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Show Summary
In this conversation, Ian Anderson, a mortgage broker in Tampa, Florida, shares insights about the local real estate market, investment opportunities, and various loan products. He discusses the vibrant community of St. Petersburg, the urban sprawl in the Tampa Bay area, and the potential for real estate investment in both single-family and multifamily homes. Ian also delves into the nuances of rental strategies, the impact of recent hurricanes on the housing market, and the benefits of refinancing in a changing interest rate environment. He emphasizes the importance of understanding different loan products, including DSCR loans, and the viability of house hacking for new investors.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Ian Anderson (00:00)
I mean, unless it was a sh- this is just my opinion, everybody has different opinions, right? But unless it was like a sh- if it’s a short-term loan, like for example, if you’re doing like a fix and flip loan, and I know fix and flip loans aren’t usually variable, it’s a bad example, but if you’re like doing a bridge loan or a short-term financing situation where you know for a fact you’re only going to be keeping that loan for one to three years, I think an arm would be great, right? I don’t think they’re great for any other reason. And the reason being that here’s what people don’t know. With arms,people tend to think like, well, rates are going down, so that’s good. So that means my payment’s going to get down when the arm kicks in. And that’s not true, because it’s based off of a different index.
Dylan Silver (02:11)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest, Ian Anderson is a mortgage broker in Tampa, Florida. You can find him online at fishermanmortgageservices.com or on Instagram at mortgage fisherman. Ian, thanks for taking the time today.Ian Anderson (02:24)
You got it.Absolutely, man. It’s a
Good hanging out with you, brother.
Dylan Silver (02:28)
Now, when we talk about Tampa, Florida, this is an area I mentioned to you before hopping on here. I personally ⁓ really love the Tampa area. I’ve even thought about moving to St. Petersburg a couple of times. I’m still thinking about it. How’d you end up in Tampa?Ian Anderson (02:45)
So I ended up moving to the Tampa Bay area when I was just a kid. So I’m from South Jersey and right outside of Philadelphia. And I moved here when I was about 10 years old. I lived in this area, technically Tampa Bay area, more like Sarasota-Bradenton. And I’ve lived here pretty much my whole life. Went to college in Orlando, so went to UCF, and now moved back to St. Pete. So like just saying, St. Pete, probably one of my favorite places in the world. you’re like, I know we said this before the show, but I’m just going to reiterate it one more time. That’s probably my favorite freaking place ever. You can’t see it, but there’s a sign that says St. Peter.St. Pete Sunshine City. There’s a little picture over there, but I lived there for a minute. It’s a good place. You love it, but that’s how got here.
Dylan Silver (03:17)
Let’s dive in therebecause there’s a lot of people who, I mean, if you’re familiar with Tampa and St. Petersburg, then you know, but there’s folks, I would throw myself in this picture even a year ago, who are not familiar with St. Petersburg. What’s the vibe like in St. Petersburg?
Ian Anderson (03:36)
I would say the vibe is it’s very, it’s very relaxed, very low key, but not sleepy. Right? Like it’s a, it has a strong sense of community and they call it the sunshine city. Cause it’s like the one place that gets the most sunshine per day and anywhere else in the country. And everything there is just very green and vibrant. And everyone’s just seems to be in like a good mood. I don’t know, man. Maybe it’s just me being crazy, but the vibe is just always, it’s always great. always love going. That’s all like when we go down date nights with me and my wife, we always go to St. Pete. That’s just like our spot.Dylan Silver (04:06)
And when we talk about Florida, there’s so many parts of Florida. mean, people will made immediately jump to South Florida, Miami, Fort Lauderdale. But from what I understand, that’s like a night and day difference from what you’re talking about out there.Ian Anderson (04:17)
Yeah, 100%. Miami, South Florida, that’s like New York City. We’re a little bit more low key, laid back, not as crazy, but not like we’re out in the middle of nowhere. I’m a big Southwest Florida fan, telling you.Dylan Silver (04:32)
What?you specifically about investment opportunities. you know for folks who are looking at that west coast of Florida, they’re looking at Tampa, they’re looking at St. Petersburg and they’d like to get started you know with some type of small ⁓ single-family investing or one to four small multifamily. Are there areas outside of Tampa or in Tampa or in St. Petersburg where you’re seeing opportunities or where investors are seeing opportunities and then I’d also follow that up with is there
There’s urban sprawl happening where these areas are getting larger so you’re seeing more opportunities around the circumference of these cities as well.
