All Forum Posts by: Amy L. Pagels

Hey Kelly!

We actually have a daughter who is a freshman at UF so went into the market with a plan to do a multifamily home on campus and manage from out of state... in hopes that she would live there and we could creatively do a family "house hack". After looking at the cost of properties close to campus, we ended up going a few miles north of campus and purchased a 3 bedroom/2 bath that we have as an STR. We primarily cater to Gator families visiting Gainesville and have already achieved superhost status on AirBnB after just 3 months! Point is, Gainesville is a great market and there are many ways that you can start a successful real estate investment. Best of luck to you!

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

3 bedroom/2 bath single family home that we are setting up to be a college town STR in Gainesville, FL.

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

High cash flow and having a place to stay at while visiting our daughter who is currently a freshman at University of Florida. This is a buy and hold investment that we hope is the start to a 10+ door STR portfolio in the SE.

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

We found this through a realtor and MLS

How did you finance this deal?

We used a conventional loan for a vacation home including a 2:1 buy down.

How did you add value to the deal?

Repaint and fully furnish

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Biggest challenge to date has been managing furnishing shipments to arrive during a one week window when I’m in town to furnish.

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

Nick Velez at The One Brokerage was an amazing partner as well as Cathy Lentz at Bosshardt Realty. Plan to work with both of them again on our second Gainesville property.

@Bonnie Low - I haven’t heard of Minoan but will look that up now.  Thank you for the suggestion!

Calling all investors in Gainesville, FL! Does anyone have a cleaner or handyman in the area that you recommend? We are out-of-state investors looking to self-manage so trying to work through word-of-mouth recommendations vs. Thumbtack app. We close on a 3 bedroom/2 bath SFH in Gainesville on 12/19 that we will rent as a STR. I really appreciate any help you can provide!

Since several of you have now mentioned this... is renting out a storage unit as a STR really a thing??

 Hey @Dave Stokley!  Thank you for the suggestion - wish they had some branch offices in Gainesville!  I'll have to look for some similar support options in my market.

 I'll have to check out Living Spaces @Jon Martin!  Appreciate the suggestion!

@Gerald Pitts Great suggestion!  My biggest struggle with the storage companies is that they needed me there in person to put items in our storage facility.  Not sure if that would be different for pods.  I did find a property manager that said they would go to the storage facility to load each item in... for a fee.  Unfortunately, homeowners said they wouldn't store anything for us because they wouldn't have the room.