How Much Does it Cost to Invest in Florida Real Estate?

For decades, Florida has been a premier location for real estate investing.  Whether you are interested in owning rural land, commercial properties in urban settings, vacation homes near the beach, or rental properties in the suburbs, chances are there’s a perfect area of the Sunshine State to put your dollars to work.

But with all of these positives, and the desirability of investment property in Florida, how much does investing in Florida real estate really cost?

Real Estate Investing Costs: The Basics

Before jumping into the specifics of how much investing in Florida real estate costs, it’s important to review some general information about the cost barriers of any real estate investment opportunity.

While there’s a notion in the general public that only millionaires and the very wealthy can afford to invest in real estate, that’s not the case.  And if you are new to real estate investing, the actual cost of real estate investing is probably lower than you think.

That’s because, in most cases, you won’t be paying the full price of a real estate investment. Rather, you’ll be paying a small down payment, closing costs, and the costs of rehabbing the property.

For example, if you purchase an investment property for $100,000, you would need a 20% down payment, closing costs, and possibly a few thousand dollars to rehab the property. Therefore, you could purchase the property and put it on the rental market with perhaps less than $30,000 in cash, and be generating profits with positive cash flow in 30 days. Then while your property is generating cash as a rental every month, the tenants will essentially be paying the mortgage and upkeep for you, as your wealth continues to grow each month.

Florida Real Estate Investment Costs

Florida is a large state with diverse housing markets, so the location in which you choose to invest will be a large factor in how much it costs to invest in real estate.

The average home in Florida currently sells for $173,734, but of course that average is raised by more expensive locations.

On the higher end of the spectrum, resort and vacation destinations like Miami and Palm Beach can have very expensive investment properties easily costing around $200,000 for a studio home to millions of dollars for an ocean-side mansion.

Luckily for investors, though, there are many highly sought after investment properties in Florida that are much less expensive, with some costing well under $100,000 (including closing and rehab costs) that generate around $10,000 a year in cash flow with a 12% cap rate when factoring for vacancies.

Graystone Investment Group

If you are interested in learning more about the profitability of real estate investing in the Greater Tampa Bay market, please fill out our Investor Profile, or contact us direct.

Graystone Investment Group is an experienced Investment Group wholesaling properties in the Greater Tampa Bay market (on the Gulf Coast of Florida) since 2005.

Unlike other wholesaling groups, we find properties that we resell to investors at discount prices, while also connecting them with private financing. We also coordinate with rehab and management companies we’ve worked with for years, at no extra charge.