Southern California to Florida?

Question

Jessica Mendez · Answer

Jacksonville has a very low cost of living but is growing quickly. There are two navy bases which will make it continuously be a good rental community and a couple universities. We are just growing our real estate business in Jacksonville (flipping our first house now) and looking forward to doing some more flips or BRRRs/buy and holds in the future.

John Thedford · Answer

SW Florida is a great area to invest. The key to purchasing AT ANY TIME is to buy under market. I would say at least a 20% discount is what you need if not more. If you can find those deals it is smart to buy. Don't get over leveraged in the event that we have a market downturn. Markets will cycle.  I set a goal to buy maybe 8 more this year IF I can find deals AND have financing lined up. As Steven David always says: "there is no bad time to buy real estate, only a bad time to sell". He must know what he is doing with over 600 SFR! If you ever get the chance to go to one of his classes do it. He teaches at the boards on the east and west coast.

Maxwell Lee · Answer

Ft Lauderdale and Ft Myers are probably tough to cash flow. Tampa's Hard Rock should have some cheaper priced properties in the area but Im not too familiar with multifam. Jax has two bestbets (poker rooms) one in Orange Park and one in Arlington. Arlington is, generally speaking, a rougher part of town. But you should definitely be able to find cheaper properties in decent condition over there. Orange Park would be a good area if you can find something that makes sense. FWIW my old neighbors (young couple) were both dealers at best bet and purchased a home.

Michael Johnson · Answer

Lots of good info on this thread. I'll throw in what I can.

Right here (SW FL) and in my novice opinion..

Fort myers, ive heard it called "top-heavy" or already went through its appreciation and seems to hold true.

Lehigh, is on the news every other day, and not for good reasons.

Cape coral, seems to be the best location but I cant really justify it.

Cant speak on North fort myers or Bonita/estero

Naples is amazing but expensive.

Marco Island is rich.

Of course there are deals everywhere and all of that jazz... Thats my "Non-Empirical Action Taking Market Analysis" on Southwest Florida.

Its nice here. Best of luck! (vegas?)

p.s. Tampa is roughly 2 hours North of "here" Unexplored, But if I wasnt here Id probably go there.

Rainiel De La Nuez · Answer

Just moved from San Diego County paying $1,125 for a 1-bed, 700 sq ft apartment (that was cheap) to a 4-bedroom home outside of Daytona Beach with a $850 mortgage. You might appreciate the towns surrounding Daytona because of the colleges and universities we have nearby (Stetson, Embry-Riddle, Daytona State, Bethune). This might be ideal for you if you are looking to house-hack and get some college students to rent from you. Everyone will have their opinions about renting to college students, but if you know how to screen and enforce some rules, its a great opportunity.

That being said, whenever you look at the cities you are interested in make sure you know what is making them thrive, what is bringing renters in that area and look closely at the towns surrounding the big cities. I know, for example that my town (Deltona, FL) is a bedroom community, meaning there isn't much work here; Just A LOT of house. That means that Deltona is full of people commuting to Orlando or Daytona Beach (two major cities) for work making it a superb location to house-hack.

Lastly, this may not even be on your radar and may sound a little riskier than what you may want, but you can even make good money by just house-hacking an Airbnb unit in Daytona. Google a calendar of the events Daytona holds all year long and you will see why this city gets over 8 million visitors a year. It all depends on what you want to make out of REI!

Ethan Lee · Answer

I left the Los Angeles area a month and a half ago and moved to Jacksonville. One of the biggest reasons was absolutely financial. I started investing out of state while I was in California, but it's nice to be able to go visit properties and literally drive through neighborhoods now that I live where I will be investing. So far I love it here and there seems to be decent opportunity for rentals and flips. Obviously I'm not an expert yet and quick searches on listing sites do not show many multifamilies for sale, but from what I can tell there are plenty out there to make your house hacking strategy a possibility.

Ethan Lee · Answer

I wasn't investing Florida while in California since I didn't really have boots on the ground compared to other areas where I did, so I waited until I got here. My main focus is buy and hold, currently small multifamily, although I'll do almost anything where the numbers make sense! I'd definitely like to scale up to bigger projects in the future. I'm also getting in to flipping and have my first one under contract to buy!

Rainiel De La Nuez · Answer

@Chris Adams I used my town as an example of a beneficial bedroom community because it sits outside of two larger cities to which people flood to for work. I see this as a great house hacking opportunity because of the increasing amount of businesses bringing jobs into those larger cities, thus increasing tenancy in towns like mine that offer cheaper prices. This may not be the same elsewhere. As of right now Florida is growing at a rate of 1,000 people per day! Opportunities are there for sure!

Chris Adams · Answer

Thanks everyone for your input, BP truly is an amazing resource. I haven't had access to a computer for a couple of days, and I gave up responding on my phone after two short responses as I couldn't tag or make multiple responses in one message…

@Maxwell Lee This is pretty much what i have been gathering online. I know a couple of people who deal in Tampa, and there seems to be a wide variety of prices/neighborhoods. Worth looking further into. Thanks for the info on the casinos, have you been to either/both?

@Ethan Lee It seems we have several things in common, you have just pulled the trigger already! Glad to hear you are enjoying yourself out there and finding success. The Jacksonville area seem to be making the most sense, and I completely agree with you on the idea of being close to a project, especially the first few. Were you investing in Fl while you were here? what type of investing do you do? Thanks for replying to my post!

@Rainiel De La Nuez I hear you, I'm in Ventura and that' s pretty much what prices are like here for 1bd apartments… Daytona was originally at the top of my list since it is near the water, seems to be a "fun" place to live, while still having a wide variety of neighborhoods. I didn't know Daytona also had so many  schools in the area, that's a definite plus. Now bear with  me if the answer seems obvious to you, but why would a "bedroom community" be a better environment to house hack then say, the bigger city itself? Airbnb is another idea, but i think I'm going to take the most conservative route possible to start, in order to minimize any future pain as much as possible ; )

@Michael Johnson Thanks for the quick location overview! It gives me a better idea.

@John Thedford That's one of my favorite real estate quotes, didn't know who it was from. Ill see if he's  ever in the area.

@Jessica Mendez The prices do seem on a lower scale in Jacksonville, add in the schools and it is a very attractive option. could you tell me more about you current deal?

Once again, thanks everyone for being active in sharing your knowledge and experience with me.

Southern California to Florida?

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