Ian Anderson (05:58)
absolutely, 100%. I’d say some of the biggest areas that I’m seeing start to blow up around here are areas that are south of Sarasota, right? So things like Northport, Venice, Punta Gorda, that whole area, Charlotte County in general, there’s still a lot of land. There’s a lot of development. And the urban sprawl from Sarasota is going outward, right? There’s not much room for it to sprawl to the north. Because to the north, they have Bradenton, you have St. Pete in Tampa. It’s going south very, very.very quickly. As matter of fact, just read something. Ryan Serant, ⁓ sorry, I always pronounce his name the wrong way, but he just came out and said that he believes that Southwest Florida is going to be the next mega city. I just thought that was interesting. But there’s a lot of land, a lot of opportunity for growth. Now, for areas where there’s opportunities for investing, mean, think St. Pete has got a big, there’s a lot of multifamily homes there in St. Pete. There’s also a lot of single family homes with ADUs. So, AKA, if you own an ADU as accessory dwelling unit, it’s a mother-in-law suite.
Dylan Silver (06:39)
Yeah.Ian Anderson (06:57)
So I personally know a lot of investors who will buy these homes and they’ll rent out the single family home and they’ll also rent out the ADU in the back. I see a lot of that in St. Pete. I see a lot of it in Bradenton as well around that area. But the urban sprawl to the north, you’re gonna look at areas like Pasco County, Brooksville. You’re gonna look at Spring Hill, stuff like that. Like that’s where I’m starting to see a lot more development and a lot more opportunity.Dylan Silver (07:21)
Now for folks who are looking at, do I start with a year to year lease? Hey, do I go into, you know, short-term rental Airbnb or, know, do I look into some type of ⁓ additional setup? You mentioned, you know, an ADU accessory dwelling unit and they’re, getting, you know, some level of scope creep and trying to figure out where exactly do I start? Do you see more investors in one asset class than another? Are you seeing a lot of fix and flipping happening or is it a mix across the board?Ian Anderson (07:49)
Yeah, so I’m seeing a little bit of a mix across the board, but it all depends on the area, the specific area. So I’d say keep an open mind and look around. If you’re going to look for anywhere that’s near the beach, right? Anywhere that’s near the beach, that’s going to be short-term rental 100%. There’s really going to be no long-term rentals over there. So if you’re at a little place near the beach, that’s the route you’re going to go. I would say pretty much everywhere else, we’re seeing single-family home regular rentals. And then the fix-and-flips, as horrible as it is,We just got hit with a very bad hurricane two years ago. About a year ago, actually. Jeez, not that long ago. But we got hit with two hurricanes back to back. there’s a lot of flood damaged houses ⁓ that are just abandoned, that have been on the market. And a lot of investors are buying it and they’re flipping it. That’s big. That’s probably one of the biggest things we’ve seen. And that area is specifically ⁓ more towards South Tampa or Northeast St. Pete. So we’re seeing a lot of that as well. But for me personally,
Everybody’s got a different strategy. I probably would start with annual rentals. I just feel like managing a short-term rental, if it’s like your first investment in an area, is a little risky. I mean, it is. You could get a higher return for sure. ⁓ I would start there. And then once I understand and know the area a little bit, then I would probably branch out, get some short-term rentals. That’s just me.
Dylan Silver (09:00)
it is.I’d like to ask
you some granular questions. Get into the weeds a little bit here. This is, of course, a thousand foot view, so it’s hard to say exactly. for new construction, is there a lot of new construction happening in these areas or around? Are you seeing subdivisions go up in lot of places?
Ian Anderson (09:29)
yeah, a ton. So a lot of the areas we’re seeing, so if you look at them, it’s hard because I guess whoever’s listening to this, if you could pull a map up and look and you look at, go down to Manatee County, pretty much everything east of the interstate and north of Manatee County all the way to Tampa is a bunch of new construction going on there. Anything east of the Tampa Bay, ton of new construction, not a whole lot of new construction going on in Pinellas County and St. Pete and a ton.of new construction going on south of Sarasota. So if I, you know, that’s, that’s what I’m seeing.
