All Forum Posts by: Brian Johnson

It appears to be low income property. I think your vacancy rate is set to low.  Lower income will produce higher turnover.  I had a low income 4 plex and the best I could get my vacancy rate was 20%.  This was in Lexington KY.  Also are you sure the property tax will be that low?  If so I am guessing the property value is not very high in that region.  So perhaps the rural area might be better vs my 20% vacancy in a urban area.

Great responses here.  Thank you @Marc Winter for very detailed info.  

I don't think doing this for a tax deduction is worth it.  It is a good business idea and something I have been working toward for some time now.  You are splitting hairs just to save a few bucks off for tax deductions in my opinion.  If you want to really get extra tax deduction on your rental property.  Just remodel one of your rentals.  Save all your remodel expense and write it off.  you could possible increase the value and increase rent as well as a huge write off that year. 

As for starting a property management company.  Be aware you open yourself up for a totally different legal responsibility with fair housing and other legal responsibilities. I work for a very large property management company and have learn that many times as a landlord I was in the wrong on how I handled issues in the past.   

I came from Lexington KY where the home prices increase around 3% in most areas.  In Tampa home appreciate around 7% which can make anyone drool.  Even as a cash flow buy and hold guy like me. The home prices in Tampa are pretty close to Lexington prices but the big difference is taxes and insurance.  This can be tricky in the Tampa Bay area because you might do a COMP for an area and think its prime but the home you want to buy is one block away and in a flood zone! 

I as a investor and still own rentals in KY,  is amazed of the rent amount in Tampa Bay area. My personal comfort zone for buy and hold investing is more on the out skirts of the popular cities in Tampa Bay. The taxes are lower and not so much worried of flood zone.  One County I would look into is Pasco County.  

Just my $.02

Yes the TBREIA is a great place to start.  I am a member of the groups and always learn something new at the group meetings.

I have been using Facebook and Instagram as my major recourse for leads.  my squeeze screening has been having lenders that I work with contact them.  So It has been pretty good.  I know some agents email them a question sheet and approach it as positive prospect if the lead fills it out in detail.  Does anyone have any other suggestions to produce a better turnover in marketing?

Thank you, I will stop in and check it out.

How is your lead generation site? Is it a broker style site with home search available?  Is this the type of lead generation tool you are using or is it content based and viewers call you directly to receive more information on the content you provide? 

My broker Keller Williams gives us a home search web site that is branded with our information but I do not own the domain so I can to incorporate full usability to it such as adsense.   Your site is similar to what is offered by our broker.  Perhaps I am not marketing it correctly to get more traffic. 

@Jen Bastian get in touch with me about the Lease Option to Buy.  It is a really good concept I have.  It is a clear and very transparent option to buy program! 

 If you are looking in Tampa Bay focus on the people that live in the area to give advice.  I read a few post from people that are give you advice on weather and other matters that have no relevance to the area. If you want good advice about weather read @Michael Haynes post,  thank you sir.  Once again good advice from a person that lives in the area. 

I relocated to a new state with zero contact from the state I moved.  So it was pretty much ground zero startup.  I dabbled a bit in traditional mail marketing but quickly realized it was not for me.  So my main focus has been social media.  Now I am even considering creating a web page and using adsense from Google.   

Any thoughts on the idea of connecting my social media with a web site to have smooth transition content flow? Is anyone already doing this or does anyone know a better way to get your name out to large audience?