All Forum Posts by: Domanie Granger

Got to agree with all the comments here. I live in Tampa and was originally looking at doing BRRRR deals down here, but was severely disabused of the idea after looking at what I could buy for 100k in just about every primary and secondary markets. You can still find houses for around the 100k mark, but they are in areas that are pretty much war zones. South St Petes, and everything North of Ybor. If you're willing to invest in areas that are probably C- to D neighborhoods, go for it. I would look at Tampa's comprehensive plan and read up on where its planning on funneling its money. They just approved a chunk of money to expand the Riverwalk up to the University, which will definitely help improve the neighborhoods around it, but I can tell you right now those areas are scary and probably will be for the next few years. Just my 2 cents after researching the market for the last year or so.

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Hey BP, looking at buying my first multi-family in Cincinnati. Found this place and ran the numbers through the BP BRRR calculator. I had to guess on some of the numbers, but I think its still a fairly solid deal. The rents are below market currently and only 1 apt has been renovated. I'm still a rookie, so any insight that anyone has, would be appreciated. 

If California wasn't insane politically, I would move back in a heart beat. I lived all over that state, and loved every part of it. However, the politics and taxes ensure that I'll probably not be moving back any time soon. I have to go with Tucson or Colorado Springs. 

I'm a new investor and have been looking into purchasing my first property in Cincinnati. I'm originally from there, but I'll admit its been a few years since I've been back and I'm not entirely familiar with a lot of the initiatives that the city has enacted. I've been doing my research on BP and various other sites, and I was hoping to invest in the Uptown areas, but just from an initial look at Zillow, it seems to me that the area looks quite flooded with rental properties. I've been hesitating to include those areas in my search, as I just wasn't sure I would be able to find tenants, based off of the glut of inventory. Anyone have any negative or position investing experiences in the Uptown areas that could give me some insight?

Thanks for the help, 

Domanie

Not as much I was expecting. The owner prior to me had done some pretty extensive updating, such as foundation repair and updating the electrical and plumbing. The roof has held up surprisingly well, and even after a couple of hurricane seasons, I haven't had to do any significant repairs to it. I believe its 6 years old and is just regular asphalt shingles. 

My major repairs so far as been:

1: Insulation. Most of the older homes don't have any sort of insulation. And if they do, it seems to be the stuff from the 50s/60s. I ended up having spray foam done in my attic and injection foam into my walls. I really saw quite reduction in the usage of my A/C after that. Well worth the cost. 

2. Window replacement: This house had old aluminum windows from the 50s/60s, which were single pane and next to worthless. I ended up replacing every one of them with the Miami-Dade impact rated windows. Again, huge savings on energy cost and makes me feel a lot safer during major storms. 

3. Crawl space encapsulation: To help keep the pests away, I had my entire bottom of my house wrapped with rodent proof mesh. This also counted as wrapping my crawl space and helped with the insurance problem. The insurance companies primarily seem to be concerned about fires, so showing them that if there wasn't any way for a mouse to get in my house, there probably wasn't much chance of a fire helped me find a insurance company. 

The major issue I actually encountered with this house wasn't repairs related, but actually insurance. Most of the insurance companies in Florida want a enclosed or wrapped crawl space for the older homes, which my did not have. And with wood frames homes, that's actually terrible for the wood. My last bullet addressed how I solved that issue. 

There are several 100 year plus homes down in my neighborhood. Some of been well maintained and updated. Others not so much. One of things to remember, is that Tampa is actually pretty protected. I haven't had any major wind damage thanks to the other houses and the old oak trees and even though I'm in a flood zone, I haven't had any issues and even the brick lined streets drain pretty fast. 

If you can find a house that has had some of the major updating done, you will save yourself a lot of time and money. If there is one thing this house has taught me, its that everything takes longer then expected and you will encounter weird and unusual building techniques. Almost nothing is standard and there will have been very interesting repair decisions made. Check around old Port Tampa City. That's where all the Victorians were built to support the port and railroad. 

Hope this helps

My house in Tampa, about a mile from the water, is a wood frame home and was built in 1890. Obviously some updating has been done, and I've have to do some additional maintenance on the wood frame, (tenting for termites every few years) but its still standing 130 years later. 

I'm going to jump into this great conversation as well. I currently live in Tampa and have been wanting to invest in the Tampa/St Pete's area. However, it has been next to impossible to find something that's not a shack going for less then 250k. (Even the hovels are going for over 250k at times) At those prices, the numbers just don't add up. The ROI just isn't there. I've been running the numbers for a while now and unless I want to buy in a warzone (South St Petes, East Tampa, Sulphur Springs areas) or do a full gut renovation, its very difficult to find anything. I've started to expand my searches into more of the secondary/tertiary markets, such as Bradenton and some of the smaller towns around Lakeland. Anyone have some additional recommendations for secondary/tertiary markets?

Hello my fellow Bigger Pockets people. I've been lurking in the shadows for a while now, trying to absorb as much info as possible before I ventured into writing forum posts. However, as I have obviously been violating a major bigger pocket tenant (network, network, network) I figured I better start working on, you guessed it, networking. So here begins my first foray. Currently, I'm slaving away at the rat race in Tampa, FL. I just bought a house, which is my primarily residence and doing a live in flip. (Clearly I lost my mind when I thought that was a good idea.) I'm actively searching for my first real investment property right now. I'm mainly focusing on the secondary and tertiary markets around Tampa and St. Petes as the primary market is a bit insane right now.