All Forum Posts by: Matt Leber

@Tyler Battaglia you’ll need homeowners insurance to get a loan from the bank. They won’t give you a mortgage on a property that is uninsured and could burn down tomorrow. Work with your insurance agent to get a low premium that has the coverage you need right around the same time you do your inspections. If you back out due to inspections, it’s no big deal bc you won’t pay until closing. It just helps the process to have it lined up for your loan underwriter.

@Patrick Menefee I use the 1% rule to evaluate properties in Central Florida and Jacksonville. Our two single family properties in Brevard County meet the 1% rule and provide solid cash flow. Our two duplexes in Jacksonville were 1.6% when we purchased them and now almost 1.8% after our rent increases. Our primary home will meet 1% if we move out and rent it. I find it’s usually a good rule of thumb to narrow the deal funnel in my state. There are exceptions of course, but it generally helps to limit the number of deals I am analyzing so the options aren’t overwhelming.

@John Hewitt yes, you should pick properties and run the numbers on them now *as if* you were ready to buy.

Think about what kinds of properties you want to invest in. Set some criteria. Pick a market. Run the numbers on couple of properties each week. This shouldn’t be too much of a time commitment and will get you more comfortable with your market(s) of choice. It will allow you to see what types of properties work for you and what neighborhoods within your market are better performing than others. Once you get to know your market over time through practice, you’ll be ready to jump right in when the right time comes.

@Jeremy Rusch I was potentially in a position to buy while I was in undergrad. If I could have snagged a property close to campus and rented rooms out to my buddies, that would have been great. Rent by the room can be a huge money maker, provided its the right location close to campus in Gainesville. Plus we were pretty low in the market cycle when I was there.

Aside from that, I wish I was reading books, attending meetups, on BP learning in general. You're going in the right direction. I was simply focusing on my studies. Which is fine career wise, but maybe a missed REI opportunity for me.

If I were in your shoes, I would start getting to know the market *now* near your campus or where you are going to be living after graduation. Start looking at properties and analyzing them, as if you were ready to buy today. Define your criteria and get an agent to set you up with automatic alerts. Drive some neighborhoods and check up on rent/purchase price ratios in different areas where you are targeting. The more practice you have running numbers on deals, the more ready you’ll be to jump in when the time comes. Get so good at running numbers that you can work it out in your head or on a napkin, so to say.

Shout out from East Orlando! Also investing in Brevard and Duval Counties!

@Jeremy Rusch welcome! Awesome that you're getting started learning so early. I tell everyone I wish I would've been learning REI more while I was at University of Florida. While I was there, I remember looking at my landlord's portfolio of rentals on his website and wanting to get into it too. Good luck, feel free to reach out if you have any questions. My wife and I are a few years out of school and have done a few deals. Time is on your side, that's for sure.

@Adam Leonti I second Roberts advice. Keep life affordable. Right now, you are able to live simply because you have not yet reached the point where many fall into lifestyle inflation. Keep your living affordable as your earnings increase. If you are able to do that, then you will begin accumulating money to invest. If you are going to be buying a property to live in, keep the long term goal in mind. Buy something that you are happy to live in, in a decent area, that will cash flow when (if) you move out. An affordable lifestyle will give you a nice advantage, and an easier start, to investing.

@Sara Taslitt we use Zelle on one single family and we have another one that has our bank account # and he goes to his bank and tells them to deposit the money into our account. Both have worked well so far.

Our multifamilies are collected by the online portal through our property manager.

@Jason Ma not sure how to give a blanket answer to that question. It all depends on how much leverage is being used, what type and condition the properties are in, and what submarket of greater Orlando you are looking in, etc. You should run the analysis on a case by case basis taking it all into account.

@Nick Talvy my wife and I invest in Jacksonville and use a PM because we live in Orlando. Our PM does have “in house” contractors that we have worked with on a few of our units getting them rent ready. For the most part, they have been reasonably priced, especially considering we are paying to not have to do some of the labor ourselves. The PM also had preferred roofing contractors that were reasonably priced (although not the cheapest). Not that you want the cheapest quote anyway.

We have been mostly happy, although our units are very basic and the work being done was not major rehab. If you are considering using a PM’s in house contractors, I would still do your due diligence and check out their reviews and get outside quotes, too. Good luck starting out!