All Forum Posts by: Wendy Lavana

@Diana T. Hi Diana, I’m looking to possibly build a duplex in Palm Coast on a lot my father purchased in the 90s. My biggest concern is not being to rent it out because there isn’t a market for rentals. Have you had a hard time finding tenants?

@Quentin Mitchell

I own several class C multi families in Ft Lauderdale Fl. Best investments I ever made. Sometimes hard to manage, but over the course of 5 years I’ve leaned to ignore lots of the tenant nonsense and get important things done.

On point #5. I went in thinking I could help make the neighborhood better by making my properties better and over the years I’ve become disillusioned. You can only help people who will help themselves. My tenants in class C aren’t interested in caring for new improvements, they’ll most likely take something new and improved and destroy it. I’ve learned that my Class C units simply need to be livable, understanding this has made managing and maintaining them a lot easier and cheaper. Most of my tenants receive government assistance and would be happy to find a reason to sue me, even when they like me. I am diligent about repairs and respect my tenants and trust me they will work to find reasons to fault you, even make things up. Once you accept these facts, get yourself a few reliable handyman who are willing to work with your tenants and ignore the verbal abuse that you’ll soon realize has nothing to do with you personally, you’ll realize you have cash flowing properties that like every other class of properties have problems. I have class A properties that are less problematic but cash flow lots less. And as far as tenants go, well class A can come with its own interesting personalities. Personally I didn’t get into rentals because I assumed they would be “passive income,” I knew they would come with some work. It can get bad sometimes but it’s always better than working 9-5 for someone else. I couldn’t afford to purchase a bunch of class A rentals when I got in, it didn’t make sense. I think getting in at class C level made me tougher, thicken my skin a bit. They’ve also appreciated a lot more than class AIf I could purchase more class C right now, I would. Housing organizations call me everyday to see if I have any available units. Fully booked and looking for new rentals, but unfortunately everything is priced too high.

South Florida has a tight housing market. I have 1/1 rentals in Ft Lauderdale that are leased are out to section 8 tenants, most of them come to me from different Housing agencies. I wish I had more units to help the social workers place these individuals in. Lots of investors often shy away from these types of rentals, but over the years I've somewhat mastered them and I sometimes believe the more I have the easier they become to manage. I've been thinking that if it was possible/feasible to build, would it be wise in this market to build housing projects for individuals who receive government assistance and how I might go about doing this. I often hear the cost of construction is hight now, but then I listen to podcast of people who've been building and doing well. 

When purchasing in my own neighborhood, I forego inspections and simply take a look at the property myself. When it comes to out of state investing, definitely need to hire a professional. At this point, I'd go visit the property personally and do whatever it takes. I would't give up on it, its probably going to teach you the best lessons you'll ever learn.

I'm local to both Jax and Miami, looking forward to a much needed boost of motivation at the conference. I'm interested in investing outside of Florida.

No sense worrying about something that hasn't yet happened. He'll probably set up his account with Cozy when he goes about paying  rent. If he hasn't paid by the due date, post a 3 DAY NOTICE and proceed as required. In the mean time it doesn't hurt to read up on the eviction process in your state/county, you want to make sure you post the correct notice, with the correct information and so forth. When dealing with the courts and savvy tenants,  the devil is in the details. 

I'm in South Florida and I don't see how you can make money in class A and B rentals here, unless you bought in ages ago and are banking on appreciation. I'm a class C & D landlord and its a tough game mentally, emotionally and physically. I've been very hands on on my properties and I can't always find good help to get rid of the kind of stuff, grime and chaos my tenants have left behind, these are the same tenants posting their eviction story on facebook, crying about their "evil," landlord, as if thou expecting people to pay rent is somehow inflicting harm on society. I've improved my situation a bit by making the properties better, but its been a process.  I'm not a slum lord by any means, I keep my properties as well as I possibly can, but that's the conundrum. Being a kind landlord and having to rent to bad tenants is a mismatch, maybe its because I'm female, but every now and then I still get disheartened. These days I'm a fair landlord, but never overtly generous or too kind and I don't care who you are and how my children, cats, dogs or turtles you have, If your rent is not in on the 3rd, I EVICT and I work on doing it as fast as possible. Good intentions on my part go wasted. The money in class C & D is  good  but you're going to work for it. Not all my tenants are bad but managing properties in class C & D has shown me a side humanity I would have much rather have been oblivious about. That being said, I have a couple of A & B rentals and while they are much easier to manage, they to come with their own set of frustrations. 

30 year loan. Smaller payments equals more money in your pocket and if you ever want to make a bigger payment, you can do just that. With a 15 year loan, you'll  find yourself with an extremely high payment to make each month. 

Looking for a good CPA, someone that specializes in real estate. Preferably someone that is an investor themselves. 

Broward/Dade County 

Access to the Multiple listing service (MLS), which is great for getting comps and seeing what is currently for sale on the market, pending and closed. It gives you a good idea of what is going on in the market. Also, you have immediate access to when a property in an area that interest you goes for sale, rather than waiting around for a realtor to give you a heads up on it. Lots of people don't go on the MLS for deals, but I have found several deals on the MLS.

Commissions, I recently purchased a SFH as a buy and hold. I have to make a few repairs to the house before I can lease it out and since I'm getting back $2550 in commissions because I have my real estate license, its a little extra dough to make the repairs. By the way, every time I purchase a home that is listed on the MLS, I've always gotten a commission so I've reaped this benefit over and over again. It starts to add up. There will be times when you may opt to forgo your commission.

Education - The realtors association in my local area provides lots courses that I have been very educational and supportive in my investing. 

Listing - when I can't lease out one of my units with signs, craigslist, etc, I can always post it on the multiple listing service (MLS) and instead of paying full commission to 2 realtors, I only pay 1/2 to one realtor.

Honestly, Its a great investment to have your real estate license. I just upgraded my to a Broker's license just over a year ago and now I don't even have to deal with having my license set up with another Broker, whom I would have to share my commission with. 

Good Luck