Florida Rental - Cape Coral

[Sandra Brickey]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $220,000

Single family home 3/2 on a fresh water canal in a very nice area of Cape Coral. Seller was family and gave me a $50,000 equity gift at closing.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Using long term rental to replace my income when I retired.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

I have my FL real estate license and my uncle wanted me to list his house. I ended up buying it from him instead.

How did you finance this deal?

Mortgage and a Equity Gift for the down payment so I had $0 out of pocket.

How did you add value to the deal?

I lived in it while I was updating it cosmetically and then rented it on annual lease.

What was the outcome?

Rents have gone from $1900 to $2700/month and I've never had an empty month between renters. The house did get hit by Hurricane Ian, but we are almost done with repairs and insurance dealings.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Challenge in having 2 homes in the same area. When I got hit by the hurricane, both rentals got hit so I had double the challenges to get the homes repaired.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Yes, myself!