Finding Deals in South Florida, Do They Even Really Really Exist?

Question

How are people finding deals in the south Florida markets?!

My name is omar, and this is my nightmare. I was born and raised in the Miami/South Florida area. I'm a general contractor, and owner of Fikon Construction. I work exclusively with investors (mostly foreign) remodeling and fixing their fix n flips. Just recently I was presented with the opportunity to work with a family member of mine to do a fix and flip... and so the journey began.

after going through all the google pages searches for "wholesale miami" or "miami wholesale deals" I now get 5 to 7 emails a day where wholesalers list their "deals"... whats wrong with these people?

the listings are basically 7 to 8 "deals" with 100k spreads that are waaaay too good to be true. They use sales comps that are sometimes 1.5-1.8x the sq ft of the house their trying to sell. just plain misleading, and makes me feel queasy about doing business with any of them.

so i get down to the question. How does someone, with money, with tons of remodeling/rehabbing experience, the best construction company in south florida, find. deals?! how? is it possible? where are the wholesalers with legitimate sales comps? how does one get into bidding on foreclosures?

Marty True · Answer

@Omar Gutierrez welcome to BP and the world of REI! I went through the same thing when I first moved to South Florida from North Florida. My advice would be to stay away from "wholesalers". Nothing personal to any wholesalers in S. FL but this is unfortunately most investors' viewpoint.

There are deals but you have to be diligent and find them. Post up what your criteria is - what types of assets are you looking for? Asset class? Neighborhood class? Price range?

Omar Gutierrez · Answer

@Marty True Where does one start looking? What we want is profits profits profits. anything with a large profit margin. We have the luxury of being able to keep rehab costs very very low (often times 50% of estimated) and we can add rooms bathrooms and square footage to homes. Ideally Ideally it would be a warzone property that other investors over look because they think its too much work. I'm willing to go as far north as Miami shores, and as far south as the keys. We're looking to spend less than half a million.@Raffaello Cervera do you know of any brokers in particular that I should be contacting for REO's. i've heard great things about REO's but (from what i think i know) they work as auctions, and I don't know anyone who has access to the auctions. Account Closed the listings are very very verrrry fishy. We're actually now working with one of the realtors who is in charge of acquiring properties for our investor, but I'm starting to get the impression that he has too much work. New clients always welcome. estimates always free. Good luck finding that deal!

Account Closed · Answer

@Omar Gutierrez

The most important thing you can do is find someone who has actually worked with investors before and can prove to you what they have done before. I see a lot of "wholesaling" experts who can provide no proof of the deals they have done. Wholesaling is not the way these deals are done. If you ever get into the west coast side of Florida, let me know.

Omar Gutierrez · Answer

sounds good. i'll PM you!Thomas Franklin, Jason Brown

Jason Brown · Answer

@Omar Gutierrez Hi Omar I am a new investor in the here in the Miami market focused on rehabbing small multifamily units for a buy and hold strategy. Ironically enough my problem is not so much finding potential deals but securing a good GC quickly to give me an estimate of costs. In my experience I see a lot of potential in the complete rehab and renovation game simply because you are going in and putting it back together. From the projects I have seen I believe they would easily be in the ball park of what your speaking regarding margins. Do you have experience handling full rehabs on multifamily units? Are you interested in another client or looking for business? I would love see what your company has done and see if we can in work together in some capacity.

Robert G. · Answer

@Omar Gutierrez

I have yet to find a legitimate and reliable wholesaler in this market.  And, honestly, I don't really blame them.  This market is so competitive that they can easily sell the property to traditional buyers or foreign investors for far more then a local flipper can afford to buy.  We each have a business model, and in the conditions of this market, it just doesn't make sense for a wholesaler to find a great deal, lock it up at a great price, and then sell it to you for a small (relatively) profit.  The demand is too high, the potential profits from other exit strategies too great.

If you want to remain in this market, and you want a steady source of deals (as opposed to just stumbling across one once every year or two), then I think you're going to have to invest (heavily) in marketing.  Lots and lots of mailings, over and over again, waiting for those phone calls to come in.  Sifting through those calls, narrowing down the leads, and meeting with the distressed sellers.  It's hard work, it takes time and money, and it may not cater to your skill set.....but other then playing the auction game (which has a slew of other issues), I'm not sure there is another way to find enough deals to support your team in this area.  The other option, of course, is to relocate (there are plenty of places in this country where finding a deal is rather easy......its finding a buyer that is the challenge in those markets, lol).

Valeria Valdes · Answer

Hey Omar, I am from Miami also and I feel your pain.

My team and I have been looking for a deal for months and nothing yet. I also get tons of emails from wholesalers but they all send the same properties and really just look plain fishy to me.

Regarding the construction company and experience you have, have you tried asking the investors you work with where they're getting their deals?

Lastly, would you consider taking on another investor client (us)? We're always looking for  contractors that know and understand how quickly a fix and flip is.

Finding Deals in South Florida, Do They Even Really Really Exist?

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