Newbie from Panama City Beach, FL

[Anthony Percy]

Hello BP community, I am a real estate investor currently living in Panama City Beach, FL. I have a unit currently rented in East Boston and have been interested in expanding into multi-family units. My business partner and I are looking to add value to B-C type assets in the South Alabama and Tampa areas. I look forward to building my REI network with the help of the BP community!

[Anthony Percy]

@Sarah Torres Hello! I've only been investing on the side for a little over 2 years, my day job is actually writing and reviewing government contracts. I've just recently became more interested in REI (especially in multi-families) hence my intro into the BP community!

My business partner and I looked at several factors when selecting the Tampa and Mobile markets. First, we wanted to only look at cities. I recently listened to a podcast on BP (I can’t remember the episode) where the interviewee mentioned that more people are moving to cities especially millennials. As a millennial myself, I can relate to this trend as I have seen more and more of my peers move to cities for both the culture and job opportunities. Secondly, we looked at cities that we had easy access too. My business partner lives in Tampa and has the ability to put eyes on potential properties, shake hands with potential partners, and meet face-to-face with potential investors. Although I live in Panama City I do have family that lives in Mobile and as a result have the same potential access that my partner has in Tampa. Lastly, we wanted to choose cites that were backed by strong economies. Tampa was a relatively easy choice has it 23 colleges (the biggest being USF) and Tampa General was ranked the 2nd best hospital in FL. These 2 factors were all my business partner and I needed. Mobile was a little interesting. The first factor was the announcement of the new Toyota/Mazda plant in Huntsville, AL earlier this year in addition to the already existing plants of Mercedes, Honda and Hyundai. Additionally, Alabama has strong industries in aeronautics, chemicals, and forestry. The port of Mobile services all of these industries and my business partner and I feel that this is a great opportunity to invest in a city that has the potential to grow.

Sorry for the long reply, but we did quite a bit of thinking when choosing our target markets. I hope this helps!