Ep. 4 | Real Estate Market Spotlight (Panama City Beach, FL)
Download MP3Welcome to the teaching tax flow podcast, where the goal is to empower and educate you to legally and ethically minimize taxes paid over your lifetime.
Speaker 2:Welcome to episode four of the teaching tax flow podcast. Chris Picuro here with my cohost Johnny t.
Speaker 3:What's happening is I'm taking a is I'm taking a sip of water here,
Speaker 2:you know, if you caught me off guard a little bit. Of course. We are really excited about our inaugural real estate market spotlight episode.
Speaker 3:And, Chris, before you actually introduce her, she probably has one of the best names I've ever heard. So anybody so we're basically gonna talk about the real estate market. Right?
Speaker 2:We are.
Speaker 3:So what's the one thing that everybody in that market wishes they had? On the agent side and the buyer side.
Speaker 2:And we talked about this on one of our previous episodes. When When clients ask me questions, I said, I wish I had a crystal ball. But guess what?
Speaker 3:We actually have a crystal ball here today. We do. It's incredible. I don't know where we found her, but she's here. Right?
Speaker 2:And it's not broken. My I always say my crystal ball is broken to our clients. So First Market Spotlight, Panama City Beach, Florida. You're gonna you know how much we have love for the city. And, with, Crystal Ball here from Investors Gone Wild Realty.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the podcast. Thanks for hosting me. Our pleasure. Our pleasure. So with Teaching Tax Sold, obviously, you know that we are trying to empower taxpayers to legally and ethically reduce the tax they pay in their lifetime.
Speaker 2:Many, many of our listeners and subscribers are interested in real estate. And they're always intrigued by different markets. Real estate's so micro in in many ways in different markets. And and, could you tell us a little bit about yourself, about the Panama City Beach market and, how you got into real estate?
Speaker 4:Sure thing. Well, it was an accident how I got into real estate. I was bored at home with LifeChanger Baby
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 4:And invested in my first condo. And I hired a very large property management company to hire, to manage it for me, and they were wanting to hire a sales manager. Well, with Life Changer Baby, I didn't want a management job again, so I just said, I'll do sales. So I signed 80 properties under management here in fourteen months. So I got a crash course on the market and learned all about the condos, houses, and the property management side.
Speaker 4:So it was a perfect way to get into real estate because it gave me such a broad frame of reference. And then I went on to a different property management company, signed another 20 properties. The challenge, though, was that the clients were very unhappy with the management companies I was working for. So being very ethically minded myself and very driven to solve problems, I started teaching people to manage their own properties and had a much higher success rate doing that. So but knowing the market like I did, it was a lot of fun to get well, and I moved here because these beaches are just they're unparalleled.
Speaker 4:I traveled all over. Divemaster, you know, and you just can't find anything like it here. So
Speaker 2:so that's master. I know Johnny Tee is a mix master.
Speaker 3:I'm like, I'm I'm super intrigued with this. So so, obviously, I mean, we haven't known each other that long. Right? So I kind of backing up. So my experience with with the crystal ball, I just like saying that right.
Speaker 2:The. The crystal ball. The
Speaker 3:crystal ball. I like that.
Speaker 4:My crystal ball says sold.
Speaker 3:What is it? So my the only one I have is the one sitting next to me right now. That's the only crystal ball I have. So my experience with you is this myth mythical creature as the crystal ball. I remember getting off a flight.
Speaker 3:I mean, coming in from Michigan, Atlanta, I think it was in February that it that it was down here in in Panama City Beach. Mhmm. Get off the plane. I I remember very vividly. I'm wearing jeans, boots, and a hoodie, of course, sweating like crazy coming getting, you know, getting off the plane.
Speaker 3:And I remember getting in a vehicle with you driving around town, I don't know, maybe two hours or so, looking at all looking at all these properties with you and Chris and and one of your partners. I would have never guessed you've only been doing this for a short period of time. I would have thought you were born, raised, you had a family here, you probably went back a hundred years. I mean, maybe they were the founders of Panama City. You knew everything about this place.
Speaker 3:How in the world is that possible? Besides having a crystal ball.
Speaker 4:Correct? Well, you know, there is an advantage to that. But, no, my cousin was a real estate broker at Alabama, so we grew up coming down to her property. She had been in real estate for years. I had learned a ton from her.
