New Real Estate Investor

[Mary Nickless]

Hi Bigger Pockets Universe!

I'm a new real estate investor educating myself while I prepare to buy my first deal.

I've been listening non-stop to the podcast and reading the forums for a couple months now, so I decided to finally come out of the shadows and say hello!

I live in Largo, FL which is part of the greater Tampa Bay/St. Petersburg area, in Pinellas county. I know the area very well, but I'm in the process of educating myself on what a "deal" is in this market and understanding what my numbers need to look like for me to purchase a SFH or small multi-family property.

Here are some things I'm noticing about the area:

As many people have said, it is a "seller's" market right now.  What does that mean? I'm seeing houses, even ones not updated and in relatively poor condition, selling for above average prices.

I'm noticing a lot of flipped houses in my area which provides two insights: 1. I can compare a really well done Flip and a really shoddy job that cut a lot of corners. 2. They of course are asking full ARV and I'm running the numbers to see if there is value in buy property that is full price (for what the market is right now) but also everything is new. So I won't have much in cap ex or repairs at least for the first few years. I know you make money on the "buy" and the general theory is that it's important to buy a house with equity built in. I don't know if anyone has any further insight into this.

There are a lot of hedge funds buying with cash and also families moving down from up north to escape the high taxes.  So house prices are going up exponentially.  I'm tracking houses, their asking prices, and then what it sells for.  Unless the property has a lot of issues, most houses are going for the asking price or higher.  It's a pretty hot market.  I am still looking for deals and educating myself so that I know what a deal is when I see it.

If anyone is an investor in the area and interested in talking or has advice for me, please feel free to reach out!  Also, if anyone has questions regarding the area, zip codes, etc I'd love to help any way I can.

Thanks!