All Forum Posts by: Matt Leber

@Todd Groom thanks but the HUD search engine does not have data down to the zip code level for the counties I am looking for. Brevard County yes, Orange County no.

@Chris Roche I'm aware of the HUD website FMRs. The HUD website fair market rents does not list by zip code for Orlando. Also, I noticed FMRs for Brevard County on the HUD website are higher than the local housing authority's guidelines. I'm looking to see if the Orlando (or Orange County) local office has something they post by zip code.

Does anyone know where I can find a list of the section 8 rental payment standards by number of bedrooms and zip code for Orlando Florida (Orange County)? I have properties in Brevard County and Jacksonville and have easily been able to locate the rent guideline charts by bedrooms and zip on their websites, but finding the chart for the greater Orlando area is proving more difficult. I am trying to determine how much the housing authority will pay for voucher holders in my home county. Thanks!

@Corey Slaughter nope, I have a ‘no frills’ 4/1 1,134 sq feet that pays ~$1400/month on section 8. The govt section 8 program doesn’t care about the sq footage size, only that it has 4 legitimate bedrooms with closets, windows, doors.

We also have another 3/2 under 1,200 sq feet in the portfolio. Tenants are great and have been with us going on 5 years.

@Karl Sperl first would like to say GO GATORS! Noticed your profile pic and couldn’t resist. We thought about doing separate accounts for capex and deposits as you mentioned above, but ended up opting for just one ‘rental’ account that everything for all our real estate goes in and out of. This keeps it simple without opening too many accounts. And we have a business credit card that we use for all the real estate expenses to keep track of those transactions. Payment for the CC comes out of our ‘rental’ bank account. I’m sure others will have good advice, but this system has worked well for us.

@Cari Childers have you looked into getting a HELOC on the property? You can probably get one pretty easily for about 80k assuming 209k valuation. Then you wouldn't need to refi the property and pull out a set amount. You could be flexible with how much you use for your next investment down payment, aka use just a little bit of the HELOC + your savings, or use mostly HELOC and keep your savings, or half and half. Depends on what you're comfortable with. We have a HELOC at a fixed rate with local bank McCoy federal CU, because we liked the fixed rate option better than the adjustable rate options most banks offer.

We’ve also had a good experience financing an investment property with Mid Florida CU. Nice quick closing, pretty low closing costs and low rate offerings.

@Karl B. That’s unfortunate that you’ve had a rough experience with your local housing authority. Our experience in Central Florida has been pleasant thus far. I thought they would take forever to process paperwork just due to govt process but instead they expedited all our paperwork, inspections, and even April payment due to the virus.

The zip code I bought our sec 8 house in is one of those areas where the housing authority pays more than I think I could’ve gotten otherwise. I thought it was a stretch to rent the 4/1 1100 sq foot rental in C- neighborhood at $1200/month. But the authority will pay me up to $1467 for that same house. They don’t care that its small sq footage or only has 1 bathroom. They only care that the house has 4 legal bedrooms as I advertised it. Guess I found a little niche.

@Craig Hormes under personal name. We don’t have rentals in Orlando, we just live here. We invest in Brevard County and Duval County. The market seems steady in terms of real estate prices (so far). Collecting rent has been a little harder due to the virus but we’re getting by OK.

@Craig Hormes section 8 is great in these economic conditions. Your risk of not collecting rents is reduced because the government is paying you directly based on the Tenant’s income. If they lose their job for more than 30 days, the govt pays a larger proportion of the rent. If they have a job, the govt still sends you a majority of the rent. We just placed our first section 8 tenant in March right before the virus ramped up and I couldn’t be more thankful for the program.

@Peter Korty you’re doing it correctly. You also may want to consider would be the actual age of the component. I do it for each property I individually analyze and usually come in around $150-250 range. Maybe a bit higher for multifamily bc you generally have more roof area and double, triple, quadruple the components.

But this also begs the question: Does this property that you’re going to rent for $600 actually have a dishwasher? Most affordable housing options I’ve come across do not have a ‘luxury’ appliance like a dishwasher.