All Forum Posts by: Andy Pillinger

Peter, i currently live in seattle and have about 500K equity in the house i currently live in(minus taxes realtor fees and moving expenses etc). a bit of history...I have 2 duplexes in buffalo one in lehigh and one in england. I'm a Brit but been in the states for the last 10 years. Currently an aerospace engineer and im a 5 handicap at golf!. Im thinking of selling up(put house on market in april) and heading down to live in SW florida for how long im not sure. the current plan is to spend the majority of the cash on C class and one on A which i will live in while im there. Basically i have not fully worked out what i;m exactly going to do. i would be great to keep in contact with you both if i do end up heading to that area.
Peter could you send me a sample of the dupelxes in cape coral. I'm not in a position right now place offers. also if you could send me one canal property that with a little tlc could be rented out as a seasonal that would be great. thanks
Kamil,
I really appreciate you taking the time to send my some numbers(so each property cost on average $271 per month for maintance and repair). So these septic tanks are not on duplexes younger than 2007 or are you saying they just have a few years to go before needing to be replaced?. i do have more questions but i will stop here!. Thanks again to both of you.

Hi Guys, Thanks for you response. Peter is it still an option to buy REO that are under market and also i did hear that NE was probably the least desirable area?. Would you cash flow more with a boat access property, the same or less if i was to purchase a 3 or 4 bed sfr?. which area are rent the quickest. Is being close to fort myers going to sway prospective tenants?

Kamil I already own a property in Lehigh but i bought it quite a while ago and things have changed alot down there since. I think i know of the duplexes you speak of. I suppose the good thing about those is  your less likely to have the a/c stolen along with the water equipment!?. What type of tenants do you get in those types of properties and how much are you spending on maintenance rough;y per year?. I had one rough year when renting mine as the water equipment was stolen twice. now i have it installed it all in the garage so it is far less likely to be stolen. I bought in a more remote part of lehigh so you live and learn i suppose althouygh i know it goes on a lot !. However all in all its been an excellent investment.   

PS just some info on the good and bad experiences of owning in the duplexes would be great to hear about...

thanks again in advance to both of for your time. 

PS Peter if you have any opinions about duplexes it would be great to have your thought too. 

Andy

Hello all,

In the next few months i am coming into some cash and have been trailing through towns and cities in FL to try and work out which locations would provide the best cashflowing properties in areas that have low crime and half decent schools. I only want to buy newer properties say 2003 and newer. one of the places i have been looking at is Cape Coral estero etc. It would be nice to hear where people are investing currently. For instance should i be looking at larger cities like Tampa or Fort Lauderdale.

Any advise would be appreciated to point in the right direction. Many thanks and go Hawks!

Andy

Hi Simon, i live in Kirkland WA! and have a 4 bed sfr is leigh acres. One word of caution is that if you buy a house towards the back of Lehigh acres like i did without many other houses around its likely your water equipment will be stolen which cost over 2K to replace. it has happened to me twice so i ended up paying for it to be installed in the garage. you can also get a cage installed around the equipment but its still can be stolen so im told.

Other than that its been a good source of income. i bought 4 years ago so its turned into a good buy and hold now. 

i would be interested in more sfr in that area too.  

Hi Brandon, what a great site this is for eager Real Estate investors. Once again thanks to all who have taken the time to respond.

After spending just 4 or 5 hours reading posts about an array of different topics there is no doubt the help and advise found here is second to none.

Jeff my goal is to make a living out of it and not have to work for a big corporation one day!. The penny only dropped a few days ago that i might be in a position to become alot more involved and serious about real estate investing.

I would like to mainly focus on cash flow but save a portion of the cash to try one short sale or foreclosure that needs 20-30K spent on it and then sell it on. However i am fully aware i have no experience in renovating and flipping at this point anyway.

Unfortunately i have to spend far more time thinking about my goals before i can answer some of your questions for you and myself.

Thank you for taking the time to respond , it was much appreciated. That goes for everyone who has answered my thread so far.

Fantastic, I certainly will Dawn, many thanks.

Hi Everyone,

This site looks fantastic and I've spent a lot of time already trying to suck up all the advise and information available that seems endless!:), its just great to have stumbled across it!.

I live in Seattle and currently have 2 duplex in buffalo and one single family in Lehigh Acres FL. One is paid off fully and the others have small mortgages of 40 and 60K.

As mentioned in the title I am very interested in how, on what and where experienced property investors would invest $400,000 if they were to go on a spending spree today?!. I am more interested in good positive cash flow but if you had $400K would that change the strategy?

Many thanks in advance for any advise.

Regards,

Andy Pillinger