All Forum Posts by: Lindsay Diven

I would suggest the Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach area. You could get a single family house (no HOA fees or restrictions) easily for your budget. Port Everglades is very close and is one of the busiest cruise ports in the country. Orlando is less than an hour away. We live in Orlando and vacation to Cape Canaveral. We just purchased our first investment property there. I was surprised at how affordable it was.

What part of Florida? Is it part of a planned community? If so, what are the HOA fees and is it still developer run or turned over to the residents?

Some other items to consider are wind and flood insurance. Some neighborhoods are not insurable through private companies and you have to buy through the State Run Citizens Insurance (it could be double-triple the cost). Depending on your strategy (flip or buy/hold) this should factor into the price and ROI.

We built our primary residence with a national builder and some items to watch for:

• Design/finish elements - their prices were marked up 100s of percents. Will you be required to use their finishes at their prices? The main offenders were cabinets and flooring.
• Inspections - We were building local, so we were able to visit the jobsite every week. We found several instances of construction not to the plans or our design choices and just installed correctly. This is due to lack of supervision from the builder to their subcontractors. Will they have someone onsite to supervise the subcontractors? Will you be allowed an independent inspection before closing?

Good luck!

I agree with @Dan Oliver for College Park, Winter Park and Delaney Park. You will need to do digging since most have been gobbled up the past two years. 

Another place to look is at the Florida School Grades. You can find those neighborhoods that have A and B schools and target them. I would start with Elementary schools since those zones are typically smaller and you can target even better.

The grades are online here: http://schoolgrades.fldoe.org/

Orlando schools are in Orange County, Longwood Schools are in Seminole County, and Deltona is in Volusia County.

I would also suggest St. Cloud. Traditionally it has been very rural and not very appealing, but with the growth of Medical City and Lake Nona it is developing into a nice suburb. There is a lot of new construction going on around older neighborhoods. There are also two hospitals and a few other major employment centers opening in the next 6-12 months. The older homes will appeal to the workers that cannot afford new construction and need housing fast. There is not a lot of rental inventory there yet. Those schools are in Osceola County. 

 I live in Lake Nona so feel free to reach out if you need anyone to go check something out! Good luck.

@Davon Lowery - we just got the survey this week and am having our civil engineers (my dayjob) take a look. From the history so far, there hasn't been any buildings on that site, but that doesn't mean there are not hookups. It will be city water, not well. The seller only subdivided the property with the County to prep. He isn't doing any other site work. My husband actually prefers this. He works in commercial construction and is pretty particular of which subcontractors to use. I am leaving that side to him. I am working on financing and marketing.

@Manolo D. - good point. I think I am visiting our local bank tomorrow. Thanks!

That is what I thought, @Don Harris . Do you know if private investors will finance construction?

@Manolo D. - I am not sure I understand your question. We will not be selling the property but holding to rent out. Our goal is to build in about 5 months. Which seems aggressive, but my husband does commercial construction for his day job and assures we can build the duplex (total 1900 SF) in that timeframe. 

Another newbie from Orlando here! Nice to virtually meet you! Great advice from the others above.

We are securing our first investment deal in Cape Canaveral, FL. We are purchasing the land through seller financing. Part of the deal for the land, is that we don't have to pay the seller any mortgage payments for 5 months while we are constructing the building.

We will be building a duplex on the property and are going through the survey and engineering now to present to the city the week after we close on the land. This way we can start construction immediately. The goal would be to get tenants in there on or before our first mortgage payments are due to the land seller.

My husband is a GC and will be managing the build. He does commercial construction for his day job, but will be able to use that expertise to build the units.

We were planning to pay cash for the construction, but now I am thinking that maybe we should get some funding for construction (part or all) so we can use cash as a reserve and/or other investments.

We do not plan on living in the units. What are some other ways in which we can fund the construction? Should I just go to our local bank?

We are in the midst of securing our very first land deal just steps from Cape Canaveral beach. We are planning to build a duplex on the site. We know that we can both sides rent monthly in the winter to the snowbirds and hopefully one side for the majority of the summer. The other side we will use for our family. The main driver for demand is the beach and Port Canaveral (one of the biggest cruise ports on the East Coast). The port is adding yet another terminal next year and developing the land around into more retail, restaurants, and entertainment including an outdoor amphitheater for concerts. We would definitely be interested in a vacation rental/short term rental forum.

Congrats, @Jon Huber! This sounds like a fantastic opportunity.

Thank you for the instruction on the mention function, @Raymond B.. Can you tell I am new to the site?

Have a great week.