Homestead Housing Authority Miami-Dade County Florida New Section 8 Offices

Homestead no longer Strawberry Fields!

The Homestead Housing Authority in Miami-Dade County Florida has undergone some major changes since the real estate market began heating up several years ago. The City of Homestead enjoyed a good 10 years of expansion. Work force housing communities began springing up where strawberry fields, nurseries, orchards and farm land once occupied a majority of the acreage now developed. Major retailers like Wal-Mart, Nike and Home Depot, discovered that Homestead was the last stop for travelers and tourists before they entered the Florida Keys.

Homestead Housing Authority HHA Building

I discovered the Homestead Housing Authority back in 1998 when it was just a small office. I found the agency was very willing to work with Landlords and Real Estate Investors by making the Section 8 processing cycle very easy for owners and tenants. What I didn't find was a lot of investors or Land Lords using Section 8 or Plan Ocho as an additional marketing channel for finding tenants to occupy their investment properties in South Miami-Dade.

That was Then, This is NOW!

The Homestead Housing Authority has just completed a new building and road modifications to their facilities. HHA and the rest of Homestead has grown and caught up with the rest of Miami-Dade county.

New Section 8 facilities for Homestead, Florida

During the recent real estate bust, investors have picked up bargin properties in Southern Dade County. If you are a Landlord or a property owner looking for tenants, the Homestead Housing Authority HHA is one source for potential tenants in Southern Miami-Dade County.

Related Links, Blog Postings, Presentations or Articles:

• Blowout Properties Blog
• Section 8 Miami Blog

Written by Blog posting Author +Bob Burns.

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Bring It Baby! Real Estate Investor about.me/RobertKBurns Telephone #: 305-586-5280 email: sec8@planocho.com

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FREE COMP Tool for Real Estate Investors.

Comparable or COMP

Real Estate Investors need property comparables or COMPS to determine the after repair value ARV of an investment property. The ARV number will be used to calculate Maximum Allowable Offer MAO.

Real Estate Agents have a nice tool for getting COMPS or Comparables for properties because they have access to the Multiple Listing Service MLS. Investors need to find comparables using other resources.

FREE COMP Tools

Luckily, the internet has provided FREE COMP Tools for Real Estate Investors. Below are several services that can help investors determine property comparables:

• Bank of America Property COMP Trend Report.
• Trulia Real Estate Comparables for Local Markets.
• Zillow Real Estate Comparables by Zip Code.

FREE COMP Tool from Miami-Dade County, Florida

I found a "FREE" comparable or COMP tool provided by Miami-Dade County, Florida. It provides all the closed sales recorded by the county within a specified area, time period and radius. It isn't very dynamic but it gives you an idea of what is happening in a particular neighborhood you are thinking of investing in.

The video below specifies how to use the particular tools discussed in this posting. See below:

If you want to access the Miami-Dade's Real Estate Comparables go to: Miami Dade County Closed Sales Database.

Remember! Look for the link "My Neighborhood".

Related Links, Blog Postings, Presentations or Articles:

• Section 8 Miami Blog

Written by Bob Burns.

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COMPS Baby, COMPS! Real Estate Investor about.me/RobertKBurns Telephone #: 305-586-5280 email: sec8@planocho.com

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Real Estate Investors need to use an Action Plan.

There is a saying among Real Estate Investor's - "You Make Your Money when You Purchase the Property not When you Sell It."

There are so many things that can go wrong so it is important to make sure you buy the property right.

Smart Real Estate Investors need to develop an Action Plan before they are going to purchase an investment property. This plan should include the following:

• Identify a possible property for investment.
  • Make sure your SELLER is MOTIVATED to do the deal.
• Perform a market analysis.
  • What are going to be your carrying costs for the next 90 Days. Principal, Interest, Insurance, Taxes, Utilities, HOA fees....
  • After Repair Value ARV - What is the property worth after repairs. Look at the COMPS! Yes, the comparables.
  • Calculate your repair costs.
  • Calculate your Fair Market Rent FMR. See if the property is going to cash flow.
    • See previous posting and video about calculating Fair Market Rent FMR
• Secure Your funding for:
  • Purchasing the Asset.
  • Carrying Costs.
  • Repairs.
• Note: Don't forget to pay yourself for all this work you are doing!
• Make an OFFER based on the Maximum Allowable Offer MAO Rule, using ARV, Carrying and Repair Costs.
  • See previous MAO post at Using the MAO rule for determining your Investment Property Offer Price.
• What are you going to do with the asset? Develop an EXIT Strategy:
  • Flip the property for a profit or
  • Hold the property for Cash Flow.

