcome to the community! I'm a local agent, investor, and developer here the area. I love talking about the industry, happy to grab coffee whenever!

Hi @Brian Goodling,

I'm an active agent and real estate investor in the area. Happy to grab a bite or a coffee. 

Good luck!

Hi Aaron,

Depends on what you want to put down and what your intentions with the property are. A big reason why single family homes cannot get financing is because of their inability to get insurnace. Insurance companies are want a 4-point inspection on homes older than 30 years old. Those 4 points are AC, Roof, Plumbing and electrical. If they inspection comes back in good shape, you can get a reasonable insurnace premium and close.

Since “condominium” is a definition of ownership rather than a property style is where the financing issues comes into play. With a condo, you own from drywall in, and the exterior and common areas are maintained by the association. With that being said they can impose something called special assessments on to all the owners to repair or replace a community item that wasn’t budgeted for. That assessment can be large or small, but it’s another fee that can cause people to not be able to afford their mortgage. So if there are a lot of foreclosures and short sales in that community, you have a sign. 

To know if you can get financing, you have to answer a couple questions about the community. Is there any litigation? Are they saving 10% of their income towards the reserves? What’s the delinquency rate? What’s the renter to owner ratio? 
The answers to those questions will determine if the condo can get financing, or if you can put a lower amount down to get the financing. If you’re planning on living there, you can get down to 5% down. 

Hope that helps

Hi @Marc Latreille,

To be blunt, what you're looking for doesn't exist. I just checked my MLS to see what's for sale under $50k, and all I got was mobile homes in the middle of farm land, 30 minutes from any activity, as well as vacant land in D neighborhoods. I haven't seen any wholesaling sell anything around that price point either.

I believe you will have to get a loan to leverage yourself into a higher purchase price. If it's an investor loan, count on having to put down 20% and have closing costs. Depending on your citizenship and job location will also have an impact on your downpayment requirements. 

I think you're looking at the middle ground of Tampa and Orlando in Lakeland. Those properties are going to be around $100k give or take for something that's going to get you close to what you want in a monthly rent. Or go south of Tampa and head to Bradenton/Palmetto. 

Shoot me a PM or an email if you have more questions,