INVESTORS IN RESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES

Investment Strategies

Broadly, following are categories of real estate investment and related strategies:

  1. Land Development
  2. Residential real estate of new homes building and selling.
  3. Commercial real estate development, selling, leasing and commercial properties management.
  4. Multifamily residential properties development, selling ownerships as condominiums, leasing as apartments, and management.
  5. Sale and purchase of any type of existing real estate.

There are tons of literature and strategies in the market on how to own and invest in real estate for profit. Depending on how big or small an investor you happen to be, it is important and significant to learn that your cash and effort converted to real estate that does not return profit as you the investor thought it would, or the circumstances changed beyond your control, it could be an aggravating experience. If you hear someone boasting that he/she got a great deal, well; someone else lost in the deal.

For investing in residential real estate; your insight, hunch, intuition feelings and success stories of your friends may influence you, but crunching numbers and having a real estate professional with his/her team to assist you will be big help.  

You may be one of the following types of an investor in residential real estate:

  • You are a rich foreigner who want to park money in the United States, either as safe haven, or investment for returns.
  • You are a rich American who is always on look out of how to reduce taxes. Real estate provides non-cash depreciation write offs. For them, holding real estate is safe havens.
  • You are a savvy rich investor who puts money with Real Estate Investment Trust cropping up to gamble in buying-holding-cashflows-and-selling when time is ripe. You get your share of gains.
  • You have inherited real estate and you have no choice but to make profitable use of portfolio.
  • You are a mild investor with good steady income who aspires to make profits out of real estate investments by parking spare money in residential investment properties as rental properties.
  • You are mild homeowner who aspires to retire comfortably, raise standard of living for the family and leave income generating residential assets in estate.

You may be one of the following types of an investor in commercial and business ventures:

  • You have interest in multiple residential units’ properties, like apartments buildings, condo units, hotels, motels, etc.
  • You have interest in non-residential commercial properties.
  • You have interest to develop land and sell for improvements on the land.

How we assist you

We can help the aspiring investors in figuring out risk averse strategies in valuation of the current and potential of income producing properties over time. Contact us today!

Wealth Growth Model Using Home Equity

This investment model assumes that you are young, have reasonably progressive job which will improve over time, have bought a home for yourself, and you aspire to build investment wealth in rental residential properties.

The premises of this investment model are that:

  • You can payoff loan over your home property in 15 years by increasing monthly payments to reduce payoff period.
  • At end of first 15 years period, you have fully paid off home loan, and it becomes your financial asset to open a line of credit with your bank by placing your home as collateral.
  • You have established good relations with your bank disclosing your intent to the bank that you plan to invest in rental residential properties and will place the rental properties with the bank as collateral with prior bank approval to purchase and finance.
  • You will open business account in the same bank where rental checks will be deposited, and mortgage payments will be paid out for loan payoff in 15 years.

This model is shown in an Excel spreadsheet placed below we have worked out for the homeowners who believe in savings for the future for comfortable retirement phase of life and legacy of assets for the family for higher take off points.

Long Term Rental Properties 

Long term rental of residential property typically refers to duration of lease of 12 months. It could be less or more than this duration.

Rental potential of the property depends upon the location of the property, the facilities associated with it, HOA fees, furnished or unfurnished, proximity to marketplaces, and school district, etc.

A rental property and its tenant have their own sensitivities to give best of their potential performance.

Sensitivities of Long -Term Rental Properties

  • A qualified and apparently reliable tenant who pays rent electronically without reminder.
  • Maintenance of property related complaints.
  • Property insurance that covers tenants of rental property.
  • Change of the tenant when it is due.
  • Security features in the property to protect property and the tenant.
  • Homeowners Association (HOA) often have some restrictions for the landlords to adhere to.
  • Written approval of the HOA is often required to lease out property to ensure the tenants are well informed of the by-laws of the Association.

Long Term – Rental Properties Management

Getting reliable and good paying tenants is always very challenging, and many times very stressful. In our view, it is always be more than worth to engage services of a Real Estate Professional Properties Management broker firm to manage your rental properties. Not only they have incentive to find tenants for you, but will also take on legal issues with tenants. They generally have maintenance crews to attend promptly to properties complaints when they come up. Keeping tenants happy in your properties is means cash flow. Vacancies and turn overs are generally expensive.

Short Term Rental Properties

Short term rental of residential property typically refers to duration of renting of typically 1 day to weeks.  

Short Term Rental potential of the property depends upon the location of the property, the facilities associated with it, HOA fees, how well furnished, how many sleep, proximity to marketplaces and concentration of centers of recreation and entertainment etc.

A Short-Term Rental property has high degree of sensitivities in competing with hotels, motels, hotel condos, and resorts to give best of its potential occupancy and rental performance.  

Sensitivities of Short-Term Rental Properties

  • The bookings of the property are done online through vacation rentals services available from Airbnb.com, VRBO.com, AirDNA.com, and FurtureStay.com.   
  • If property has pool to add to recreational value.
  • Number of bedrooms, baths, and sleeping beds.
  • How well the property is furnished to provide comfort of expected vacation level.
  • Turn-over of tenants at high expected standard.
  • Availability of community parking spaces of the HOA and street parking.
  • Proximity to places of recreation and entertainment.
  • Hospitality services of Short-Term Rental agent.
  • Insurance of property and tenants.
  • Security features in the property to protect property and the tenant.
  • Zoning boundaries and restrictions of local county government for such properties.
  • Bylaws of Homeowners Associations or Condominium Associations which impose restrictions on usage of property.
  • Typically, there are common facilities and security features as part of Homeowners Association for vacationers, thus having much higher HOA monthly fees.

