I try to make informative responses to this forum.  Look in my history and you will never see any fluff.  PropVest just tried to call me out that CWAGNER is me?  Pretty insulting to say the least as I have spent hours working with him online to give good information and providing him with more due diligence then anyone he has inquired with.  I wan…[Read more]

Hey Judith:  Are you still in town??  Should stop in the office for some coffee sometime.   Tough to find public utilities in Lehigh.  98% of the town is well/septic.  Areas with city water/sewer is parts of Leonard, Gunnery, Lee, St. Rd. 82…but those are mostly commercial roads.. I've seen about 150 duplexes and only found 4 that have wate…[Read more]

PropertInvestor:  I do not do loans, I am simply quoting a lender that has offered it to International Investors.  The application fee is $500 based off of their quote.White Goodman:  I am not challenging your statement but if I may play devil's advocate:  That seems too cheap for me to believe, but it won't be the first time I am wrong about quo…[Read more]

I have a call with the broker in charge of this loan.  Unfortunately I tried to go direct to the bank for this loan but the mortgage broker has some type of exclusive loan product with the bank so we have to use the broker, which isn't all bad…except for some fees.  In first glance at the Good Faith Estimate there are $5,075 in origination f…[Read more]

Medical, Retail, Sports, Tourism…THere is a thriving medical industry.  New out-patient VA hospital just opened, etc…The Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox each bring in about $100 million in revenue every year.  That is about to increase with the new Red Sox stadium.  $103 million stadium is currently under construction.  Maybe this link hel…[Read more]

Saw this video a long time ago.  It does certainly portray Lehigh in a negative light.  However this video was shot in 2007 I believe which is when the crash was at its worse.  Builders walked away from jobs, defaults were at high levels and crime was up.  Crime was predominantly theft.  Empty homes = vulnerabiilty.  Those that didn't have jobs…[Read more]

I guess I'll start here.. Hi Ben.  Thought I'd share some thoughts since I am getting a bunch of e-mails from the forum here about our area.  We are a firm out of SW Florida and know the micro markets well.  Without getting into too much detail Ben is right.  It is important to find a good property manager.  They are the most important ingr…[Read more]

We are in Southwest Florida and work the Ft. Myers and Tampa areas.  Unemployment is dropping, rental rates have stabilized and we have seen some improvement in rental rates for the first time in 5 years.  I agree with Jeff's assessment of condos.  Newer buildings are struggling right now because of the HOA.  Investors saturated the condo mar…[Read more]

I have a lot of experience with Section 8.  I have properties in New Jersey that I have Section 8 tenants and my Florida properties I have rented to Section 8.  In my opinion, the stygma of Section 8 being problematic has been alleviated a bit.  Maybe its the economy.  But Section 8 is basically a privelege.  Most Section 8 tenants know that if t…[Read more]

Update on South Tampa area:Our firm purchased a property located at 1821 E. Seward Ave. S in Tampa about 3 weeks ago.  We bought for in the mid $50k range but needed about $15k worth of rehab.  Zillow LinkOur goal was to achieve a renter for $1,150 to $1,250 per month post-rehab.  We just executed a lease with the higher of the two at $1250.  Aft…[Read more]

Hi Stuart,Hope you got my e-mail response to your e-mail I received last night.  You are dead on correct about Tampa so your due diligence has been accurate.  What I did not mention in my e-mail was that pricepoints of 200-300k seem high unless you are going high-end condo.  At that price, it is highly unlikely your rent would cover your debt se…[Read more]

The location has a lot to do with the quality of tenant.  I don't care where you are at, landlords are exposed to risky tenants everywhere.  If you are in an area dominated by Section 8 tenants, you will see higher rents, but higher exposure to tenant issues.But the market rental rates are what they are.  It's all about demand.  For instance, in…[Read more]

There is no question that the U.S may be a bargain for the next couple of years.  Nationally this could be true.  There are pockets that look more interesting than others.  Today's fundamentals go back to cash flow.  If you can put yourself in a decent area and collect monthly cash flow, don't speculate on appreciation.  Not at least for 3 year…[Read more]

Hi Mark,You are correct.  In the markets I have seen all up and down the east coast, it could be a matter of being on one side of the tracks.  The difference is the rating.  I give neighborhoods an A, B, C, and D rating with D being mostly comprised of subsidized living (Section .  Actually, on the topic of Section 8, you can do C Class nei…[Read more]

We service a German group that buys and probably half of them buy "site unseen", but not until we provide a full video of the investment and if rehab is needed, a before and after video helps.  We are also starting to shoot videos as we drive to show the neighborhood, surroundings, distances, etc.  Makes them more comfortable.  Perhaps this can be…[Read more]

Hi Stewart,As far as the suburbs of Tampa, I would look into Brandon.  I have purchased some homes there.  They are older, but with a few dollars can be fixed up really nice.  Rents are high since downtown Tampa is only a 15 minute drive.  All of the growth factors that you mention such as jobs, population forecasts, etc are all leading ind…[Read more]

Judith,I am open anytime.  I am in World Plaza Commercial Complex behind the Val Ward Cadillac dealership.  A couple of real estate investments that are popular around here are the following:Lehigh Acres duplexes:  I own 4 of them (2 on Eisenhower / George Ave S, and Gilbert) and the cash flow would pretty much cover all my monthly bills if I di…[Read more]

@ Stewartwm:  My Tampa office is off of Dale Mabry.  My personal investments are in affordable housing in and around the Tampa area.  I look at the Tampa area such as Tampa and Brandon.  I just care about being near industry and jobs, low vacancy rates, and non-warzones, which Tampa doesn't really have anyway.  I just bought a house in Tampa on t…[Read more]

We have an office in Ft. Myers and one in Tampa.  We also have an office in New Jersey.  It is no coincidence that domestic and international investors are buying a lot of properties in SW Florida, especially Tampa.  A lot our our NJ investors are focusing their time in Florida.  The Tampa area is very big and even though you can get a nice hou…[Read more]

I'd like to see some of this 20-25% ROI real estate.