First rental property in Orlando any suggestions please

[Roxy An]

Hi!! I'm so glad to find this forum!! Very general question here hope to get some guidance for a start... I'm interested in buying my first rental property in Orlando for cash flow purpose (managing out of town - I'm located in Miami).

What would be a good area to start? I've looked at the following areas

1. Winter Garden, homes are in high demand and on the expensive side, but the listings seems to be leased real fast (from what I see within 7 days) I even considered buying a new constrution home but have to be on wait list. 

2. Lake nona, Tax seems higher here or am I getting the right information.  

3. Kissimme Lots of homes for sale, rent seems to be going down

4. Oviedo and Alafaya, old homes might need renovation, is there a big rental market here?

My Budget ideally is <300k but can go up to 350k for good appreciation. 

Prefer single family homes with no HOA or townhomes with low HOA under $200. Looking for high demand rental market of course.

 I just started my research, Any suggestions please? areas or zip codes to look at? tips for newbies? opinions on the above areas? Thank you so much. 

[Traci de Wid]

The reality of the market in East Orlando and Oviedo/Winter Park is pretty insane in the under $300k category; I love it because my problem solving and strategy skills are in full play.  But this is a market I regularly work for investors and clients alike. What is the reality?  I placed an offer on an East Orlando home (32825) on Friday evening (2/19/21) for an investor who is using conventional financing ("approved" not pre-approved), 30% down, $8k over ask and decent terms.  Unfortunately, he made some choices that were not in line with my recommendations - he had cash but wanted to go the financing route and made some other choices that suited his situation.  In a normal market, his offer would have done the trick, but we are far from "normal".  He did not get the house.  There were 71 offers after 3 days (the Seller had to place a cut-off), 4 cash over ask - the winner had NO contingencies and a 14-day close.  And no, this is not an uncommon scenario and no, the house was not a "golden gem" - it was a decent rental in an okay neighborhood. 

Now the other side...I have Buyer clients I've been showing homes in East Orlando and they need somewhere to live. We placed their home under contract last week and while we have some time to shop, they can't spend much over $200k.  We have been looking everywhere and keep getting beat out by investors walking in with cash.  It's great when I'm working with you guys but when I have a traditional client, I must to figure out how to make this work!

What I am trying to say is if you don't want to enter the dog-eat-dog competition, and you don't have a hard-charging Realtor to help you devise really strong strategies for winning the sale and still protect you from getting into a lemon, then yes, going toward Kissimmee and the theme parks would be a good idea. It stands to reason there are more opportunities there given we have had less visitors over the last year+ and layoff have impacted theme park workers and their families. While you may not have crazy strong rents at the moment, the parks will return and rentals are predicted to go up in 2022 and beyond due to market forces. Waiting until the market it hot is not always the best strategy. I would definitely take a closer look in these areas!