All Forum Posts by: Carrie Leigh

Greetings! I have been seriously, I thought, researching REI for the past couple years. I was constantly reading references to Bigger Pockets but was reluctant to check it out. Hopefully that will turn out to be the biggest mistake I make in real estate.

I always assumed I would get into real estate investing someday but suffered from the dreaded fear of uncertainty. My day job is in IT but now that I am facing the need to either invest in more schooling to advance in my current field or change fields, I am determined to get away from the uncertainty of relying on others for my employment and be my own boss. 

I grew up helping family rehab homes for rent or sale, but have yet to purchase my first property. Reading BP and watching the podcasts the past month has helped me realize there will never be the perfect set of circumstances; I will not have started until I start. So here I am. I will mostly lurk as I do not have the experience to contribute but but there will likely be questions I cannot resolve on my own.

As a native Floridian, I believe it has more to do with history and geography than zoning and building codes. We did not develop a large urban population until a century or more after the New England states. Most of the early population centers in the state were coastal which is where you find more sub-five-unit multi-family buildings. Add in a few post WW2 development booms focused on returning GIs, retirees, and tourism and the result was mostly single-family homes and large apartment and condominium complexes. 

For better or worse, the Orlando area is less tied to maintaining historical elements with few exceptions. I have been seeing more sub-five multi-family new construction in traditionally single-family neighborhoods. They are not vacant long so there is obviously a demand.