Note to ARS and other mods: feel free to break this post off into another thread if you think it's appropriate. I will not be offended. :)
So I have recently found out that I will be working on a space program at Cape Canaveral, Florida, starting sometime in October. While I am quite excited about my job, not to mention living in Florida (no more shoveling snow for this chico), another object of my interest is, as you might guess, real estate opportunities in the Cape Canaveral, Florida area.
Upsides:
GREAT job market. There's a huge military/space program presence there, and that isn't subject to change
Gorgeous location. This brings in a lot of retirees, tourists, vacation home owners, et cetera
Downsides:
Insurance costs. I can only assume that owing to the risk of hurricane and other storm damage, insurance costs will be quite considerable in Florida, especially right on the coast.
After a consideration of the facts at hand, I believe that my interests are best served by engaging in a slow flip. Essentially what I would like to do is to buy a foreclosure or fixer-upper-lite with a friend or coworker, and fix it up while living in it for two or so years. We would then sell it for a profit and head on to our next assignments and such.
I believe this is a wiser course of action because I don't have anywhere close to the money needed to buy multiple properties, so I can't take advantage of economies of scale. Plus, if I wanted to rent out a property from multiple states away, I would certainly have to get a property manager. I would much rather take a lump payment of a few tens of thousands of dollars and wash my hands of the affair. I also don't have the money to finance a traditional flip, which is why I would have to search for a property that is in liveable condition--it needs to be kosher as far as lending institutions are concerned.
I guess my questions are as follow:
Is my thinking sound?
What pitfalls do you see in my plan? (The obvious one is finding the right guy/guys to enter the deal with, if I am not able to do that, I guess I'll have to contract work that I can't do alone out)
Does it make sense to sell rather than hold if I only have one property (particularly if it's jointly owned) and I am halfway across the country?
Do you know anything about buying foreclosures and REOs/short sales in Florida?
Are there any concerns that apply in particular to Florida properties?
How should I look for deals in such an area? Currently, my plan is to find and hit up real estate agencies that seem to know about foreclosures and let them do the searching and scouring for me, while I simply look at the numbers: cost of purchase, cost to repair, after repair value, et cetera.
Since I intend to do a slow flip, how should my adherence to the 70% rule change, if at all?
All feedback is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.