Short Term – Rental Properties Management

Typically, the supporting sites for Short Term rentals can give steady flow of tenants. In our view, it is efficient to engage services of a Real Estate Professional Properties Management broker, who manages the properties and engages approved Rental Agents of sites given above for steady supply of tenants. Not only they have incentive to find tenants for you, but will also take on legal issues with tenants. They generally have maintenance crews to attend promptly to properties’ complaints when they come up. Keeping tenants happy in your properties means cash flow. Vacancies and turn overs are generally expensive. 

Financing for Rental Property

If you are an aspiring investor in residential rental properties, domestic or international, Orlando Metropolitan, Florida is a destination city for this promising marketplace. Due to very high tourist traffic year around, nearly 70 million a year, there are impeccable supporting services for residential ownership and rental properties, so much so that non-of-them are ever in local news.     

As investor, you fall in one of these categories:

  • You are all cash buyer, and have plenty of money to park in residential real estate.
  • You are a mid-level investor whose strategy is to pick up mid-level investment financing, and have plans to go slow in acquiring properties.
  • You are a low-level investor who wants maximum leverage of financing and have plans for multiple acquisition of properties.

If you are planning to raise loan to finance purchase, it is important that you work with an experienced loan officer who specializes in investment properties loans to step you through the types of loans available, and their underwriting criteria.

You have presumably settled in your mind which strategy of income generation is more suitable to you, Long-Term Rental or Short-Term Rental, and you have browsed over the downloaded Excel spreadsheet template in preceding topics.

We are here to give you full service in accomplishing you goals of acquiring residential rental properties. Buying process of buying an investment property is described under tab BUYERS.

Engage a Real Estate Agent

Unlike buying a home for yourself by your living style criteria, investment in residential properties addresses the demand areas for tenants of certain paying potential of rents. Over investment and under investment can both lead to disappointments. It is important to set out with end in mind.

If you looking for rental properties for short term rental investment, you have narrowed down to geographic areas where the county zoning is specific to short term rentals. The HOAs of these developments impose standards and local restrictions that the residents of these properties are transients who will complement the demand of the businesses around by providing living accommodations. The developers of these Short-Term Rental subdivisions within Planned Urban Developments zones often create attractive community facilities, security arrangements, shuttle bus pickups, trash pickups, and neighborhood markets such that the vacationers are well served. The investors into such residential communities expect higher return on their investment due to inherent risks of occupancy and nightly rentals. The HOA fees are about 6 to 8 times more than they are for non-Short Term Rental zones. You either will have to manage your own properties using online booking arrangements, or engage a property management and booking professional company. 

If you are looking for rental properties for Long Term Rental investment, your choice is much larger over the town. Virtually, all parts of the town have to be having renters. You pretty much are in a mode to “set it up and forget it”. Your expectation is that the property takes care of itself if it is highly leveraged and you hold it for its appreciation and tax write offs.   

Beside complexities of finding right property at right price in right area, you do need expertise of an experienced real estate agent who is insightful of financials of investment in properties giving expected returns keeping investor’s goal in focus, whether long-term or short-term rentals.

We are here to give you advice and service in accomplishing your goals of acquiring residential rental properties.

Bank,Escrow Agent, Lender, and Real Estate Agent

If you are all-cash buyer investor, you move the purchase contract to the Escrow Agent you selectforsettlement of transaction. You must be mindful of the fact that you are moving a huge chunk of moneyfrom your bank to the Escrow Agent.It maybe preferable for you to carry the cashier check yourself tothe closing table, and take transfer of title documents in exchange. However, if you are a distant buyer,you maytransfer your funds to alocal bankor preferably a branch of your bank,and have the bankengage a local Escrow Company to do settlement for a fee.Bank does report trail of money to the IRSwith summary of transaction papers.If you are engaging a lender to give you loan for the transaction, it may be better tolet the bank takecontrol to engage an escrow company to do the settlement for a fee.If you plan to invest in multiple properties, develop your relationshipwith the bank to open a businessaccount for deposits and disbursements beside escrow services for the transactions. Your bank shouldbe able toextend you a line of creditand refinance the properties that you bring to its table ascollaterals.For an investor, your bankand your real estate agent areyour partnersin your businesswhocan takeyou far!

Tasks Before and After Closing

Beside local investors, we presume that there will always be many out-of-state and international investors who will choose Orlando metropolitan area for investments in residential properties. Your real estate agent can play perfect intermediary to facilitate your investment interests to acquire rental properties.

As soon as you have a Purchase Contract in hand, there are a number of timebound tasks, called Contingencies of the Contract that need to be completed to move the contract for closing and settlement. Typically, these tasks are:

  • Home Inspection
  • Pest inspection
  • Coordination with HOA
  • Property and rental Insurance
  • Walk Through Before Closing
  • Coordination with selected bank and Escrow Agent

All these tasks, including virtual walk through before closing on the property on day of closing can best be done remotely through your real estate agent.

However, if you plan to furnish your property for renting it out, it is always very desirable that you plan to come in the town and take control of closing and furnishing.

As your real estate agent, we will be very pleased to help you in accomplishing your investment goals, a pleasant experience.