How Do I find A Realtor In South Florida That Uses BP investing

[Lisa Mauritis]

Hi BP friends, We are looking for a realtor in the Broward County area to help us with investing. We are canadian and my husband is a building contractor. While we are here for the 6 months, we would like to buy a small unit that needs fixing (floors, new kitchen, new bathroom, etc), so that we can flip it and then buy another one on a 1031 exchange. We need a realtor that understands how to make profits as per the education on bigger pockets. We are looking for something in a community such as century village. We are looking to buy in the low time (December just before the holidays), fix it and flip it to snowbirds in Jan / Feb (peak time). The price range we are looking to buy in is $25,000 - $30,000 and we are looking to make approx 15,000 profit. We will be looking to continue this for some time. Can anyone help me to connect with an agent that can help in this area?

[Dave Foster]

@Lisa Mauritis, I hate to be a wet blanket.  But @Wayne Brooks is right about the 1031.  If you buy a property with the intention of immediately reselling then you cannot do a 1031.

And more potential bad news on top of that.  Make sure that your $15K profit is net of all costs of selling including realtor commissions etc.  If you really want to get accurate with your return then take ordinary income tax from the $15K which including self employment tax will run you almost $7K so you'll end up with an $8K profit at best.

And  yet even more potential bad news - Depending on your immigration status you will be  subject to FIRPTA withholding of 15% of the sales price of the new property.  This is not a tax but to get it back you must file a tax return.  So if you don't do that already you've got to factor in that cost as well.

This seems like a lot of work for very little return.  However, if you could adjust your model so that you buy fix and rent for a while then your tax rate goes down, Appreciation goes up, Equity builds, a 1031 exchange is available to you, and FIRPTA can be waived in the 1031.