This is the basic action plan which needs to be very fluid. Things change and you need to adapt.

Turnkey Property!

One of the more successful Action Plans we have used is to bundle a Section 8 or Plan Ocho tenant within the property FOR SALE. The tenant is part of the BUYER's Turnkey Package.

TURNKEY means the BUYER simply needs to turn the key to the front door and start making MONEY.

All the hard work has been done for the BUYER:

• Buying a Property that will Cash Flow.
• Rehabbing the property and brought up to Code.
• All utilities are functioning.
• Finding a reliable tenant.
  • We use Section 8 as a great resource for tenants because it is a very popular program for housing.
  • Section 8 Web Sites for listing Your Investment Property.
• Asset Protection strategy is already in place.
• Selling the Investment Property with minimal Closing Costs.
• Optional: Have it already furnished.

Investors should provide a turnkey solution for all their properties they plan to sell in the near future.

BUYERS like the idea of purchasing a property that comes bundled with a tenant.

Action Plans allow for Immediate Cash Flow and no Headaches!

Written by Bob Burns.

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Money in The Bank Baby! Real Estate Investor about.me/RobertKBurns Telephone #: 305-586-5280 email: sec8@planocho.com

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Why aren't Your Real Estate Taxes reduced when Property Values are Down? Time for Tax Appeal!

It is that time of year again! Every year counties within the United States issue their real estate tax bill to commercial and residential property owners. These funds are used for various line items of the county's budget. Your tax bill is based on the assessed value of the asset according to the tax assessor's evaluation of the properties contained within in the county (Using Arial Photos). It is also based on the last purchase price that you paid for the property.

In case you didn't notice but A LOT of people purchased properties at the height of the market. Did the counties care if you did that? Noooooo....the more you pay for the asset, the more taxes they collect. But what investors didn't count on was the market tanked and property values dropped like a rock in some parts of the country. Unfortunately that included Florida, mainly Broward and Dade counties.

So here you are, holding onto a property and paying taxes (pre-bubble burst) on a property that lost at least half of its value or more! Does the county government care about this? Nooooooo....If they did, there would be less revenue for the county coffers. So what can we do as property owners?

No Taxation without Representation!

Luckily for us our founding forefathers saw this happening too! This great country of ours was founded on tax revolt. They made sure our representatives are held accountable for their actions. So, most counties have made provisions in the municipal code to allow tax payers to appeal their accessed property values. There is a small window, yes I mean SMALL, during the calendar year where you can file the proper documents with the county to ask for a reduction. Now don't get me wrong, the county is not going to give up. They will fight you. You better be able to prove that you are being over taxed!

As a real estate investor, I don't relish the thought of doing this every year for the rest of my life for various reasons:

1. Time consuming.
2. Need proper documentation.
3. Dealing with government employees.
4. Traffic.
5. Parking Fees.
6. And on and on...

I leave that up to EXPERIENCED professionals. Let them hassle with this process. The advantages are:

1. They know the proper filing dates.
2. They are experienced.
3. They know the proper documents to file.
4. Familiar with the tax appeal system.
5. They only get paid if you win the appeal.
6. The asset looks attractive to other investors.
7. Nice profit windfall for investors. Found Money...Yeah Baby!

Now is the time to start considering how you can increase your cash flows on your real estate investment portfolio. Remember, the window for filing your real estate tax appeal is small so start considering your options NOW!

Do you have any experience with the tax appeal process that you would like to share with us?

Related Links, Blog Postings, Presentations or Articles:

• Update #1: After I wrote this posting, I started looking for a Real Estate Tax Reduction Specialist because current properties are severely over assessed. Here is a company that has been successfully appealing commercial property taxes for 21 years:
  Real Estate Associates - www.realestateassoc.net

• Update #2: RETA does residential and commercial. However many Homes are protected by the Save Our Homes Amendment and Homestead exemptions. Therefore the Taxable value maybe lower than the Market or Assessed value. Please send us your properties Folio Number and we will let you know if a reduction is possible.

