All Forum Posts by: Joey Hamaoui

Hey @Andrew Merewitz, 

I would encourage you to open your LLC in Florida. There is no state income tax here so I don't see why you would need a CPA from Florida specifically. I would think it's more important to have a CPA who understands real estate investors.

I would recommend you reach out to @Daniel Hyman a fellow BP member who models his business around real estate investors. 

For forming your LLC though I'm not sure why you would need a CPA. You could do it yourself if you're trying to save money although I would recommend you hire an attorney. It may cost you a few bucks but they will not just form the LLC but create a strong operating agreement as well. Occasionally the default state laws are not what is most beneficial to you and by creating an operating agreement you can protect your interests a bit better.

I could recommend someone for that as well. Feel free to connect if I can help out in any way. 

Hey @Monique Driver, 

It has been very difficult to find deals that make sense for what you're trying to do in Jacksonville on the market or through wholesalers. 

For this to work realistically I would say you'll need to do a lot of marketing yourself. 

Hi Davin,

32246 is a great zip code. We've done deals in that area as well as 32216 and 32225 right around there. Feel free to connect if you have any specific questions you want answered.

Hey @Emily M., 

Those are all great neighborhoods in Jacksonville with beautiful homes and Riverside has some great multifamily buildings. The returns in Riverside are a bit lower than other areas but the property values are stronger because of the desirability of Riverside. 

It's hard to recommend more neighborhoods without truly understanding what they want. It sounds like they want to rent at first to understand what area they like and then purchase. 

Feel free to reach out if you need some help I can point you in the right direction or refer you to someone who can help if I can't. 

Welcome @Robb Chamberlain,

It's good to see more locals getting involved in real estate investing. Most of the people I work with are out of state investors or foreign investors. I'm happy to see people that live here investing in our town. 

Feel free to reach out if you want to grab a coffee some time. 

Hey @Bernard Royal, 

I'm not sure why people are poo pooing the $50K start. First of all it's great that you saved that much. I imagine they're assuming your plan is to pay cash for the property. If that were the case you could get a property in the rougher areas of Jacksonville with a considerably high return on investment but coupled with some pretty high risks. 

If you're entertaining financing I would say $50K is about how much you need to purchase a decent investment property here for an SFR. That would give you enough money to put a 20-25% down payment for conventional financing. Add closing costs, renovation costs and other associated fees you're looking at around $40-50K for a single family or townhome valued at about $120,000 rented for $1,200. You would purchase around the $90K mark, renovated and place a tenant. After mortgage and expenses you would be cash flowing with a great Cash on Cash ROI. That is what a lot of my clients are doing.

To mitigate the obstacles of investing out of state I would recommend getting a good project manager. With my out of state investors I found quickly that they were struggling to get the returns I was projecting because they couldn't manage the renovation and leasing from a distance well. That's when I had to start doing project management to ensure they were getting those returns. It's really about having a good team. 

If you do invest in CA I would definitely go the condo route but it will be very difficult from what I hear to find a good deal there. 

If you have any questions about Jacksonville feel free to reach out. I'd love to connect with you or anyone else interested in the Jacksonville market. 

Hey @Matt Berklacy, 

I've worked in the Jacksonville market for the past 3 years and ran into each of these problems with my investors in addition to some others. 

I started doing project management and charging a fee for it in addition to my regular agent services because I just couldn't justify working for free for clients after the sale and they kept running into problems trying to manage the projects from abroad. 

Now I typically will go to the property and give an estimate, take photos and create a scope of work in the first 3 days, then we revise it when the inspection report comes back, and then we bring in the contractors. 

We're usually pretty spot on in our pricing estimates during due diligence and we try to finalize the contractor bids the same week. 

The biggest issue I found is that contractors won't give you an accurate bid unless you tell them exactly what you want to do so the Scope of Work is the most important piece of the puzzle. 

I would recommend implementing a scope of work into your process from the get go and I think everything will run smoother from that point. 

Hi @Jeff Moe,

To start out in Jacksonville I would say you want about $50K if you're financing and $120K if you're paying cash. That will give you average returns of 7-11%. That's usually the budgets my clients have including renovations and closing costs/hidden fees. 

If you have any questions about Jacksonville feel free to reach out and I'd be happy to help. 

Hello @Victor Sanchez,

Welcome to BP. I love the house hacking approach and I'm very excited for you to start this journey. Feel free to reach out and I'd be happy to connect and help out in any way. 

@Robb Chamberlain and @Jason Carter I'd be happy to connect with you as well. 

Hey @Alexander Jones, 

welcome to the BP Community! 

If you're interested in the Jacksonville market I'm happy to connect and help out however I can. Jacksonville is a great cash flow market right now. We are seeing some appreciation together with most of the country but I feel that buy and hold investments are the play right now in Jacksonville. I've developed my business around that model here. 

A few things to think about if you do decide to invest out of state:

• How involved in the process do you want to be? If you're not interested in being involved with any of the problems it may make sense for you to invest your money in a fund. If you want a bit more involvement you can go the turn-key route. If you want a bit more you can get a project manager and oversee big picture decisions. If you want more you can hire an agent to purchase the house and get contractors to perform the work under your supervision. If you want a bit more you can find the deal yourself and do the work yourself. In my opinion, having worked with tons of investors, this is the first thing you need to decide. If you're not clear on your role in the process and what your process is you will experience a lot of setbacks. 
• How will you finance your purchase? Conventional financing is great for first time investors but it does have a couple cons to consider. If you go the conventional financing route you will have a much higher acquisition costs. Typically in Jacksonville I'm seeing $2-3K higher on acquisition costs. It will also make your offer less competitive against cash offers that can close quicker without third party approvals. On the other hand conventional financing can earn you a point or two more typically on your cash on cash returns than we're seeing if you purchase cash. 

Anyways feel free to reach out if I can help in any way.