Speaker 4:So, so I was already familiar with the market. Plus, I spent thirteen years in the convenience store industry traveling all over The US, so the owners of all the express lanes stores were my clients. So I came here a lot. They were not happy. I didn't come in the winter much, but I like the summer better.
Speaker 4:So
Speaker 3:Funny enough. Spring and
Speaker 4:fall. Yeah. So I was down here a lot anyway. So I had a a large frame of reference on the market to start with, but but real estate is so different than just understanding you know, when you drive around a new neighborhood or a new area, you still do not understand it from a buying level. So working with the investors that I picked up right early on was how I learned how to buy property because the investors taught me so much, so quick.
Speaker 4:So I I was very fortunate to find some really savvy investors early on and to find Chris on the tax side, which was totally life changing because we we always as investors, we always look for cash flow, but it's really more especially as you get higher income, you have to understand that tax flow. And because I say it's like a hamster wheel. Once you get off, you can't you once you get on, you cannot get off. That's what it is.
Speaker 2:Well, we'll be hitting you up for a testimonial very soon. But so, and thank you for that. What what's drawing people to Panama City Beach and this just the Emerald Coast, number one, just from, from, you know, people moving here and people spending their time and vacationing here? And then what are the thing what are the things that advice you can give to someone that's looking for a vacation rental property, for instance?
Speaker 4:Sure. So what the number one draw for me was the water because you can travel all over the world, and I like to see what's about to eat me, even as a diaper. So you can just the the visibility in our waters is amazing. So it it rivals The Bahamas or Grand Cayman. So that's one of the big draws.
Speaker 4:What the other big draw for me was that the people here are very down to earth. We border Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and we're a weekend drive to destination from so many places, even like Dallas, Nashville, Atlanta. Our top three feeder markets are Orlando, Jacks, Atlanta, and Dallas. And so the when people come in and out of this area, people like the ease of geography in getting here. And so that's one of the major draws.
Speaker 4:The other big thing is that we have a lot of infrastructure changes. Saint Joe is our largest developer, and they're working on some massive new infrastructure changes for the entire Panhandle. So when you look at the the roads being built out, there's new bridges, colleges, maria, marinas, retail. Every type of infrastructure change is being done here. And so as investors, again, number one of the fundamental rules is you wanna be a part of an emerging market, and that's what this is.
Speaker 4:When you go down to South Florida, which, again, I've traveled all over Florida checking out all these beaches, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, Anna Maria Island, Santa Fele is so gorgeous on some of these other places. But here, it's you know, we do have a little bit more seasonality, which some people like. You know, we get a little bit of a it's not really that cold, but not like Michigan where Johnny
Speaker 2:Tee's at. Yeah. They're playing in a park up here.
Speaker 4:I know. Yeah. You you really didn't have any trouble, man.
Speaker 3:Hey. As long as they have short time
Speaker 2:with a park, I'd be alright.
Speaker 3:Right? You got you got a mixed up with that.
Speaker 4:Or just yeah. The boxers. But, anyway, you you the it's it's it's because it's an emerging market, we've got so many different, new infrastructure changes coming. It's it's really been a lot of fun to be a part of the development side too and learning, all of that. But then on the vacation rental side, what what you look for is proximity to beach and amenities are the top two things that people are looking for from the guest reservation side.
Speaker 4:So it once you lose their line of sight to the beach, though, I don't really see a huge difference in the, booking capacity, whether it's two or three blocks or four or five, as long as it's South Of 98. Or my favorite market is South Of Grand Lagoon because you have all the water accessibility on the East End of the beach. So we had three sections in Panama City Beach. You got West End, Middle Beach, East End. But of, and I've been intimately involved in transactions all through the beach, but the East End is really where a lot of, I I see the heavier growth on the in the especially in the more luxury segment coming up.
Speaker 4:The West End is very close to 38. They call that the Beverly Hills of Hollywood. Mhmm. Very different market, a lot more bougie. Mhmm.
Speaker 4:And so it's very high end. And so you have that creeping over into the West End, but the I see the water accessibility is why people are here. Almost everyone's going out on pontoon boat, out on a boat of some sort, jet skiing. So all of that's here on the East End. You do not have golf accessibility from the West End.
Speaker 4:So for that reason, dive master here moved to the East End and prefer it much much more.
Speaker 3:It's funny you mentioned that too. So be I mean, personally, I grew up on the water at Great Lakes, obviously, totally different market. It is very interesting to be on a coast in saltwater and see pontoon boats. So as as wild as that is to me makes sense, because it's not like you're directly getting on a marine and getting on a boat and going offshore, which some people don't like to do. So I mean, and we just experienced this today too.
