New Investors in Tampa, FL

[Will Crayger]

Hello! My fiance' and I are new to biggerpockets and investing in general. Primarily, I work in business intelligence and my fiance' works in affiliate marketing. I've been following the webinars that Brandon offers for a few weeks now and have become increasingly interested in starting our journey. 

I have been researching for several months now and have established that our initial target will be single family homes, but we're also open to considering a duplex if the opportunity presents itself. I am currently working with the realtor whom helped us purchase our new home in December. I have MLS alerts set up for SFR under $100,000 and Duplexes under $200,000. I've been analyzing deals for a few weeks now and am getting more comfortable with the process, however, one of the biggest hurdles thus far for me has been trying to estimate what a rehab will cost on the varying properties I've looked at.

I would love to meet other investors, contractors, and property managers in the area to expand our network and perhaps share / acquire knowledge and experiences.

Thank you for taking the time to read our intro, and I look forward to speaking with anyone whom reaches out. 

Kind Regards,

Will and Alexandra

[Russell Holmes]

Welcome to Bigger Pockets @Will Crayger!  This site is a gold mine of knowledge, some of the experts that chime in regularly have many decades of Real Estate Investment experience and happily help new people.  There are experts in all niches of the market who are always happy to chime in and offer input.  I've been a part of the BP community for a little over a year, and can honestly say it has been a life-changing resource.

  You'll likely find quite a lot of info on doing rough estimates on rehab costs based on sqft and general level of rehab.  It's good to have an idea of the difference between a $20,000 rehab and a $80,000 rehab.  However, even your best estimates aren't, in my opinion, solid enough to make offers on (unless you're a GC or have just flipped 3-5 of the same exact type house).  As such, I'd focus on finding a good contractor you trust from referrals here on BP or locals you know and trust their recommendations.  I'm over in the NW Orlando area of Apopka, not too far from you in Tampa, so I'd imagine things are similar in the two areas with how GCs operate.  In my area, most general contractors will come bid a potential job for a nominal fee ($75-100, applied to the project if you buy and use them) and take as long as they need to come up with a detailed bid. They can't run around and bid for free all day, but I think the 45 mins or so of their time that you get for the money is worth  You can even then use that bid to back up an offer that may be under list price.  If you're under contract on that house, some GCs will do it for free, and almost all will bid for free if you already own the property.   However, I feel that $100 is a great investment in solidifying your numbers before the offer.  

Also, each property that you have a GC look at and bid, ask them to send you the detailed report on costs to use for negotiation and for yourself.  They should itemize it (not down to every single supply, but at least "kitchen cabinets", "Master bathroom" etc.)  You'll be able to then use these costs supplied to better estimate yourself on future projects with similar features/issues.  The goal being not to replace the GC's bidding, but to get better at guesstimating yourself to make sure you are in the ballpark of knowing it is a good deal before bringing them in on the next one. Just that learning experience is worth the $100 the first few that come out more than you expect.