All Forum Posts by: Josh Green

Quote from @Raymond J. Rodrigues:

@Josh Green is this in your neck of the woods or can you refer them to anyone that you know? 

Yeah I cover Bradenton ✌️@crystal DM me and we can jump on an intro call next week to discuss 👍

Quote from @Dustin Pavlik:

Hello,

I'm an investor located in NWPA. I currently own 50 LTR units in my local area. I am interested in getting a STR in the St. Pete area, which would also be a vacation property for my family. I need some help finding an investor friendly lender in the area who could help me through the process. Also, a realtor who is familiar with dealing with STR investors and the specific area would be helpful. Thanks in advance!

Hey Dustin!

As an agent I've helped at least 50 people buy a successful STR the past 2 years - so all with todays prices, todays competition and todays rates. I've also bought 3 myself the past 18 months. I have all 3 phases for clients out of state: helping you locate and buy the correct buy box for success, a world class designer and furnishing team to create a top listing, and I also co-host property for clients at a discounted rate to ensure you're getting as much cash flow as possible. Feel free to DM me if you'd like to do a consult call and we can see how we can help and if it'd be a good fit 👍

@Raymond J. Rodrigues is an excellent STR lending broker I’ve done a lot of deals with so definitely reach out to him for that!

Quote from @Mario Niccolini:

Hey BiggerPockets community!

I’m analyzing a potential deal in Florida, but there’s a catch—it’s in an AE (High-Risk) flood zone. Hurricane Milton recently caused widespread flooding, yet this house remained unaffected. Still, I’m weighing the risks.

🔹 How much does AE zoning hurt resale value?
🔹 Does it make renting harder?
🔹 Have you reduced flood insurance costs (Elevation Cert, mitigation, etc.)?
🔹 Would you still do the deal?

Is this a hidden opportunity or a deal-breaker? Would you buy it? Appreciate any insights! 🚀

1) you have the best data now making this decision easier than ever in the past!  Hurricane Helene was the biggest flooding event in Tampa bay in over 100yrs just last fall.  So if the house did NOT flood at all, I would feel much much more confident in buying.  I also just bought an investment property in AE recently actually!
2) next thing is to see WHY it is in a flood zone and how much of the property is in the flood zone. For example, my property has a pond bordering it and only a small corner of my lot is even called a flood zone.  This is much better than if the house itself is part of the flood zone.
3) get insurance quotes! In my case, flood insurance was under $1800/yr and for the numbers made complete sense for me as a good deal with that added cost. 4) Flood zone AE does not directly impact resale value, but can reduce the number of buyers considering your property which can lead to slower sale through time and potentially lower prices.  To combat this: market the property well, be transparent, secure a great flood insurance rate so a buyer can know the cost and be able to transfer the policy. 5) no flood zone AE does nothing to rental rates 6) if the insurance rate seems high then get a flood cert and maybe it will decrease. Otherwise reducing the premium is not simple but some engineering firms specialize in flood zone updating.  Feel free to dm me and I have a contact for that. 7) if all the above checks out and the deal meets your criteria then yes.  If it did flood though, I personally would steer clear. It will flood again, it’s a matter of when not IF.  

Quote from @Jonathan Blanco:

Is it worth seeking lenders with $0 lender fees (such as origination, processing and underwriting fees) or do they just get that money by increasing rates and charging higher points?

I would definitely reach out to @Raymond J. Rodrigues he’s done a ton of loans for me and clients and he’s always priced better and is super helpful the whole way through a loan

Quote from @Kris L.:

So I have a house I am going to be selling in a couple weeks in the Clearwater Florida area, but I’m confused about what the agents are saying. I have it narrowed down to two agents, one has more general experience in the area and are part of a large organization. The other is a smaller operation which does a lot of business in the specific neighborhood the house is in. The first agent is absolutely certain the house will sell in the high 400’s. The other is equally certain it will sell around 550. This is a pretty critical difference. The one with the higher number has 1 active and 3 pending listings pretty similar to my property. These range low 500s to the mid 600s. there just aren’t many sold properties in the neighborhood in the last 3 months and even out to 6 months is limited. of course the sale of hurricane damaged houses also confuses the issue (my house had no such damage but is only about 4 blocks from houses that did).