Dylan Silver (10:38)
Now, do you know roughly what the entry point is, price point for those homes? If someone wanted to get a more cost-effective starter home, brand new, what would they be looking at in those areas?Ian Anderson (10:50)
Yeah, I would say we’re looking probably like around 350,000, 325,000 for a starter, like a basic starter home. ⁓ If I were going to buy somewhere personally that I wanted to start a family and I was going to live there for a long time, I wanted a good deal, but a good area that’s going to develop and get bigger soon, I would be looking at Northport, I’d be looking at Venice, and I’d be looking at Port Charlotte. All of those areas are a lot more affordable.Dylan Silver (10:57)
Okay.Yeah.
Ian Anderson (11:20)
Because if you’re looking at different markets, if you’re looking at St. Pete and Tampa, night and day compared to Northport, Venice, and Punta Gorda and areas like that, you really can get a sub $350,000 starter home that’s in really great shape.Dylan Silver (11:33)
May you mentioned earlier this idea of, if you’re investing specifically in St. Pete, that these are most likely going to be some type of a short term rental. But then I would juxtapose that with, there are you mentioned developments happening and subdivisions going up around these areas as well. Are you seeing that a lot of the investing is happening from folks who are in Tampa or in some of these areas themselves living there?Ian Anderson (11:53)
ThanksDylan Silver (12:03)
these investors from potentially other parts of Florida or from other parts of the country.Ian Anderson (12:08)
I’m seeing a little bit of both, honestly. I’m seeing a lot of investors that are all over the country that are investing down here. And I’m seeing a lot of investors that live here that are buying properties like that. see a lot of, I don’t know if there’s any rhyme or reason to this, but a lot of the investors that are out of state are doing short-term rentals down here. So maybe perhaps they have a little bit more experience, you know, what to look for. But typically I see people who are buying here, who live here, are buying more single family.homes, people who are buying from out of the country, obviously from other parts of the country are doing a little more of short term rental stuff.
Dylan Silver (12:39)
I’m sure there’s people out of the country here too. mean, I…Ian Anderson (12:41)
There’s probably, yeah, mean, there’s just some of that too. I don’t geta lot of that, to be honest with you. I’ve heard a lot about it, but ⁓ the debt’s definitely still going on, for sure.
Dylan Silver (12:49)
I would like to pivot a bit here and ask you about ⁓ folks who are looking at getting into investing and they’re looking at some alternative loan products, including DSCR, but specifically when it comes to ⁓ small multifamily. So when you talk about duplex, triplex, quadplex, my understanding is that it may potentially be easier to qualify for DSCR loans if you’re looking at small multifamily because you are able to provemore income because there’s more doors that counts towards your income. Is that off base or is there some validity there?
Ian Anderson (13:25)
No, that’scompletely true. That’s completely true. It would be easier because you could use the rent of all of the units. Now, the easiest way, in my opinion, I say this all the time, if I got into this freaking like 15 years ago, which I wish, if I could get a time clock and turn time back to when I was like, I don’t know, like 19, 20 years old, what I would do is I would buy a multifamily home with an FHA loan, or if you’re a veteran with a VA loan, and I would live in one of the units, I’d rent the other three units out.
I would do that before I even got a DSCR loan. But a lot of people are using these DSCR loans because they don’t qualify for a regular FHA or conventional loan. And that’s OK. ⁓ But I would say, if at all possible, use a conventional FHA loan, live in it or whatnot. But the DSCR loans, ⁓ those are really great too, because they’re very easy. There’s really not whole heck of a lot to them. But they do make it easier to do that.
Dylan Silver (14:17)
Now, canfolks use those ⁓ conventional loans and use the additional doors to bolster their income or is that only with DSCR?
Ian Anderson (14:28)
Yeah. No, no, no. You can dothat with conventional loans and FHA loans too. It makes it easier.
Dylan Silver (14:34)
Are people going in, and I’m not saying, I wouldn’t say just limiting this to real estate investors, but are folks going in and looking at these other asset classes, know, small multifamily, from the lens of, hey, maybe I can’t get into a single family home, but I could potentially get into a duplex. Is that unheard of, or are we seeing some of that?Ian Anderson (14:53)
No, I’mseeing a lot of it. I’m seeing a lot of it. Millennials and young home buyers that are being creative about getting into a home are buying multifamily homes, renting the other units out so that they qualify for the mortgage.
