Hi, I can't speak for Florida. However I work in Northern Alabama and we just accepted 19 contracts for new construction builds last week, 12 of those were out of state investors. I can only speak for the products I know personally. These deals are attractive to investors for the following reasons :
Contracts to build 3-4 bedrooms are available under $300k
Rental Comps from $1600-$2200 / month
Warranties:
10 Year structural
2 years electrical, plumbing and HVAC
5 year warranty on the hot water heater
Tight market with low inventory. Huntsville was the 4th most popular move to city in the country last year. Employers such as Facebook, Boeing, Toyota, NASA, Redstone Aresenal... are all hiring/ recruiting. This is a huge factor in our market. If buying in Orlando, make sure to know the areas top employers and check to see if they are hiring.
If going the route of new construction I advise you pick an experienced builder who is building a community, not just one house randomly. Secondly, try to be one of the first builds in that new community. As the community moves into the next phase of construction, the comps surrounding the first property increase. A year from now when the construction on your build contract is complete and the house is move in ready the exact same house is signing for thousands of dollars more just a couple lots over, in the same community. You kind of get a jump start on equity investing.
Our builder (Hyde-Homes) has already established communities in the area but I will say we are not the only ones. DR Horton, Adams Homes and Breland all are continuously building more right along side of us. This market is so strong I have no problem sharing our competition with you.
I worked for 3 years in Boston as a rental agent and have seen way too many unique problems with older homes. Being a landlord, having to know the ins and outs of 5 different properties, all built and maintained in different ways... it's too much work. You can manage 10 brand new homes that are practically identical, which makes any repairs or changes easy. For example, if you wanted to replace the replace the carpet between tenants, you can buy the carpet in bulk at a discount because now all your properties match. Not sure of the paint color for a drywall repair, no need to repaint the whole room because we registered all the colors used with Sherwin Williams. Further more, all our builds come with keyless front entry with changeable door codes. Which means you can allow showings and maintenance from out of state. Just change the code between jobs and new tenants.
Like I said you don't have to build Hyde-Homes, we are just one option of many. But I hope this help give a perspective on our investors.