Written by Bob Burns.
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	"God Bless!" MREIA's President about.me/RobertKBurns Telephone #: 305-300-6242 email: rkburns@investmentpropertiesmiamiflorida.com MREIA's Web Page: www.miamireia.com

Hypersmash

Real Estate Investment Strategies for Rehabbing Houses

As you are starting out on your road to become a successful Real Estate Entrepreneur, you are going to eventually purchase a property that has a lot of

equity but you need to extract that it from the property by repairing or rehabbing it. One of the best ways to generate cash as an investor is to rehab properties for resale.

Buyer Beware!

Rehabbing can make you money but you as an investor have to be careful. Two of the biggest mistakes made by 1st time rehabbers are TIME & MONEY.

Although your actual time commitment is minimal, these projects from purchase to sale, take a significant amount of time. To finish your rehab project, plan six months to one year. That means you may not see any profit for a while. Hopefully, your projects will finish much faster, but mentally commit yourself to problems and delays that will hurt your projected completion date.

The second negative is MONEY. Unless you have a partnership arrangement, you will have to come up with money for these projects. MREIA consistently puts $10,000 to $20,000 in repairs alone into a house. Add that to your purchase price and you can see you'll need access to quite a bit of cash. Plus, that money could be tied up for 180 days or more.

These negatives aren't anything you can't overcome. You'll see how important it becomes to have a well thought-out plan to minimize the negatives and accent the positives of rehabbing a property.

Estimate Repairs - Rocket Science?

Once you have found a property to rehab, you need to get a good, not great, idea of how much money you are going to need to repair. Dealing with sellers they always place the repair costs to a minimum. What ever amount they say I double it. Estimating repairs isn't as difficult as you might think. Once you rehab a couple of houses, you'll know what you're repairs will run. This is where a check or punch list becomes invaluable.

Your Finished, NOW it is time to get PAID!

The marketing strategy is to develop several plans to help you get to your objective - MONEY now or in the near future. You, the rehabber have several options:

1. Rent It!
   • Traditional Landlording
   • Section 8 or Plan Ocho
2. Sell It!
   • For Sale By Owner (FSBO)
   • Hire a Realtor.
3. Lease Purchase It!
   • Combination of Renting and Selling!

Rehab Process Outline Here it is:

1. We are going to find a distressed property that has mucho equity!
2. Buy it using a formula (MAO Rule) that calculates your holding & rehab costs.
3. Rehab the property to bring it back to neighborhood standards or beyond.
4. Develop a marketing strategy that will attract either an investor or owner occupant.

Written by +Bob Burns.

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"Be Viral!" MREIA's President about.me/RobertKBurns Telephone #: 305-300-6242 email: rkburns@investmentpropertiesmiamiflorida.com MREIA's Web Page: www.miamireia.com

Using the MAO rule for determining your Investment Property Offer Price

As you know I run, along with my partner Luis Maqueira, the Miami Real Estate Investor’s Association MREIA monthly meeting every fourth Tuesday of every month.

One of the most common questions from our MREIA group is how do we determine the property’s value so we don’t pay too much? By paying too much would prevent the investor from making any money on the deal. Most investors want the deal to be a win-win-win for everyone involved in the transaction:

• Win for Seller,
• Win for the Investor,
• Win for the Buyer that purchases
  the asset after it has been repaired.

The Maximum Allowable Offer MAO rule allows the investor to determine the property’s value so the transaction will be a win-win-win deal. It creates a maximum ceiling price for the investor. Go passed the ceiling and you won’t make money. It is always said among Real Estate Investors, "You Make Money on the property when you purchase it, not when you sell it."

Below is a brief video that explains how the MAO rule is processed and how the derived number is of value to the Real Estate Investor:

Written by +Bob Burns.

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"You are the Message" MREIA's President about.me/RobertKBurns Telephone #: 305-586-5280 email: sec8@planocho.com MREIA's Web Page: www.miamireia.com