Florida Investors - I need your market knowledge

[Michael B.]

I'm trying to connect with investors that are active in the Port St. Lucie, Fort Pierce and West Palm Beach areas. Are you recommending this market for buy and hold or flipping? What kind of return have you been seeing there? Are there any areas you stay away from? What is a good management company out there for buy and hold? Do you have contractors that you could recommend for flipping?

[Justin MacIsaac]

I am currently active in the Martin County/Port St Lucie area and purchase buy and holds. I prefer to focus north of Palm Beach County due to what I see is a migration north because of cost of living south of Martin County. I currently work at the VA and they also see a migration north by the veterans because of cost of living so they are expanding up in Port St Lucie. PSL got hit pretty hard in 2008 and it was rough to own property up there but it is starting to come back. The property I own in PSL are 3/2 SFH and bring in $1495 in rent and you can purchase them for about $160-170 and I am getting first last and security which I definitely recommend in PSL. The top four zip codes for rent are 34987, 34984, 34983, 34953. I see positive things in the future for Martin and St Lucie county. I have been seeing a lot of California license plates up in the PSL area for the last couple of years. There is also a major home buying company Havenbrook homes that is buying rentals in the same PSL neighborhoods I am buying in so they must see something positive about the area also. I would also take a look at Stuart/Palm City. There is a lack of affordable housing in that area and they are slow to approve any major development. The rents are great in that area and they traditionally have been better able to put down the first last and security and have had less trouble than the PSL market according to my property manager. Just stay away from the area around the airport it is a war zone. Look at neighborhoods like fisherman's village. If I had to prioritize I would look for property in Stuart Palm City first then PSL but like I said I see future growth in PSL. I have a friend that works for the city and met a guy whos company puts in all the infrastructure for new developments and they both said they are developing the area by Becker road big time. I have a great property manager also, he is very experienced and belongs to some development board for the martin county, Stuart area so he knows the area well he also manages properties in PSL. Hope this helps. https://www.floridapm.net/

[Art Perkitny]

@Michael B.

Buy and hold may be good idea in this market. As @Justin MacIsaac stated, people are migrating into the area and the data backs that claim up. Population has increase from 136k to 168k from 2010 to 2018 according the the Census Bureau. So market growth seems likely. 

SFH are currently renting at about 0.75% of their value. So positive cash flow is definitely possible.

As for the areas, the link below is to map with risk scores for various location within PSL. 

As stated above, the area near the airport is the riskiest, while most other places are at a C/B level. 

Risk Map Link

Hope this helps! 

[Brian Sawyer]

Hey guys, I'm a new Buy and Hold investor and bought my first duplex in Fisherman's Haven (Jensen Beach, FL). I'm looking to do some wholesaling to gain some capital to continue forward investing and I'm also looking for people to work with. I live in the area and would love to be more active in real estate. If you think that I can provide you with some value please let me know how we can work together!

Thanks,
Brian Sawyer

[Martin Elkins]

@Art Perkitny can you explain a little more about the risk map you provided, what the different scores mean (I.e is that the standard A thru F ranking?) and where you can find it?