All Forum Posts by: Chris Adams

Quote from@Adam Schooley:

@Chris Adams did you get the property under contract?

 Hey Adam,

No I did not. I asked my realtor for study of the neighborhood so I can run my numbers, but she said it was already under contract.

But it might have been a blessing in disguise, as my numbers did not add up. Based on a few adjustments, including a few suggestions on pricing in this thread, the income would have not supported the property for our needs. 

I am wondering what price the contract went under for though...

Quote from @Linda Weygant:

Quote from @Chris Adams:

Hello BP world,

Newbie investor here that needed someone who is familiar with BP and their followers and who is willing to do tax filing on a small account. I went through the networking tab and everyone who was listed had 1 or less posts on BP and just seem like they registered with BP as a lazy lead generator. Hoping to find someone reputable, educational, and patient.

Thanks for the suggestions.

 Hi Chris,

I'm so sorry your first search did not yield good results.  There is a way to search for professionals through the search function, but admittedly, it can be a bit clunky.  If you continue to search in this forum, I am sure you'll discover some great folks who can help you.

Best of luck

Hi Linda. 
 
Yes, my search yield did feel a little fruitless. But after posting, I dug further into the forums and found someone I felt comfortable emailing to link up. Trying to line up a good Core-4 and hopefully I found my CPA.

Thank for you for the suggestion and support. 

Quote from @Ryan Lesley:

Hey Chris, 

I would check out YouTube, there is a great company called Anderson Business Advisors on there that posts a lot of informational videos and they are real estate investors as well. they also have quite a few options for their tax filling services for different company sizes and budgets. hope that help, and best of luck finding someone. 

 Hey Ryan,

Thank you for the lead. I'll have to check out the channel! 

Hello BP world,

Newbie investor here that needed someone who is familiar with BP and their followers and who is willing to do tax filing on a small account. I went through the networking tab and everyone who was listed had 1 or less posts on BP and just seem like they registered with BP as a lazy lead generator. Hoping to find someone reputable, educational, and patient.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Title pretty much sums it up. 

My wife and I are expecting our first child soon and we were looking to upgrade from our 2/1 condo in Wilton Manors, FL and purchase a 3/2.5+ TH/SFH in Broward County, FL. Homes in the two cities we're looking into (Pembroke Pines & Cooper City) are still well into $400K+ category, but there's this home that's up for sale that's listed for in a neighborhood that my wife and I like. But as the title says, it has CDW.

I was wondering what an average CDW full gut would end up costing. Not sure if it needs a full gut, but I want to run the numbers as if it will be worth the cost. FYI, it is a 2 story 1,400 sqft townhome. New ordinances state plumbing and electrical does not have to be replaced, just outlets, switches, and fixtures. 

$5 per sqft for demo and new drywall (including trim)
$20K bathrooms (2; A-- level fancy)
$15K for cabinetry/countertops kitchen (quartz, farm sink, etc)
$1K for outlets/fixtures/switches
$5k for paint
Flooring & Ceiling don't need to be replaced and not changing floor plan
$500 City Code Permiting/Inspections

With acquisition, closing costs, and if my estimates are true, it would still be worth the cost as it would leave about $50K of a buffer after renovations from current comps. And with the fact that I would have purchased the property at a lower acquisition cost, my taxes would be lowered further, thus allowing us to save up faster towards property #3 after all is said and done. 

Am I over/underestimating costs? Or completely missing something? Is ~$55K ($48K + 10% stupid tax) renovation seem an accurate estimate? 

Or, should I just completely avoid the whole project?

Thanks in advance.

Hello BP,

I am currently an owner of a single unit of a 10 unit condo building. The HOA is in search of an insurance company that is experienced with packaging wind mitigation, liability, general, etc. all in one portfolio. We currently have about 3-4 different companies covering all aspects of the building - as these are companies that were picked up from 20+ years ago and have kept since. We are now looking to consolidate to make it easier and hopefully cheaper.

Anyone have any good leads or connections? Thanks in advance. 

@Fisher Hudak My two cents would be:

It is too early to purchase a home to rent in the stage of the game that the three of you are in. As stated above, $18k is not much when buying an asset such as a home. Heck, cars cost more than that in a lot of the US nowadays. 

