All Forum Posts by: Matt Leber

@Terry Wheeland I have a some multifamily investments in Jacksonville and some single family investments in Melbourne/Cocoa (about an hour south of Palm Coast). Let me know if I can help with anything!

@Ryan Lam personally I think you will have a much easier time finding $100-200 per month cash flow in the outskirts of Greater Orlando (Debary, Deland, Deltona, Sanford) than you will in Winter Park. I think Winter Park is more of an appreciation play, especially if you are looking at homes pushing close to $300k. Appreciation investing is not really my strategy, so my preference would lean toward the higher cash flow suburbs of Greater Orlando. There are plenty of good neighborhoods in those 4 suburban areas and urban sprawl is only going to continue developing along the I4 corridor, which should lead to growth and appreciation opportunities over time. I still think you can find something below $175k over there if you are selective and act quickly that will rent out very nicely.

I live in SE Orlando, but invest in Brevard County, which is about an hour away from Orlando. I do so because the prices are lower than Orlando (Winter Park), and even a bit lower than Deltona, Debary, Deland, etc. The rents are not much lower. Property taxes are lower in Brevard than in Orange County. All these factors lead to better cash flow. Growth opportunities are there, with tech companies moving facilities and jobs to the Space Coast.

@Ryan Lam what is your goal (cash flow, appreciation, just to park money?). I would say $1600-$1700/mo rent for Winter Park is reasonable conservative estimate as long as your not in the most upscale neighborhoods. But it looks as if you would be losing cash on this deal each month if cash flow is your goal. I would look further north to Deland, Deltona, Debary areas if I were you. You could probably buy a 3/2 house up there for $150-175k and rent for $1400 plus and not have to pour in as much money to the deal.

@Misael Carlos Vera I would check with your local housing authority office to clarify. Sometimes they can give you the rent amount you can charge by number of bedrooms and zip code with utilities already factored out.

For example (with made up numbers), the Brevard County FL office where I have section 8 rentals takes the fair market rent (FMR) of $1000, subtracts utilities allowance (UA) $200 and they post a spreadsheet saying for zip code XXXXX 2 bedroom house I can rent it for $800 if I'm requiring the tenant to pay utilities. They call the $800 calculated amount the area "rental amount". Rental amount would be different from FMR (it would be FMR-UA). They let me charge the max rental amount for any zip and sometimes it's still higher than I can get on the open market non section 8.

@Jill F. Yes all of that is consistent with what I needed to provide on the landlord end. I had also served a 3 day notice and a lease termination (although I hadn’t acted on it yet) which my tenant later told me helped move her application up in priority. Both tenant and I were calling weekly (sometimes multiple times) to try to get a timeline for the funds to be disbursed. Once the caseworker told me their application was approved, it took about 2 weeks for me to get a call from the courthouse telling me they were releasing the check. The check took about another 20 days to show up in my mailbox from the phone call. In the end, I think the key was their application approval combined with the 3 day notice/termination docs and my tenant being the “squeaky wheel.” If I had not served the notices I’m guessing I would still be in backlog.

Wanted to post this to potentially help out any fellow Brevard County Florida landlords who have tenants facing hardship due to the virus and are having trouble paying their rent. I have tenants in Melbourne who were able to receive 3 months of rent assistance through government CARES funds that went direct to landlord to pay their past due rent balance.

Tenants must be able to prove the hardship is linked to coronavirus, prove at least 25 percent of their income was lost, and meet certain financial thresholds. I have no idea if the assistance program is still going or if it is out of funds, but I would imagine we might see a replenishment of assistance funds with the new stimulus or future stimulus. Definitely worth looking into if you have tenants who are behind.

We were fortunate to have tenants who handled the whole application and were on the ball with following up with their caseworker often. Definitely helped speed the process along. In my opinion, Government intervention worked as intended in this particular circumstance by helping a family who could demonstrate hardship.

Link to the application is below:

https://www.brevardfl.gov/docs/default-source/housing-human-services-documents/coronavirus-assistance/coronavirus-assistance-program-application.pdf?sfvrsn=675acd7d_6

@Spencer Breeden if a section 8 tenant trashes your place it works the same as if a non-sec 8 tenant trashes your place. You have their deposit but not much else recourse bc they don’t have money to go after. If nervous about a tenant trashing a rental, buy a place that is only going to cost you 5-10k tops to rehab the inside back to rent ready. There are good and bad tenants on sec 8 just like there are good and bad tenants non sec 8.

@Spencer Breeden Agree, that is why I won’t buy houses like this that don’t have enough margin built in to turn over to a PM at some point if needed. Also, part of the reason I am going section 8 route for mostly guaranteed payment. Its not the best neighborhood but after being around the property for a few days it doesn’t worry me as much as some areas or Orlando, Jacksonville or even Titusville do. There are plenty of folks who grew up in local neighborhoods similar to this that will appreciate a well taken care of, clean place to stay. A lot of it will come down to my own screening.

@Chris Witham check out West Melbourne 32904, Palm Bay west of I-95, Port St John Cocoa 32927 and Rockledge south of Pluckbaum rd. You might have to be patient but those are pretty good neighborhoods that occasionally pop a good property in the $120-160k range that can get you pretty close or over the 1% rule. But you’ll have to move quick. Look out for 2 bedroom houses that might have a “hidden bedroom” or bonus room, too. Sometimes you can make it work as an extra bedroom.

Honestly, I don’t see homes around $100k that aren’t in C neighborhoods or need a lot of TLC anymore. Unless you’re buying cash or willing to put in a lot of work. I’m OK with a C or C- neighborhood if the numbers are good enough to work in a PM if I decide to at some point.

@Chris Witham what price range are you looking? Maybe I can help give you some ideas on local areas that we’ve been successful finding deals in.