Is the higher price agent inflating to get the listing or is the lower price agent just not keyed in well enough in the specific neighborhood?

 Hey saw your other post on this earlier and wanted to repeat for others to see as well:

It's great you are recognizing this. I would really take a close look at their CMAs. What are the comps they're showing you? Should be within the last 6 months sold ideally within 1 mile. SOLD comps vs ACTIVE is very important. I see a ton of sellers and listing agents overpricing homes and end up with big "price drops" back to reality. Only wasted time and many prospective buyers in the mean time. I am selling a house right now that all the comps ACTIVE were showing much higher than the sold. We listed strategically and were under contract in 2 weeks in the slowest part of the year (December) whereas all the other similar homes in the neighborhood have been sitting for months and still sitting on the market. Part of this is due to marketing and pre-marketing of the home - an agent is your marketer. A good sign of an agent is how much business they are doing on the purchase and sale side. If they can't even market themselves to be a top agent, then they don't know how to market your home either. A good example of this is when an agent is selling you on their brokerage brand and saying things like:

1) Our brokerage has "X" agents and "X" employees all working for you! (HA!)

2) Our brand is recognized by "X" agency for your type of home! (LOL, likely a paid co-branding snippet and doesn't do anything for you)

3) We run "X" in ads to attract buyers! (you need to differentiate when a Mark Spain type company is running radio ads to attract business for themselves from it actually helping you out)

4) Our TEAM or BROKERAGE has sold "X" homes! (You're hiring the agent; why are they sharing stats that aren't theirs?)

Feel free to dm me if you want a 3rd opinion on your home. I've sold over 80 homes personally in the last 30 months and I'm usually within $5k of the appraisal report when I run my CMA for clients. I'd say nearly 95% of the time I'm within that margin.

Quote from @Kris L.:

So I have a house I am going to be selling in a couple weeks, but I’m confused about what the agents are saying.  I have it narrowed down to two agents, one has more general experience in the area and are part of a large organization.  The other is a smaller operation which does a lot of business in the specific neighborhood the house is in.  The first agent is absolutely certain the house will sell in the high 400’s.  The other is equally certain it will sell around 550.  This is a pretty critical difference.  The one with the higher number has 1 active and 3 pending listings pretty similar to my property.  These range low 500s to the mid 600s.  there just aren’t many sold properties in the neighborhood in the last 3 months and even out to 6 months is limited.  of course the sale of hurricane damaged houses also confuses the issue (my house had no such damage but is only about 4 blocks from houses that did). 

Is the higher price agent inflating to get the listing or is the lower price agent just not keyed in well enough in the specific neighborhood?

 It's great you are recognizing this.  I would really take a close look at their CMAs.  What are the comps they're showing you?  Should be within the last 6 months sold ideally within 1 mile.  SOLD comps vs ACTIVE is very important.  I see a ton of sellers and listing agents overpricing homes and end up with big "price drops" back to reality.  Only wasted time and many prospective buyers in the mean time.  I am selling a house right now that all the comps ACTIVE were showing much higher than the sold.  We listed strategically and were under contract in 2 weeks in the slowest part of the year (December) whereas all the other similar homes in the neighborhood have been sitting for months and still sitting on the market.  Part of this is due to marketing and pre-marketing of the home - an agent is your marketer.  A good sign of an agent is how much business they are doing on the purchase and sale side.  If they can't even market themselves to be a top agent, then they don't know how to market your home either.  A good example of this is when an agent is selling you on their brokerage brand and saying things like:

1) Our brokerage has "X" agents and "X" employees all working for you! (HA!)

