Flooring/ Remodeling guy considering the move to Naples, FL

[Tom Kairys]

Hello BP, I live in Naperville, IL. We have two little ones (2.5year old and the newborn). My wife is stay at home mom and I work in construction (flooring-ceramic, hardwood as well as remodeling). I’ve been in this business for 17 years. Been trying to get into flipping for the past year but it seems that all good deals are going off the mls. Investor friendly agents all seems to do cash deals only and they want to see around 150k (which I only have closer to 50k). It just seems that I haven’t been progressing here in IL lately (in terms of REI and my own work) and that kind of frustrates me. Having said that, we are planning on selling our 2 bed townhome and then either look for something livable well below market here in Chicagoland, regah it and sell it in a year or two. But seems like it will be hard. First finding the deal like that and then trying to renovate with two small kids. So, the other alternative, which most likely we will take, will be renting SFH. So, we figured if we will be renting then might as well try other markets. And that’s where Florida comes in, since we travel there a lot and we actually used to have timeshare in Palm Beach. However, I heard Naples area is doing really great. So, my question would be to the investors/ contractors living there, how is the construction market there? Anybody knows any good builders or GCs looking for good tile guy (references available). Also, are there decent investment opportunities or anybody willing to partner on the flipping side? And finally, which areas would you recommend to look for rentals that are not far from the beaches and not far commute to Naples. We were looking Fort Myers area. Seems like you could get nicer homes than in Naples for same prices. Thank you for any input on my situation.Thank you for your advice!