Florida or somewhere else?

[David Dorsey]

I live in New Jersey , specifically the shore area, where real estate is too high for a beginner like me to really profit. Just check the number if you don’t believe me. I’m currently running a business here but my father and I wanna begin the real estate side of our family business. I’m fairly new but we have $200k to begin the house flipping business. I already have done a lot of homework but thing is we plan to move to Florida, specifically orlando area, in two years. So we wanna start now! So question is , would Florida be the best option to start flipping or does anyone have other suggestions? Really appreciate ur help and info!

[Andrea Proeber]

Wow, that's a huge question!

Being a real estate broker, property manager, wife, mother and investor here in Central Florida I of course would say that this is a fantastic place to invest in and to live in.

To ask about all of Florida as one is similar to asking about New York. There is a huge price differential between Manhattan, Buffalo and Lake Placid.

There is such a huge difference in each city, and neighborhood, that it is hard to say all of Florida would work for you.

Personally, I love Ocala, its smaller and slower than Orlando and there are some great deals on real estate here with a very hot rental market. 

However, it is a bit too small and slow from our surrounding larger cities (Orlando, Gainesville, Tampa & Daytona)

My worse nightmare is regular heavy traffic since I drive quite a bit for work so I prefer to visit the larger nearby cities, but not actually live there.

Being a Florida resident we get substantial discounts for annual passes to Disney and having children we go to Orlando often. From my driveway to the disney parking lot it takes 68 minutes. Which means, I can go to the beach for the day, or got to Disney for the day, or go to the major shopping and museums for the day, then drive home with very little stress.

Some people hate living in a smaller town though. Wherever you decide to invest sounds like it should be close to where you plan on living.

Have you been down to visit the area and look at areas you like? What is your ideal living situation?

Do you love to live by the beach? Maybe you should look into Daytona or Ormond area. Do you want to stay away from the beach area investing because of hurricanes? Maybe look inland. What kind of place are you really looking for? There are so many towns/cities that have their own unique culture that it might be good to spend a little but if time finding the general area you are most comfortable in then purchasing properties surrounding that area.

Obviously you do not need to live next door to your investment properties, but if you live in Miami and your investment properties are in Ormond...it will make regular management of your property problematic.

Just thoughts to consider, hopefully it helps.

Andrea