But, my advise would be to alter your plan if you guys are dead set on getting into real estate together. If I were in your crew, I would buy a home with my two other friends, with a 3.5% down FHA mortgage, right next to the college I go to. I would spend the year or two fixing up the place - or learning how to, on our own, correctly, and up to code. Meanwhile, the three of us would save up an emergency fund for the home - about six months of expenses. And during all this time, we would be diving head deep into all the podcasts and books we can find on real estate investing.

Once everything is set and done, we would move out and rent out the home, the three or more bedrooms to three college persons. 

Rinse, and repeat. 

To me, that would be the safest way to do it, but not have to delay getting into the game a few years. 

And a post-script add-on: Learn what due diligence is, and that would be the first skill I would master. But don't let it get you into analysis paralysis. 

@Kunal Mishra I unfortunately am not as versed in Jacksonville as I am in Ocala, but I do have some friends that have moved there years ago. When they did, my wife and I too visited to see if it was somewhere we would want to move to as well. My anecdote is that it definitely was a big city that has seen some better days...

To me it was "Florida's Detroit City" - as in there was evidence of a lot of activity and growth years ago that had seen heavy heavy decline over the years. But from about a decade ago (the 2008 crash I would estimate) until now, a lot of development and flipping is occurring - hence my analogy to Detroit. There are parts of Jacksonville that have seen the hand of new developers, and there are parts that have yet to be lifted from blight. But, that is what you are hearing/seeing is what I like to call turbulence. There are way more "easy money" opportunities to find in Jacksonville than in locations like Tampa/Miami. To compare to Ocala, I would say that Jacksonville is ramping up much faster than Ocala. If you have money to burn now, to do a good BRRR strategy, then I would look into Jacksonville. If you want to go the buy and hold route, then it depends on the two. Although, like anything else, I would get a good realtor/broker on the ground who knows the area well to help you find the good opportunity.

And on a very side tangent - everything I said above goes for commercial as well. When I visited a couple years ago, there were whole city blocks being advertised for sale near the downtown/historic areas. Ripe for a good developer. And I had even read an article that the mayor or city commissioner (can't remember who exactly) was turning to the owner of the football team to help turn the city around.

Jacksonville is geographically located in Florida where they have beaches, great marine/fishing lifestyle, they get three seasons (ish), are only a few hours drive away from Orlando and Atlanta and St Augustine. The football scene is big in the city and most people are rooting for their Jacksonville Jaguars. There are also great affordable new developments blowing up around the west-side? of the city, where it is calmer than the east-side? downtown area. The city boasts a zoo, museums, and great eats. It really is at the delicate sweet spot of still affordable, and up and coming. I would say that Jacksonville in a decade from now will start looking like a mini-Tampa of a decade ago. 

Passive Real Estate Investing had a good podcast on some of the home styles going up in the area. Disclaimer - the guest he brings on sounds a lot like a salesman to his business model, but he does make a lot of good points.

https://www.passiverealestatei...

Hope all this info helped!

@Sendil Thangavelu

Before the pandemic, Ocala was known for being an older horse-country for locals and well-to-do retirees from other states looking for an affordable location to ranch their horses and cattle. 

But now, geography is a huge drawing factor to Ocala. It is about halfway from Atlanta to Miami. One of the largest growing job markets is Logistics and Transportation, as we have seen and felt the weakness of during the pandemic. Large warehouses are going up like crazy, one of which has been leased out to Amazon. Marion county has been doing immense improvements to its corridors to allow for the influx of trucking that is currently here and what they project to increase. This is attractive for truckers because they can still do overtheroad style trucking from Atlanta to Miami, and be back home every night to their families and in their own beds. The city literally sits nestled between a cross of some major highways that get you to Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, Miami, Atlanta, etc in a few hours. 

With that, new home construction is booming. I cannot remember the exact number, but you can reach out to any realtor in the area and ask - I believe Clay Lehman (BiggerPockets user) is a broker in the area who can provide more info. 

In my humble opinion, yes the major growth I see might be speculative, but I do not see Amazon pulling away from the area, and with that is localized job security. Because of the link between Tampa port - Miami port - Orlando hub alone makes Ocala a better search than areas such as Kissimee or Lakeland.