I recently read an article about how people are fighting over standard 3 bedroom/2 bathroom houses with a 2- car garage.  Not that I needed to read that to know that fact. It’s obvious – I deal with it daily!  Investors have been gobbling them up and renting them out.  Major funds like Blackstone have spent billions of dollars buying 20,000+ houses throughout the United States and renting them out.  This has pushed sale prices higher and higher.  Some parts of the country are great examples of this. They have seen home sale prices increase, yet rental prices are decreasing by small percentages because there’s an abundance of rental properties. So the question becomes, if prices of rentals are decreasing, will investors stop buying at such a frenzied pace?  If that is true, you might end up holding onto your investment home longer than you planned. It’s interesting to see this dynamic and how it could be changing.  Have we just created another mini bubble of real estate by pushing things too quickly?

In our area, I don’t think so.  Our rental division in our office has over 100 properties that we rent out for owners and we basically have no vacancies.  We have been increasing our rents, not decreasing them.  Our area is still growing and we have beaches, sunshine, and baby boomers that want to live here.  That is the difference between our cities and a lot of other cities in the country. These national statistics get lumped together.  Sure there will always be ups and downs, but at today’s prices, which are still lower than the cost to even build in most cases, it seems hard to believe you could be making a bad investment.

However, if rents do start to go down and there becomes an over-abundance of rental properties on the market, that could turn the tide.  What if developers start building more multi-family housing in our area?  Things like this will certainly impact our returns as investors.  The key that has lead to a strong market recovery has been the lack of speculators.  Having end-users and tenants occupy investment homes has led our area to a position of strength.

I still believe your standard 3 bedroom/2 bathroom houses are great investments in today’s market – if you can get them.  Fighting through the bidding wars and multiple buyers is the problem, but prices are still low enough that it makes sense.  Best of luck buying!

Gabe Mellein was voted a Top Real Estate Agent – Exceptional in Service and Overall Satisfaction by Gulfshore Life Magazine in 2012 and 2013.  He is the broker of Gulf Pointe Properties, Inc and has over 9 years experience in the SW Florida Real Estate Market.  He is a member of The Naples Area Board of Realtors, Bonita Springs – Estero Association of Realtors, Realtor Association of Greater Fort Myers and the Beach, The Florida Association of Realtors, The National Association of Realtors, and is nationally certified in Feng Shui for Real Estate.  Need real estate help?  Please contact Gabe at:  239.825.2234, Gabe@GulfPointeProperties.com  or www.GulfPointeProperties.com