New Investor to Tampa Area

[Charles Bischoff]

I am a new investor to the Greater Tampa Bay area. A little bit about me: I graduated with a BSBA in Business Admin. with a Minor in Entrepreneurship and an emphasis in Sales/Customer Service in 2018 at the University of Missouri-Columbia (M-I-Z!). I moved here from St. Louis, MO and have been living in Tampa since October.

I have always been exposed to real estate growing up as my father does some buy/hold, but primarily flipping - I just wish I took the free experience more and applied it to my studies at school. I have done demo work, insulation, dry-wall, "tried" electrical (to no luck). My primary focus is buy/hold rentals - I want my first purchase to be a duplex so I can house hack. My short term goal is to use a FHA loan when I have enough money to put down for a duplex; long term goal being obtaining enough multi-families to cash-flow.

That being said, I am open to networking, meeting people in my area, and ultimately looking for someone that I could bounce ideas off of in my local Tampa area - participate in help they may need.

Thank you,

Charlie

[Colin G Murphy]

Hi @Charles Bischoff

Congrats on the move to Tampa - it is both a great place to live and to invest in real estate. 

In terms of immediate next steps, here are a few tips

- Save six months of living expenses and put them in a separate account
- Save your down payment for the FHA loan and reserves/expenses for your first rental in another separate account
- Get prequalified for a loan
- Don´t do anything hasty between getting preapproved and buying (like getting a new car or changing jobs)
- Develop/steal/borrow a template for analysing deals
- Analyse a lot of deals, get used to crunching numbers every day
- Don´t let any earnest money go hard without getting a full inspection from a licensed professional
- Utilise but don´t overestimate your DIY skills. There are plenty of good contractors looking for work. 
- Avoid "heavy lifting" on your first deal or two. Purchase block, post 1960 construction, non flood zone.
- Be mentally prepared to own and live in that duplex longer than your initial estimate

Remember that real estate is a journey, and you have to go through its different phases. The only way to progress is by taking action, gaining experience, learning from your mistakes and moving forward continuously. In many ways, getting past the first 1 or 2 deals is the hardest part. Once you have done that, you´ve generally have earned the skills and connections to keep moving through the different levels with much less stress.

Good luck!