Total property buying newbie here.
Any general advice, dos and don'ts, scams to avoid, etc.?
Is there a best way to find things besides plugging shit into the internet?
We've got about $150k to use, and ideally we'd be buying something in the Tampa metro as that's where we're about to move, and if we lived out of it I could save on loans and property management fees. It doesn't seem totally unrealistic to buy a 2-5 unit place out there with that kind of seed money?
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Median housing price for a single family home across most of the region ranges from $160k-$250k depending on the area and the quality of the property (this assumes livable without massive renovation in a not-terrible area). Multi-unit usually is twice that.
that said, the rental demand in tampa is pretty f'ing high, so good luck to you, but consider widening your zone of interest
Either way, OP, you're going to want to find a reputable Realtor who knows the area and can best guide you with respect to the rental market in the area.
Specific advice:
Use a real estate agent with a brokerage. It's 6% usually the seller pays, but sellers will try to convince you to do it as a private sale.
Do not do this, do not do this, do not do this. If there is a lien, you own the lien, if there is a title dispute you're out a lawyer, or you could lose the property entirely. Real estate brokers have insurance and because they are the middle men, they are the ones that end up eating a dick in a property dispute. I am always suspicious of foreclosures, I've done work to them and done inspections, but I don't know if you can get title insurance, and if the house was improperly foreclosed on, you might be shit out of luck.
Avoid being a lender, I know a guy who didn't write his lending agreement very well sold the land, and they would pay it like a mortgage for a set period and then pay off the rest, the business declared bankruptcy after the first mortgage payment, and he lost millions. Banks are good at protecting themselves you are not.
If you don't have experience doing residential construction work and want to get a fixer upper, get a GC, work you can do yourself is generally limited to Demo, patch, paint and maybe tile. I've had to come in behind real estate amateurs, and give them 30k in bad news, and I usually give really shitty terms, because I think they are going to take a loss and I don't want to share that loss, which is one of the reasons I don't like doing residential projects.
For Florida, pay special attention to the 100 year flood plan. Especially on the west coast, buying close to the shore can be deceptive with storm surge.
Make sure your property has a high wind-rated roof. If it was built before 1992, make sure it was rennovated since to include the proper roof supports for post-Andrew building codes. Lots of properties remained grandfathered and never got updated.
Two story homes are rarely worth the trouble with renters in Florida. AC and water leakage problems are frequent and electric costs for cooling (especially for lofted rooves most townhouse and two story properties like to go with) is extremely expensive in summer to keep livable. It's not uncommon for a townhouse to have 200-500 electric bills to keep the AC in the mid 70s in summer. Cinderblock homes, especially ones floating like most of the "cabana" style homes in the state, exist for a reason. Airflow under the house keeps it cooler in summer and flash flooding is slightly less likely to hit your foundation.
Be conscious of your community's runoff plan. A lot of poorly designed and managed areas, like much of the region around Daytona, have poor sewer systems and runoff plans leading to constant street and yard flooding. Look for large drainage lakes that look mostly empty. That's a good sign you are buying in a place that's properly set for the flash rains we frequently get.
I can't really help you with Tampa area specifics, I'm from the other side of Central Florida, but I do know that much of the city is undergoing a massive comprehensive plan re-evaluation. If you are planning on buying anywhere near the city proper, pull the comp plan from the city website and look at the area's designation code. A lot of Tampa is being shifted from single family and small unit to mixed-use, high density properties and some areas anticipate having eminent domain put to use.
This was a rental property I lived in about 7 years ago. It has four apartments, and I believe the building itself was valued at something like 600-700k. (there were actually two of them build together with a courtyard, so about 8 units @ 1.3m total). Each unit rented about 1k per month. Excellent neighborhood.
An area you might want to consider is just south of this address, in the direction of McDill AFB. McDill is a MAJOR military installation and as a result there's a lot of transient people looking for places to rent.
I wouldn't go north or west of the airport. North is *mostly* shit, West might as well not even be Tampa.
You want to get in the nougaty center south of Kennedy, or the new hotness which is the intersection of Hillsborough and Florida Ave (Seminole Heights and surrounding areas), which is where all the hipsters are doing their HGTV shit now. It's coming along.
Home Inspection and Wind Mitigation
http://www.FairWindInspections.com/
Any advice on setting up a fair rent without contributing to the housing hellscape we're living in?