2) Our brand is recognized by "X" agency for your type of home! (LOL, likely a paid co-branding snippet and doesn't do anything for you)

3) We run "X" in ads to attract buyers! (you need to differentiate when a Mark Spain type company is running radio ads to attract business for themselves from it actually helping you out)

4) Our TEAM or BROKERAGE has sold "X" homes!  (You're hiring the agent; why are they sharing stats that aren't theirs?)

Feel free to dm me if you want a 3rd opinion on your home. I've sold over 80 homes personally in the last 30 months and I'm usually within $5k of the appraisal report when I run my CMA for clients. I'd say nearly 95% of the time I'm within that margin.

Quote from @Trevor McCormick:

Hi All, looking for some advise or mentoring on purchasing a short term rental property in Kissimmee Florida.

1)Is it still a good investment with the current prices?

2) how to get started and what property management company to choose?

The price you pay for being part of the Disney World spoon-feed of guests is that the barrier to entry for profitable STRs (ones that leverage close to or max LTV) is very, very high.

The benefits of Kissimmee for a newbie is analyzing property potential is very easy - you will have a ton of carbon-copy comps to look at and the online estimators like Airdna can actually be pretty accurate.  The con?  The majority of investments is a game of "race to the bottom" and "who holds the cheaper debt" card. 

To have a successful STR I HIGHLY recommend listening to this episode of a podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-market/id161508...

Once you listen to this, and any highly involved STR operator will agree, you will find a lot of the fundamentals are lacking in Kissimmee or you have to have deep pockets to hit those.

I won't spoil the episode, but if you listen to it (and anyone out there that does) feel free to DM me afterward and I'd be happy to talk details tailored to your situation on if you're on the right path or maybe I can help.

Quote from @Fernando Sosa:

We have two rentals and looking to buy 2 or 4 more but I want to see if we can do DSCR loans.

Looking for recommendations in the orlando area thanks 

@Raymond J. Rodrigues is your guy!  He's GOATED when it comes to competitive loan terms, communication and knowledge!

Quote from @Tyler Magee:

Hello everyone, I’m looking to get into real estate investing. I live in Tampa Florida. I am a husband and a father to 3 children. I work 40 hours a week usually from 4pm -12am. I’m 37 and I’m wanting to do real estate full time eventually(if it takes 5-10 years, that’s fine). 

So my question is, if you were in my shoes, where would you start if you had $150 cash with good credit?

I love the idea of flipping houses and I love finding good deals. I’ve been bouncing back and forth between markets like Chattanooga with higher appreciation, and markets like Birmingham with more cash flow. Im truly open to any suggestions and any markets (I chose those because of proximity to Florida).

Thank you in advance for any advice. 

I would recommend an STR for the best tax benefits and cash flow no doubt. Appreciation as well.  With $150k here you’re just a little tight on budget but can make it happen if you self-manage and do your own furnishing and design.  I personally did a couple last year that I self furnished and self manage while working full time.  Takes a lot of work don’t get me wrong but it was so worth it.  I used to be an engineer before going full time in real estate a few years ago and those two STRs net me more than my salary was! Not to mention they wrote of over $300k worth of taxes for me utilizing a cost segregation study.

 
If you're looking to buy and hold and get all 3 benefits that's the way to go. If you just want to build your cash reserves then flipping is the way but just be careful - that too takes a lot of work and research to make sure you don't lose money. There's not a ton of margin to play with these days when you're financing everything on a flip on hard money loans. Just for example, if you buy a single family home to flip at $300k and your rehab budget is $70k (which isn't a ton - very easy to hit that amount) your ARV is definitely going to need to be above $500k to make any profit/make it worth doing at all. That spread is hard to come by as many wholesalers grossly overestimate the ARV and undershoot the rehab. But you should be doing the number crunching yourself and not rely on someone else especially the person selling you the property. ✌️ (and don't forget to calculate short term capital gains tax - that's why I prefer passive income over flipping)

Quote from @Raymond J. Rodrigues:

@Josh Green any pointers for @Heather Loyal?

Thanks for the shout! I only currently take on higher end, larger pool homes for management personally.

@heather PM and I have someone I can recommend for something like that!