Looking to invest in Florida specifically on Merritt Island that another fellow investor presented to us. We’re looking for any investors who have invested in this area that could give some feedback on the real estate in that area in terms of property taxes, insurance, appreciation, buyer/ seller’s market, and your take on investing in that area. Thanks!
What are your investment strategies? Are you looking to buy and hold? Fixers? Flips? Etc.
Makes a difference in how and where you should buy. In general, right now isn’t a good time to be buying and holding SFR’s in many parts of FL. The holding costs make it all but impossible to have any kind of cash flow. And presently the market is in a downward spiral.
The Florida market is a MESS now. In parts of Florida there are 7 YEARS OF INVENTORY!!!
All real estate is local so I don’t want to lump all of Florida together, but the thing you need to ask yourself is What am I doing with the property? If you retiring and want to buy to keep for the long haul you sure have PLENTY to chose from.
The previous post was right on the money, property taxes and INSURANCE have sky rocketed in Florida, that has put a HUGE damper on things down there. A friend of mine has parents down there, they sold a home in Rhode Island where they were paying $4000/year in property taxes. 10 years ago in Florida they bought a new single family home and were paying $1000/year and $250/year for insurance. TODAY that same house costs them $5500/year for property taxes and $1200/year for insurance. They’re moving back to RI as soon as they sell it. (been on the market for 10 months along with 25 other houses in their neighborhood)
Thanks everyone for your quick responses. Your replies are solidifying and confirming some of the information that we dug up about the FL RE market which our fellow investor who brought the deal failed to mention. We just keep hearing about the sky rocket appreciation, but that was a few years ago from what we researched. The deal was to buy a condo conversion and have a 2 year exit strategy. Right now, our main criteria is POSITIVE CASHFLOW and in FL it is flowing the wrong way. We thought about holding for killer appreciation in 2 years, but it looks more like a dud. Thanks again… I guess we’ll get a vacation at Cocoa beach from our business trip. :biggrin
Hehe. . .turn lemons into lemonade. Cocoa Beach ain’t a bad place to hang.
But Pete is right, and I can’t overstate the sad state of affairs of FL real estate at present. Particularly the condo market. If you’re seeking cash flow, you’re not going to find it in FL at this time. I hear North Dakota has some inexpensive duplexes. . . :cool