All Forum Posts by: Shawn McCormick

hi @Prithvi Raj Sendi I would be happy to talk thru the market here in Orlando. Cash flow has not been easy to get in the last few years due to the appreciation home saw due to the Pandemic.;

I think you'll find this in any big metro in Florida. Insurance and taxes are a big part of the equation too. I believe one way to help combat that is buying a newer home or even new construction (which most are offering great incentives right now). You'll be able to hedge your capital expenses due to having warranties and all of your systems being new. 

We can dive a little deeper on your needs on a call if you like. 

Best of Luck!

@Gabriel Alfaro I would suggest you check out CFRI, the local chapter of the National REIA. We have over 1200 local members and business members with about 20 meet ups every month. We offer education, networking and benefits to help you get started.

We are actually having one our premier events in October called Junkers to Jewels, a 3 day in person classrom and bus tour to learn about flipping, rehabbing, estimating etc on actual deals with local investors. 

If you want some more information check out the website CFRI dot net.

Best of luck

Quote from @James McGovern:

The purchase price in many jurisdictions determines how the property will be taxed. If a buyer wants lower property taxes, do agents tell buyers of new builds to suck it up and accept it?

You really don't have a choice with the tax rate. When the builder sells it to the end buyer, it's been being taxed as vacant land. The county then comes in an assesses value based on purchase price and adds CDD fees if they apply and any non ad-valorem taxes. We get a trim notice around this time of year where you could argue the case your taxes are too high if you choose. So in effect, yes, you have to deal with it. Unless you quit-claim or buy sub2 and do it correctly, you could avoid the transfer of sale and keep the previous owners rate. 

Builders are offering lots of incentives right now in the form of permanent rate buy downs and closing cost incentives. Some will offer 'sale prices' on inventory homes (homes that are withing 60-90 days of being complete or are complete to get them off of their books). However they won't come off of the advertised price. If another buyer was under contract with them and the deal fell apart, they may discount the home, but not outside of those situations. 

For those examples, I'm speaking of the National and big regional builders like Pulte, Lennar, DR Horton etc. You may have some luck with indy builders, but likely the same result. They want to keep the appraised value as high as they can so the next house they build can sell for a little more each time. 

I have relationships with several builders reps that I get lists of homes with incentives and sometimes builder models that come up for sale or cancelled contracts which gives me a slight advantage over others that are just searching MLS. Most builder only put a few homes in MLS so that the public can find them and come in to the models. The discounted ones are only advertised to agents and on their websites.

Hope this helps. 

@Jon Greves although Windsor Hills is one of my top 5 communities when factoring in all aspects of what other communities nearby offer, the homes are older (2004-2006) and compete with mostly 2015-2024 homes with more modern amenities, finishes and just cleaner overall. You'll have to factor in the age of the roof, mechanicals, furniture, appliances and deferred maintenance and the pool likely needs to be refinished too. 

All that being said, Windsor Hills does have a pretty loyal following, heavily from UK clientele that have been going there for many years. So if the house is head and shoulders above the rest and you can reach potential guests outside of the big platforms, you can still do okay. You should be able to do much better than a long term rental income, but the amount of work and time to put into a STR is much more than most consider.

There are a lot of motivated sellers in our market, so if you intend on purchasing here, make sure to research and don't pull the trigger on just any home. I'm happy to talk thru this in more detail if you like, reach out anytime.

Best of luck!

Try Ed Meiner Law (407) 625-8404

@Amauri Campos Welcome. I'm in Orlando, let me know if I can be of any help. I have a great tax deed contact. I'm also on the board of CFRI, the local chapter of the National REIA. If you ever want to come out and network with other local investors, let me know.

Best of luck!

@Shane O'Neill Let me know about your property in Orlando, I may be able to help you sell it to my investor list. Maybe we could have a call to discuss the details. 

Best of luck in Knoxville, not sure I have investors in that market that could help, but I do know a couple of agents that could provide some perspective. 

@Trent Reeve, yep, I missed that. Still lots of opportunity in the garage.

Thank you @Michael Baum! @Annie Balagot Solterra typically performs pretty well as it has the amenities rival many of the other top communities, but it is further away and the traffic to get to the parks. Its a big community and has a good reputation.

I would have to say that simply to 'up the decor' may not be enough. You'll still find yourself in the same general price point. You would have to seriously level up if you want to get out of the trap that bad operators have set with the pricing wars just to cover their expenses. Right now there are 109 units for sale in there (24 are townhomes), so that tells me there are lots of people are trying to exit and not making money. The 7 bedrooms are going for $650-860,000. Of all the 7 beds for sale, yours is as good as or better than almost all of them, but they are also sitting on the market a long time.

As far as your decor, a good thing is you have laminate or LVP flooring, which is a big plus, the missing spa is a big deal. The upstairs loft is underutilized..its just another living room, you need to do something very different there (adult games, poker, pool table, bar etc perhaps?) i don't see any photos of the garage so guessing it is just a garage. That is the biggest area of opportunity. I've attached some photos of current listings of some garages and lofts and bedrooms. These are not even 'over the top', but things like these will grab peoples attention when scrolling thru listings, you have to give them a reason to stop. Another idea is to do an Instagram wall on the lanai..have a mural and maybe a neon sign (some people name their house) and you can put that in neon and have people tag your house and help them advertise for you. You've got a really good start, looks very clean, good start to theming, but you just need to take it to a level that most others aren't doing and you can justify a higher ADR. 
Hope this helps, best of luck!