New to BP Community and Tampa, FL Area

[Nick Narine]

Hello Bigger Pockets Community,

My name is Nick Narine and I am a 25 year old, civil and environmental engineer. I am looking to start real estate investing in order to gain passive income and invest in my future. I am using this post in order to start my networking process in this area. If there are any community members in this area (Tampa, FL) please reach out! I am brand new to Bigger Pockets and would love to connect with some people who are like-minded as me, both where we live and how we want to invest. 

[Trevor Fleck]

@Khaled Morad I learned about the Cape Coral market from a turnkey company - Rent to Retirement. Thus far, it's been a great market for me. I have seven build to rents ongoing right now with the first finishing in March. Last February, I was able to purchase my first two lots for $7,500 and $11,000 respectively - both on freshwater canals. At the time projected rents for the 1585 sq ft 4/2 was $1,850 and I was all in for $238k (lot + construction + closing costs). Fast forward to today and those same lots are selling for $45k and rising fast. Rents are around $2450-$2500 and similar properties are appraising for between $360-$410k. 

I was down to Cape Coral last week and everywhere you look they are building. I read somewhere that Cape Coral has something like the 2nd most new constructions/capita in the nation right now. With the right builder and lot selection, you can still get in for under $300k for a new build (4/2 or 4/3 1650-1774 sqft). I think rents are on an unsustainable trajectory but I do see a window of another 6-9 months where before the price of land gets bid up beyond a point that it makes sense for a build to rent play. 

Cons right now is that with all construction everyone is backed up - permitting, inspections, materials, various subcontractors, etc. So what was a 9-10 month timeline before is now more like 12-14 months. However, looking around Florida I still haven't found a better opportunity with a nice balance of cash flow and strong likelihood of continued appreciation at the time of this writing for SF new construction.