Driving for Dollars- Tampa, FL

[Nicholas Jones]

Hello everyone,

This will be my first post on BP. I have been a firefighter for 7 years, had a side business doing home inspections for the last 2, and recently made the decision to also start investing in real estate. I've spent the last few months researching, reading books and forums, watching the BP webinars and listening to the podcasts on REI, and getting my real estate license. It's finally time for me to jump in and get my feet wet!

I've decided to start off my RE investing by "driving for dollars" in the Tampa/St Petersburg FL areas.  (Potentially even as far down as Sarasota)  I want gain some insight from those who have experience with this strategy in this area, or other areas of the country in general.  What kind of success have you had when out in the field hunting for these "off market" deals?  Are you knocking on doors and attempting to speak with the owners, leaving marketing materials at the door, or are you just writing down addresses and sending letters at a later time?  For those in the west FL region, which types of neighborhoods are you targeting and which are you avoiding?  Any input to help this "newbie" get ahead of the learning curve and start doing some deals is greatly appreciated.  

Thanks!

[Michael Haynes]

@Nicholas Jones, Hello from Tampa. Starting at the beginning to me means, "Do you own your own Home?" I notice that the Newbie's on BP always want to jump in and start making Money with RE Investing as if it were Stock Investing. Robert Kiyosaki says that you shouldn't use your Home as an Investment, but, I think that is stupid. The Sale of your Residence is the only Tax-free thing you can do with RE Investing...duh? And no one talks about this. You have 1031 Exchanges for Tax-Deferred. When you start a Business, you should pay attention to the Tax implications. You are really just using another vehicle to Buy and Sell something. Sales can be with anything from cars to paintings. The problem with RE Sales is that they are not Liquid like Stocks and Commodities. There are two methods to do this. The rifle method is targeting one duck at a time. The shotgun method is trying to hit one duck with many bullets or offers. You can drive around and look for empty houses, overgrown yards, there is a boarded up house across the street from me right this week...Look for For Sale by Owner signs like I have in front of the house I am Selling down by MacDill AFBase. Put out those illegal white board signs like the Wholesalers do on the street corners. Send out post cards like the one I received yesterday that even offered to pay me $500 for each lead on a house. (First time for that one.) But, this is the Age of the Internet. You have your License. You can do all kinds of specific Searches on the MLS etc. You have to decide on what kind of Buying and Selling you want to do. If you find a House to fix up to Flip and it does not Sell in 30 days, it could turn out to be a Rental. Are you prepared for that? You can do whatever you want to try to do, but, the Market is going to actually tell you what it is going to do. My girlfriend has her Home for Sale for a Year and it did not get a good offer. Can you sustain the losses? So, are you going to just target one house Deal at a time or try to find a depressed area to farm? Realize that every minute you have to drive to the worksite where your Deal House is located is going to cost you Money. Do you have the Money to actually Buy a Deal house or are you going to Finance it. Get all your ducks in a row. Are you going to fix it up yourself? Do you have a Handyman to do the work? Are you going to just look for cosmetic repairs? Gut the house? Buy the property to Sell it as is? My neighbor's son was a Firefighter in Port Richie and gave up when his pay averaged out to $12 an hour. He has a Tatoo shop now. Home Inspector's are like Home Based Business guys. The Four Point Inspection for me last year was pictures and info updated instantly on the I Pad from the site. Impressive. So, getting your License is a step towards being an Agent. You can Buy Deals with some discounts, but, you are not really going to have make or break because you have a License. You should do one and see how it works out. I will not do more than one at a time, because I don't want to get stuck like we did in the 2008 Crash and we may be headed for that again this year.