All Forum Posts by: Joseph Beilke

Living in Palm Coast and being a Realtor in this area I can tell you first hand we have no 4 unit homes.   Duplex property have been in the area awhile.  There has been a recent up swing in duplex builds and some even are dual deeds.  Which is common in most of the county.  But I sold the first one in Palm Coast last month to two brothers,  each bought a side.  As for life style and living, Palm Coast is slow moving community in growth mainly because for so many years the city leaders were very unwilling to promote growth.  They ran a lot of good business out when they inquired about moving here. But that seem to change a little in the past 2 years.  I won't say its exploding in job growth, but people are moving here because our taxes are low, crime is low, we have a sweet little beach community called Flagler Beach.  We are 30 Minutes to St Augustine or Daytona Beach.  If  you need  a SAM's club or a Best Buy for the lates Apple product you're going to have to travel 30 mins.  Most people I think are okay with that because other then our price of gas its pretty  much the cheapest place to live on the east cost of FL.   We got homes from the 160K to the Millions. Something for everyone.  Just no 4 units!

I think I may have confused a few people so I will clarify, I will hire a GC who already has contacts will all the needed subs. This being my first build I understand that my labor price will be higher and hopefully if this project is successful my labor cost will go down by hiring the same subs again and increase my ROI. The GC is my neighbor and owns a handful of business and has reached out to me as a mentor in this venture. Secondly, I completely understand the LLC and getting a loan from a bank will be difficult. That is why my question is should I take the Money from my own Mutual funds and pay the taxes on it or seek hard money lenders? Thoughts on maybe going 50/50 Personal funds and Hard money?

So I have been on BP reading many books and the forums, and listing to many many Pod Cast for close to a year. In my town of Palm Coast, FL it seems that there really is nothing in the ROI of 5% or better. The big money guy over bid on auction home just to increase there volume and little ole me can't see making this kinda investment when my money sitting in mutual funds have been preforming very well. So I decided to look another direction, I'm looking to buy a lot and build from the ground up. Being a Real Estate Agent I would list it for sale and keep my own commission. I feel like if price and built right I could get a 12-15% on the first house and hopefully build a second and so one with better pricing from subs to increase my returns to 20-25% over the next 3-5 years.

I have GC and he has all the subs and architect to modify the plans I have chosen to meet the local reqiurements , so that pretty much puts me getting ready to pull the trigger on a lot, after I ref my own house. So my questions today are how would you buy the lot, should I buy it in an LLC? Would you cash out your mutual funds to pay for the build or look for hard money? Let start with these and if anyone has gone this route any advice is greatly appreciated.

Steve,

My wife and I are Realtors and Newbie investors in the Palm Coast area,  we search from St. Augustine to Port Orange. Would love to connect with you guys if you have time to compare note.  

Hello Bigger Pockets world

My name is Joe Beilke and I am Firefighter, Realtor, and Newbie Investor.  I join Bigger pocket a few months back when my wife and I decided to no longer allow the Salary bribe control our lives.  We started the jump a few years back by getting our real estate licenses and working toward paying off debt and start saving money to invest.  It's been 3 years now and we are ready to really focus on investing in Buy & Hold and Flipping.  We have been looking a duplexes and the numbers just don't seem to come together well.  So who in the area is having more luck than us and wouldn't mind a few free lunches and dinners on us to pick you brains.  I also have a big pickup and I can move stuff!  Anyway looking forward to meeting people from St Augustine, Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach, Port Orange and New Smyrna Beach.  Maybe we can get together a have some networking group drinks!