All Forum Posts by: Matt Nico

@Matt Ruttenberg

I buy antique furniture from yard sales and sand them down and do custom paint with new hardware to match whatever color scheme I want. People love it and it really stands out.

Also try building a coffee bar. We get 5 star reviews from that alone.

-Matt

Dan,

I work with 2 insurance brokers. 1 is out of state but does national policies. The other is located in Kissimmee and services all of FL. If you'd like their info I can dig it up for you.

-Matt

Hey Philip,

I don't want to put you down in anyway...this is more of a "reality check" kind of post.....

If you are looking for an off market "deal" in the Orlando region when you are brand new to the area, it will never happen. Those smoking hot deals will be sucked up by realtors and investors like myself already established in the market long before you can find them.

If I were you I would pivot and find a really good realtor in a couple different areas of the exact market you want to invest in in the Orlando market and see what comes your way. There are still pretty good houses on the MLS that pop up fairly frequently for rent by the room and airbnb strategies. The only difference is that they are gone in 3 days so your realtor has to move extremely fast.

Hope this post motivates you to take action instead of deflating you. I know you wrote this a while ago,

Matt

Johnathan,

If I were you I would ask for slightly more than "a real estate agent in Kissimmee". That's like asking for a piece of meat to someone behind the deli counter. There are 800 million of them...haha.

Ask what you are looking for exactly in an agent and what you expect of them....and then more specifically what you are looking for in terms of an investment(s). This will make your life easier.

Happy Housing

-Matt

I am (for now) my own property manager, general contractor, maintenance man, realtor, ext. You name it, I do it.

80% projection is still incredibly good and actually the sweet spot in terms of occupancy vs. nightly rate usually. I only have 1 airbnb at the moment so I can kind of play with the rates to make sure it gets booked up. Its actually bad to have 100% occupancy....This usually means the price is too low.

Thomas,

Its been at 100% the whole summer at a pretty good nightly rate. I think we had 1 random Wednesday open all summer since we put it online in May.

 Thomas, I know a handful of people who invest in Reunion. You kind of missed the runup there as the savvy investors got in years ago there. I do see a few properties in the community still that have potential. If I were you, I would look in the communities surrounding it. All of my properties are peppered around reunion resort but not in it. They are half the price for more house. 

Happy Housing,

Matt

 Kevin, 

The best way to analyze is to do it yourself. I created a spreadsheet and identified 6 houses in the community where I wanted to buy that would be similar to mine once bought and renovated. Then for 90 days I tracked each ones price and booking rate/vacancy by lookin at them on Airbnb. If you do that for long enough, you can see what kind of prices the other homes command. From there I just did an average occupancy and price and that should give you a good stepping off point.

Good luck,

Matt

Jake,

If you look up central florida by county, you will see the City of Orlando and Orange county are not favorable for STR's. The counties north of Disney tend to be for residents and not so much tourists. If you go south and find Disney on a map, draw a sort of moon shaped crescent below Disney and around the east/west. That is the best location to own STR's.

For Specific communities, try the 4-Corners Region, areas like Story Lake in Kissimmee, Championsgate communities like Providence and Reunion, or the smaller communities around it. I invest in the Championsgate area and its going extremely well. Business is booming.

Good luck,

Matt

 Alice,

How do the properties perform there? better than Championsgate? My STR is a bit south of storey lake but that 192 corridor scares the crap out of me sometimes...haha.

-Matt