Hello fellow investors,
I’m a rookie flipper looking for comments and advice on the Miami market.
I presently live in Miami and have the mindset that its quite risky and difficult to make fast cash here. There is lots of competition and very few credit worthy buyers.
I believe there are good deals for deep pocket investors who can afford to hold properties for a long time, but not small time flippers like me.
In Boston where I grew up I’ve rehabbed and flipped two very profitable properties the past 6 months. I believe I should stick to that market to make some fast money as there are many qualified buyers for rehabs, or wholesaling. The traveling back and forth gets a to be a bit tiring and not to mention expensive.
I would like to hear opinions from all, especially investors in Miami or vets who can comment on the Miami market.
More people are leaving Florida then coming in now. Miami is like the arm pit of Florida. It is 90% lower class, take out South Beach and the Grove and you got crap, poor people, high crime and nasty homes. Yet people do want to buy in some areas. Stay away from eastern areas like Miami Shores, I move more into SW miami or west Dade like Opa Locka (yep drug money but families). Maybe downtown area where Orange Bowl is being torn down for new Marlins Stadium, maybe good but learn Spanish if you want to deal. Get a Dominican realtor that looks black since they can speak Spanish and will be able to handle all your clients.
Fort Lauderdale is an easier market however. Again steer clear of 200K and up areas, the flips are hard and you will wait. Look into homes priced in the 90-150K range like Sunrise, Cresthaven (Pompano area), Collier City (Pompano), Deerfield west of US1 and east of I95, Melrose Park in Ft Lauderdale, Lauderdale Manor in Ft Lauderdale and few others. Near Swap shop is good too and lauderhill and lauderdale lakes (jamaican and haiti buyers)
You should find homes in these areas needing rehab in the 50-80K and sell in the 90-150K range. You can make a 20K spread on these if you know how to do things.
Also Deerfield and Lauderhill has many condo’s for buy and hold now priced under 30K which rent for $700-850 month avg and are 2/2. Light rehab under 5K if appliances needed.
Various properties near beaches are available for sale in Miami, at very affordable prices. Nowadays, many peoples usually buy the property at low price and sell these properties at 10% higher rate to get the profit from it.
I absolutely agree with you that Miami is 90% ghetto, crime ridden, and lower class; that’s what you get when the average pay is $10 per hr … Thank god that’s not my case.
I know a few of those locations very well, but was wary of Opa Loca. I wanted to pursue deals closer to downtown, the beach, coral gables or grove, but it appears that the low hanging fruits may be with properties in the 50-80K range.
I’m checking out the auctions and short sale opportunities to see if I can land some deals.
On a final note: I’m definitely at an advantage since I happen to be of Dominican origin and speak fluent Spanish LOL. Just not black, but I’m sure I can convince the Cubans to buy from me
One thing to take into account is to not only look at the price of a house in relation to the prices in the area but also the direction of house prices in the area are moving. If houses are selling for $100k and you can find one for $80k but the prices a years ago were $120k then the direction is down and your $80k house could end up being market priced in a few months. As several people on this site regularly say look for DEEP discounts. Not just good deals but great deals.
The only racism I am seeing is from the black Spanish speaking clients who refuse to purchase form anyone who isn’t black and Spanish speaking (OK, the common language thing isn’t racism. You can’t do business if you can not communicate.)
… Thank god that’s not my case.