Dylan Silver (15:47)
Now, I’d like to dive in here because this is something that I’m particularly passionate about. I think there’s gonna be folks listening who would like to utilize this strategy. When we’re talking about being able to prove additional income, the first thing that comes to mind is, okay, well, if I have two or three doors, that’s gonna increase the total cost of the home. So is it a wash for me? How much does it really help me versus buying one home with one door?Ian Anderson (16:04)
youOh, no, no, not at all. think it makes it lot easier, right? Because the more doors you have, I mean, that’s going to be an extra $1,500, $2,000 a month, right? And let’s say the price of a, let try to an example here. Let’s say the price of a single family home, if they’re going to buy it, was $350,000, right? And then instead, the cost of a duplex is going to be, let’s say, $400,000 or $450,000. The fact that they’re able to rent that other unit out
and get an additional $1,700 to $2,000 is way more going to offset the higher loan amount that they’re having to get. So I’ve seen that several times before, and that’s why people are doing it, because they’re able to get into three, four doors for the same monthly payment that they would have if they just got into a regular single-family home.
Dylan Silver (17:05)
Now, for folks who are looking at this specifically, I want to, I would say tread lightly because no one situation is going to be able to apply to everybody, right? But if they’re looking at, do I continue, you know, working on my credit, saving up a nest egg, looking at that single family home versus, know, I’m going to house hack effectively and I may buy a duplex rent out the other side. There does come with that a level of burden, which is now you have a tenant. Now you’ve got to maintain it. You know, there’s response.Ian Anderson (17:15)
For sure.Ahem.
Dylan Silver (17:34)
responsibility there. Do you feel like you you mentioned younger people, millennials and below looking at potentially house hacking. Do you feel like for most people that outweighs the potential detriments of having a tenant having to, you know, make some repairs or is it really like, hey, you’ve got to want to be a real estate investor or at least have the capacity to think like one.Ian Anderson (17:55)
Yeah. Yeah,I agree. Yes. To answer your question for sure. I don’t think that everybody, I don’t think that that’s a great strategy for everybody. But I feel like if you’re listening to this podcast, it’s probably a good perspective for you. Because you obviously have gotten an interest for real estate investing and you’re trying to learn. ⁓ 100%. But I think just the average Joe, I mean, they may not do that very well, right? But if you can do it, then yeah, for sure.
Dylan Silver (18:17)
Yeah.I mean, to your point, I think one of the things that I’ve heard specifically about short-term rentals, and I’ve said this on other shows, is if you go into a short-term rental thinking like, okay, I’m gonna have this on autopilot, there’s gonna be a cleaner, you’re a host, right? And so if you go in thinking I’m not gonna be a host, I’m just going to open the doors for these people, figuratively speaking, they’ll be there. You might not be the best fit, because you’re gonna have to be in communication. Same thing if you’re house hacking. You might not feel like you’re,
Ian Anderson (18:30)
Thanks.100%.
Dylan Silver (18:50)
quote unquote, investing in real estate and you’ve got all these doors, but you’re still responsible for a tenant. So that comes with that level of burden. I would like to pivot a bit here though and ask you specifically about ⁓ refinances and what we’re seeing right now. It looks like rates are coming down and that’s, think a good thing for everybody who is on this podcast and listening to this show. Are you seeing people refinancing like crazy right now? What’s the energy like out there?Ian Anderson (18:58)
For sure.Luya.
Yes,
no, we’re seeing a lot of refinance activity, especially people who bought one to two years ago. If your rate starts with a seven, it’s worth looking at. If we can save you 1 % off of your interest rate, and here’s the thing, it’s different in every state. So if you’re listening to this in like Wisconsin, for example, it doesn’t need to fall that much because it’s very cheap to refinance. Refinancing in Florida, however, if you can save generally 1%, it’s a good rule of thumb, it’s going to make sense to do it. we’re refinancing.
primary residences, we’re refinancing investment properties, we’re refinancing DSCR loans, and of course we do a lot of fix and flip business, so we’re always refinancing those into permanent loans as well for DSCR loans, but yeah.
Dylan Silver (19:55)
This isn’t actually something that I’ve discussed and I guess shameon me because I should know more about this process. But in Florida specifically, what does that process look like for someone who’s never refinanced a home before? What’s that process look like?
