All Forum Posts by: Elenis Camargo

Hey Jacob! I was in exactly the same boat as you. I'm from South Florida but live in Brooklyn NY as of 2 years ago. My husband and I wanted to invest but NY is crazy expensive, like Cali. We decided to invest in North Florida. Luckily I knew a friend there that's a realtor now and she went and viewed properties for us, sent us pictures/videos, scoped out the area and we purchased one of the ones she saw. Of course we did other research on the area and analysis on the deal. We never saw the house in person. We just finished doing a rehab on it because the tenant abandoned it and left it a mess. I'll be writing a post on this soon! I met someone on BP that's a contractor and he did the rehab, again all sight unseen. Before North Florida, we were going to invest in our old college town and we just looked up realtors and found one we liked. I am positive you can do the same! Maybe just look for properties yourself and call the listing agent yourself. The listing agent can represent both parties and maybe you like one of them enough to be your realtor for future properties. I don't recommend flying to Texas every time. It'll cost you way more money that you could be putting into a deal instead. I was super tempted to fly to Florida when my tenant abandoned but it was better to spend those few hundred bucks on the rehab instead.

If you're serious about out of state investing, I highly recommend this book. It's a BP book but I got it on Amazon. The author lives in Cali and did all his flips and rehab/hold investments out of state without ever stepping foot in the properties: https://www.biggerpockets.com/store/long-distance-...

I hope this help and don't hesitate to ask questions! I'm pretty new in real estate myself but have been managing the property from out of state and even went through an eviction and rehab 5 months in so I've learned a lot these past few months  :)

Hi Jay! Welcome  :)  Are you wanting to wholesale in Brooksville area or all of Florida?

@Jack Bobeck Pretty crazy increases in the past few months!! I'm also investing in Jax, although now I live in Brooklyn NY. I'm originally from Florida. I have one single family rental purchased at the beginning of this year and looking to get another one now. So many of the listings are overpriced! Have you purchased foreclosures before? What's the best way of finding them? I'm wanting to get into foreclosures but a little lost there. 

@Mark Fries You have a good point. I wasn't sure how to handle it. They aren't causing issues now but I was worried about a hurricane. I see you're in Jax as well. Have you dealt with this before?

@Melanie Hartmann I’m so surprised at some of the negative comments on here. I read a little about your situation and it makes sense to me. Yeah it would’ve been great if you started wholesaling while working but what everyone isn’t considering is that once you get home from work you have to cook, clean and take care of your kids. By the time they‘re in bed then you have to start looking for deals. You’d be exhausted at that hour. I don’t have kids yet but I come home from work to do the other chores then sit and look for deals for my rental property portfolio. I wish I could be doing this all day! Imagine how much more effective you’ll be working on wholesaling for 8 hours versus maybe 1 or 2 at night when you’re tired. I applaud you and hope it works out! If it doesn’t, well you can get another job like you said or change strategies. But at least you’re going for it!! Please keep me posted and add me to your buyers list :) feel free to add me as a connection and PM me. Rooting for you!!

@Soomin Kim Of course! I bought the property with a tenant in it, so it was easy to just reach out to her and tell her she would be paying through a different system now. We use Cozy.co. It's the best one I found from doing my research and it's free for the landlord as well as for the tenant as long as they pay with a debit card, not a credit card. Whenever she needed repairs I would either ask people I knew in the area for a reference or I would Google a company and ask for quotes. She had two issues: the AC was blowing hot air and a pipe busted in the back yard. For the AC I asked my realtor and she gave me a recommendation. For the pipe I used the company that has emptied the septic tank before I bought the property. All companies let you set up and pay over the phone so I don't have to ever see them. The tenant let them into the property.

Now in July she abandoned the property. At first she just didn't pay so I used the attorney that closed on our house for the eviction. But when she emailed about abandoning then we were able to cancel the eviction. I happened to meet a contractor on BiggerPockets that cleaned and fixed up the property for us. Then I emailed a bunch of Property Managers and asked only about their listing services. I ended up choosing one that was recommended by my realtor. He went in and took pictures as well as edited them and listed the property for me. He is showing the property and will handle the credit and background checks of the tenant. They usually charge first month's rent as a fee then I will continue to manage myself. The managing part is not hard at all. I think we went through the worst possible scenario 5 months in. If you're willing to deal with missed payments and just being on top of tenants, then it's not so hard. If you screen the tenant well then you should have less issues than I had. When there is a maintenance issue, Google is your best friend or get recommendations. Oh and for the lawn I also Googled it and use yourgreenpal.com which is a site where lawn companies will bid for your lawn then you have a schedule that you can manage online. They mow the lawn and send you pics for approval.

We bought the property already knowing we wanted to self manage from long distance. Shortly after I read this book and highly recommend it. I got it from Amazon. The author lives in California where it's also super expensive and has done all his flips and rehab/hold investments out of state and sight unseen!

https://www.biggerpockets.com/store/long-distance-...

I hope this was helpful. I'd love to learn more about what you're wanting to do. I visited Union City last year and really liked it. I live in Crown Heights Brooklyn. Feel free to PM me  :)

@Jim Adrian @Josh Caldwell Thanks for your inputs! I don’t have a PM, I self manage, but I can try sending them a letter first. I’ll research if trimming in my property line is allowed in Florida. I never even thought the insurance might not cover this! Now I definitely have to take some action.

Hi everyone! I'm looking for advice here. I live in New York and invest in Jacksonville, Florida. I have a single family property there. My property does not have any trees on it but the surrounding neighbors have huge trees that go over my house and over the yard. I am a nature lover, I do NOT want the trees cut down at all, but what do I do in this situation? Can I ask the neighbors if they will trim some of the branches? How do I ask them if I live 1,000 miles away and am never in the area? Is this a normal thing to ask? I don't even know if I'm allowed to trim them myself since they are not my trees. Hurricane season is approaching and if those branches go flying, it would definitely damage my old roof. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!! 

You can see the trees in the listing here: Zillow listing of property

@David Hart It’s always nerve wracking till you do your first deal. If you’re wanting to do a live in flip, have you looked into 203k loans? Depending whether you own a home not or not, you could put a very low down payment for a duplex or triplex and the 203k gives you extra for fixing it up. Then you can live in two of the units of a triplex let’s say and rent the third unit out to tenants. Just an idea without knowing your situation. As for stories, my husband and I purchased our first single family rental in February of this year in Florida while living in NY. We manage it long distance and just rehabbed it because the tenant abandoned. Once you get your feet wet, You’ll be able to handle anything!!

@Justin Knighten You can definitely try getting a HELOC on your rental property. PenFed does them. I’m applying for one with them soon. Another idea: do you have a family member that’s wanting to do real estate that can go on the mortgage with you? That way the DTI is lower. You’d have to share some profits but if that’s your last option and they just get a piece of the pie for sharing their name on the mortgage with you, then that’s a win win for both parties.