All Forum Posts by: Nicole Marshall

I am in the Melbourne area (about an hour SE of Orlando), on one of the barrier islands. My HOI was $2400 yearly when I bought the house in 2016 and increased ~$100/year. Until last year. My rate went to $4500/year. After asking around... mostly everyone had their insurance hiked more than $1000, and those were the lucky ones. So many insurance companies have dropped coverage across the state and people are struggling to find new insurance. As @Shawn McCormick mentioned, the insurance companies are raising prices primarily to cover litigation costs (homeowners fighting the insurance companies over lack of or insufficient payment on claims), but I'm sure hurricanes are a contributing factor (although the hurricane deductible is already high).

@Christian Ryan Was this an off-market deal? The market in Brevard is ridiculously inflated right now (as I'm sure a lot of markets are). But yes, I think it's a great area to invest in. So many big (and small) companies aerospace/defense companies are continuously expanding and hiring more people.

Best of luck, I'd love to see how it turns out!

@Nathan Faucett You would have to research the local city/town codes. They will usually have a definition section, in which they define the term "family". In my city, it's maximum 4 unrelated people.

You could look into splitting the house between long-term room rentals and short-term rentals. I would think since the STR isn't technically living there (not getting mail), then that could be a way around it. For instance, if you had 5 bedrooms and one room had a separate entrance, you could STR that room and LTR the other 4. But again, you would need to verify with your local city about that.

You also want to check your local code to see how many unrelated people are legally allowed to live in a single-family residence. My town has a limit of 4 unrelated people, so I'd only be legally allowed to rent out 3 bedrooms (if I also lived in the house). I think you can work around it if you airbnb the other rooms, but again, check your local codes. It would be absolutely awful to buy a 7 bedroom house only to find out you can't rent 3 of them.

Also make sure there is enough spots to park in! Renting out 7 bedrooms, you'd need at LEAST 7 parking spaces. You don't want to assume street parking is free-for-all, especially in a residential area. You'll likely have issues with your neighbors if you take up all the street parking.

Keep in mind that most lenders won't count the potential roommate rent as income, so you'll likely be relying solely on your current income to qualify for a mortgage.

Good luck!

Wow, that's a good find! What neighboorhood is this in?

I wouldn't consider myself seasoned by any means, but my current live-in flip taught me SO much (estimating costs and what to DIY vs hire out). The best advice is to start small so you learn with less risk. Then slowly build up to higher end flips.

@Jake Sink Google your city's municode (an online database for their codes/ordinances). The number of unrelated people allowed will generally be under the definition of family. In my city, it's a maximum 4 unrelated people.

I will always advocate for buying something with value-add opportunity. Try to find a SFH in an area that would be desirable to rent by the room (some areas just aren't). A house with good bones that just needs cosmetic updates. Usually these are older homes owned by an older single person - their spouse recently passed and they need to downsize into something smaller with less maintenance. The older couples tend to keep up the house maintenance but don't cosmetically update anything unless absolutely necessary. At least, that's what I've found in my area. Check the MLS for current listings and then cross-reference those addresses with county tax records to see when the house was last sold.

You'd be better off having a separate lease for each person. It's pretty easy to find separate renters to rent by the room. Advertise on craigslist, zillow, trulia, etc. Separate leases ensures that other roommates are not penalized if one person decides not to pay or is just a nuisance. You can just not renew that one person's lease and find a new roommate. If everyone is on the same lease, it makes that more difficult.

Are you used to newer construction and a more "country club" lifestyle? It'll be difficult to find a multi-family home in Brevard county that will meet (or even come close to) that standard of housing and make a good house-hack. Right now, there is very low inventory of "income" properties on the MLS and most of them are in Cocoa (not to knock Cocoa, but I wouldn't want to house-hack there).

Your best bet would be to find something off-market. Check the county tax records for properties that aren't technically duplex/triplex/quadplex, but something that has a separate building out back or mother-in-law suite. https://www.bcpao.us/PropertyS...

If you click "More search options" you can go down to the "Property Use Codes" field and then click "Help" on the right side. This will bring up the list of property use codes (i.e. duplex, triplex, etc), so you can search by that and the zip code you're interested in. I tend to look for properties that haven't been sold in the last 20 years or so, but you can certainly search by your own criteria. Once you get a list of properties, you can send mailers out to the person/address on the "Mail to address" in the records.

Hope that helps! And good luck!