Ian Anderson (20:07)
Yeah, so it’s quite simply what you do when you refinance for the home is we go over options together. We have a call. see, first off, see if it makes sense, right? Everybody’s willing to sell you a refinance to make money, but it doesn’t always make sense. My big thing, what I look for is I need your, I highly suggest that you break even on your closing costs in 12 months or less. So if you’re going to save $200 a month on your mortgage payment, that’s great. But if it costs you $10,000, that’s not great.So you need to break even on that in less than 12 months. Once we figure out if it makes sense or not, then typically what we do is we order an appraisal, just like when you bought your home. We kind of go through the whole underwriting part. We get some documents and stuff from you, and we submit those to the lender. And then after we’re closed, you start making your payments the month after next. And then hopefully it’s a lower payment. But it’s a simple process. It’s a little bit of a more complex process, obviously, for people who are rehabbing properties.
and then refinancing them. And there’s some things you got to look out for for that for sure. But for the average consumer, looks like you’re buying a house again, but it’s probably half as difficult. It’s pretty easy.
Dylan Silver (21:15)
I’m ask you, pivoting again here, about arm loans and for folks who are thinking about fixed versus variable rate debt. And I know for certain, it makes sense when things are coming down, but when things are going up, it can be terrifying, honestly. And we saw a lot of that over the last couple of years. As someone in this space, when might it make sense for someone to look at an arm loan?Ian Anderson (21:40)
mean, unless it was a sh- this is just my opinion, everybody has different opinions, right? But unless it was like a sh- if it’s a short-term loan, like for example, if you’re doing like a fix and flip loan, and I know fix and flip loans aren’t usually variable, it’s a bad example, but if you’re like doing a bridge loan or a short-term financing situation where you know for a fact you’re only going to be keeping that loan for one to three years, I think an arm would be great, right? I don’t think they’re great for any other reason. And the reason being that here’s what people don’t know. With arms,people tend to think like, well, rates are going down, so that’s good. So that means my payment’s going to get down when the arm kicks in. And that’s not true, because it’s based off of a different index.
So even if the market’s better, a lot of times when that arm kicks in, your payment is going to go up. And not a lot of people know that, because they just think, arms are going down, so the payment’s going down. That’s not necessarily what happens once it gets to that point. So really, the only reason I would use it, and they’re not, at least in my experience, they’re not priced that much better.
You should be able to get a very competitive 30-year fixed interest rate without having to do that. just, the juice isn’t worth the squeeze. You might save an 8 % or so. ⁓ But yeah, personally, the loans I have on my house, they’re fixed rate.
Dylan Silver (22:52)
Yeah, I mean, for me, I’ve seen it go.wrong so many times. You have to, like threading a needle. And not just in single family, multi-family got hit like crazy with all the variable rate debt that people took out ⁓ on syndicators and fund managers. It practically wiped a lot of people clean with the variable rate debt and a number of other factors as well, from rents to cost of materials to increased vacancies. So there’s so many different factors that go into that. But we are coming up on time here though, Ian.
⁓ any new projects that you’re working on and then as well, what’s the best way for folks to get in contact with you?
Ian Anderson (23:31)
So new projects that we’re working on right now, we’re really going heavy into the DSCR loans. So one of the things that we provide for free for all of our clients is that when you’re looking at doing a fix and flip loan, it’s very important that you check all the boxes to make sure that it’s refinanceable. So my suggestion, what we’re working on is a program to where we would do a consultation for you, consultation with you, when you’re looking at a fix and flip property, to make sure that you don’t have any problems when it goes to refinancing that. ⁓Also, we’re running a special as well to any of the listeners of this podcast to contact us. We’re to do $1,000 off of their closing costs, only for people who refer to this podcast. how do you get in contact with me to claim $1,000? You can go to my website. It’s fishermanmortgageservices.com. Quite simply, there’s a button on there that says Purchase a Home. Fill it out. You can give me a call as well at 813-400-1013.
or go on my Instagram. put a lot of mortgage related content out there. I hope you enjoy it. I try to provide value however possible. ⁓ But I’d say go to the website. Go to my website, www.fishermanmortgageservices.com.
Dylan Silver (24:40)
Ian, thank you so much for taking the time today. Thanks for coming on the show.Ian Anderson (24:45)
Thank you, it’s pleasure.
