All Forum Posts by: Elenis Camargo

Hi Nick, it's great to meet you! My husband and I started out as an out-of-state investor like yourself. When we lived in NYC we purchased our first SFH rental in Jacksonville, FL in Feb 2018. We looked at a few markets before settling on Jackonville. We were both born and raised in Miami, FL so we felt the most comfortable investing in this state, but we never lived or visited Jacksonville. It was always this "forgotten" city in FL compared to Tampa, Orlando and Miami. And that's now what we love about it so much so we moved here in 2020 and opened up a brokerage and property management company.

The fact that it's the last major city in FL that hasn't grown to the same size of the 3 other major cities. So for us that means opportunity. It's a growing city with lots of plans to expand downtown. SFH in the right areas can generate strong rents and have lots of appreciation opportunity from our view. There are plenty of SFHs here, but a limited supply of multi-families. Not saying you can't find multi families, but you have to be actively looking and move fast when you do find one. Obviously, taxes are great here because there is no state income tax. Property taxes have gone up since the Covid RE boom, but no where near Miami, Tampa and Orlando.

Let me know if you have more specific questions. Happy to get on a call to chat further!

- Elenis

Hi Xavier! I’m an investor turned property manager. My company now manages 320+ doors in Jacksonville. I’d love the opportunity to chat and answer any questions. I’ll send you my info now :) 

@Matt Berklacy Hi Matt! You can refer to us. Thirdstone Properties. Our agent is @Michael Braddock and we happily offer referrals :)

@Steve Meyers I personally don’t invest in high crime areas but I manage in crime areas. Personally I have rentals in 32209 and 32208 but the better parts of those zips. We manage over 250 doors have clients that acquire in all areas so we manage all over :)

@Mack Tolbert Congratulations!!

@Rafael Basor Hi Rafael! Right now for 150k if you’re looking for something rent ready it’ll most likely be in a lower income area at this price point. Or if you’re looking for something that needs work then you can find a B area at this price point. I’m happy to chat this week and help if you need. We work with investors to assist them in acquiring rentals here and manage them as well. We manage over 250 doors at the moment :) Happy investing!

@Griffin Goudreau Hi Griffin. I can help you either with anything you need. Not sure if you’re looking for full services or you want to self manage but we do help with tenant placement for those that choose to self manage as well. Happy to chat this week if you’re free :) We manage over 250 doors in Jacksonville and place about 15 new tenants every month.

@Cassandra Alessio My experience as a property manager is that typically condos have less maintenance expenses. The condos I manage are super easy. Tenants pay on time and little to no maintenance issues. The main thing to consider are the HOA fees. When our clients look for investment properties that fall into an HOA we just make sure the HOA fees are low enough where they can still cash flow. A lot of investors stay away from condos but seeing the low maintenance costs as a PM I think it's definitely worth considering. Happy investing!

@Dessiree Jimenez Hi fellow Miamian! Happy to help if you need. We started off investing from out of state too. Left miami in 2014 for NYC, then invested from there in Jacksonville. Moved here in 2020 to start our brokerage and now focus on helping investors acquire in Jax and manage too. We manage over 250 doors. Send me a PM if you want to chat and I’m happy to help with anything you need :) We do manage a lot in the area you’re looking for as well, which many PM’s don’t do. Happy investing!

@Nadir M. Unfortunately it’s a learning lesson and you’ll never make this mistake again. Never let a tenant move in by paying online. Most processors take 1-3 business days to pull funds out of an account so you won’t know for a while if they had the money to begin with. Always ask for security deposit and a full month’s rent in a cashier check or money order. No exceptions! We made plenty of mistakes when we were first learning and self managing but we have learned many hard lessons. Professionally managing is much different. When I started self managing I thought paying a property manager was a waste of money but after all I’ve seen professionally managing the last few years, a property manager is 100% worth the money.

Depending on your state and laws, if she doesn’t come up with the cashiers check in the next 24 hours I’d post a notice and be super firm with eviction proceedings. Giving any flexibility here will just be a waste of time and money. Hire a lawyer for the eviction. The slightest mistake doing it yourself could cost you to lose and it isn’t worth it in my opinion.

Best of luck!!!