New to REI in South Florida

[Adam Zamorek]

Hello Everyone

My name is Adam and I am new to real estate investing, having started listening to the BP podcasts as well as reading some books over the past few months. I am planning on moving to the Tampa/St. Petes area in the late summer/early fall. I am a health professional, and currently in discussions with a few job prospects in Florida for a new position, but I have yet to sign a contract.

I am hoping to begin a buy and hold real estate portfolio through house-hacking. I’m ideally looking for a small multifamily property in the Tampa/St. Petersburg market, but I’m open to single family homes as well, if I can find a good deal. At this point I have enough saved up for a down payment and I am starting the process of acquiring financing through the investor-friendly lender tool on BP. I am not too familiar with the area but I would like to avoid lower class neighborhoods as to attract young professionals. I would appreciate any recommendations on desirable/up and coming locations and ones that best be avoided. I’m also looking to connect with investor-friendly lenders and agents in the area.

My short-term goals are to purchase one property a year for the next 3-5 years through house hacking but I am also interested in learning about and pursuing other strategies in real estate investing. I’d love to meet investors, agents, wholesalers and anyone in the Florida market willing to share any knowledge about investing in the area. Thank you!

[Matthew Kwan]

HI Adam,

There are several ways to run and make sure you are maximizing your rental income while keeping your living expense as low as possible. Try looking into zillow/Redfin and see what your potential rents you can get near the neighborhood by filtering the bedrooms/bathrooms of the intentional property that you are planning to buy. This will allow you give a reference point on how much potential rent you can receive. (Max vacated rents - your monthly mortgage payment) = +/- net cashflow.

On the other hand, you could also look into multifamily units where you can live one of the unit and rent out the other vacant units with as little as 5% down payment. The main hurdle that many of our borrowers face are the income aspect of it, especially expensive markets like the West coast. However, it allows you to use the vacant rents of 75% market rent as an alternative income to help the borrower to qualify.

Happy to connect and assist you in your real estate investing journey. @Albert Bui @Carlos Valencia