New investor from Tampa, FL!

[Trey H.]

Hello Bigger Pockets Community.  My name is Trey and am an airline/military pilot.  On my trips, I lurk on Bigger Pockets forums, listen to the fantasic podcasts and read as much as I can about real estate investing.  Don't I sound interesting?  I have enjoyed managing my one rental property (military tenants) that started out as a primary residence. My wife, Erin, is a full time Real Estate agent.  I decided to get my license as well and I love the instant access it provides (thank you J Scott).  My goal is build up passive income through buy and hold investments so I have more time at home with Erin and my 2 young sons.  I have just started looking around Tampa and still need to determine my target areas.  I live in South Tampa and there do not seem to be a lot of cash-flowing rentals here (not even 1%).  Any suggestions?  Even though I am in the military, I am looking for non-warzone rental areas around Tampa.

I am ready to make the jump from book to street smarts and I hope to network, team up and share knowledge with many of you.  I joined the local SREIA and hope to see my fellow Tampa investors there or when there is a BP meet up.  Thank you BP community for passing on your lessons learned.  If you have any advice for a new investor investor, I am all ears.  Thanks again and HELLO BP!!

-trey                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

[Jesse O.]

@Trey H. Welcome! I'm in the TB area as well, to the north. I am at 2 SFR & 2 duplexes now, one is in riverview and the others are in pasco county. I think outside of Tampa city limits is a lot better for cashflow right now, Pasco offers a lot more potential imo.... It's a bit of a haul from south tampa, but I think it's probably worth it.

I've seen some stuff in the MacDill area, but the neighborhoods look sketchy to me, I really want things I'd be OK living in, one of my criteria as I don't want low end tenants....