Speaker 3:Being on that water, I mean, we're Chris was, you know, shooting one of our little marketing videos, quick little snippets, and there's dolphins jumping all over them. Mhmm. So and it sounds like
Speaker 4:that's not a rarity. Right? Not at all. We have, I've I've seen huge fevers of rays. We have manta rays.
Speaker 4:I've seen octopus, gel all kinds of jellyfish. We have pelicans, tons and tons of dolphins. You can go out from, from boating here out to Crooked Island. We've seen I've swam with sharks 10 feet from me. It's just absolutely unbelievable here.
Speaker 4:So the the quality of life is very high too because you have a more, you have somewhat of that rural field. We still have a lot of, country areas nearby. So whether it has a very diverse type of life here, offered here. So
Speaker 2:Well, I wanna mention something that, when we talk about our teaching tax flow and and our one of the red strategies is residency planning. So there's no state income tax here in this beautiful state of Florida. I know the airport's been expanding here in Panama City Beach. Can you talk about a little just mention maybe just market wise, maybe a similarity between someone that's buying a primary residence here versus a vacation rental? Maybe one main difference.
Speaker 2:And where do you I don't wanna say where do you see the market going, but, what are some of the yeah. What's one similarity and maybe one difference? And how does what other industries are coming in here? I know there's a lot of military down here. Like I said, the airport is expanding.
Speaker 2:Can you
Speaker 4:Yeah. So so the Tyndall Air Force Base was just announced, to be the base of the future. They got the biggest government contract in history. We have a huge naval base here. They have a training academy.
Speaker 4:I've got the, advantage I I got to take advantage of touring it with the XO, the Navy base here, who actually started the real estate investor meetup with me years ago. Awesome. Yeah. He taught me a ton about real estate investing. He works for a syndication firm in California now.
Speaker 4:But the, you so when you have people coming in for primary residency, oftentimes, I've had doctor clients do this as well, they will specifically buy a vacation rental as their primary and forward planning to turn it into a vacay a vacation rental at the end of those two years because you don't pay capital gains after two years of running the primary. So it's a really smart strategy. Again, not one that I knew getting into this, but not one that I very well execute now.
Speaker 2:Gold strategy, section one twenty one. Don't worry. We'll have a podcast on that later.
Speaker 4:It it but and it's so it's so true. Once you start understanding these principles and and look at the overall picture, I think one of the things that you taught me first off was don't look at the year you're in. Look at the five you know, look forward because tax planning is not in the calendar year you're in. So once I understood that and started looking at the bigger picture, it really helped me. It also helped me in in understanding how to navigate clients through those decisions because for a so what I look at my job now is just consulting on what they look what they look for.
Speaker 4:So we look at what their needs are from a just functional capacity and what their must haves are. But, but we have such a varied type of housing here because you've got townhomes, condos, homes. We do have some neighborhoods that are short term rental restricted, but, overall, we're very open to short term rentals in this market. It's been it's been very because that's a huge part of our economy here. We have we are a very popular tourist destination, and the city's done a really great job of, like, we have a lot of, like, the Pirate Festival, Mardi Gras.
Speaker 4:We have so many different events here, music festivals, Johnny t can rock it out. Come here. Jam. Yeah. Man.
Speaker 2:Off Coast Jam. We got a lot of Nashville coming in for the Gulf Coast.
Speaker 4:Time. Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Well, when we, as a as an investor that has invested here, you know, there's always something going on here. You know, my children are in into sports. There's always tournaments. There's just there's just always even, you know, there's just always something going on. And I think with, the development at at, Pier Park has been has been great for tourism.
Speaker 4:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Question for you. What do you feel is you know, a lot of people when they're thinking about investing in a coastal community or maybe relocating to a coastal community, their main concern might be on a personal level storms, but on a financial level insurance. Can you give anyone some any advice on kind of, you know, different insurance plans or or or she said something yeah.
Speaker 4:You just Having lived through hurricane Michael personally experiencing this, yes. I, I actually wrote a wrote a piece about this recently when hurricane Ian came through from some of what I learned. Insure a lot of people bring that up in in the, in the beginning of a search process. But, you know, growing up in Alabama, we had tornadoes rip through and destroy whole towns. We were always in a basement scared of a storm in Alabama.
Speaker 4:So the so I I think anywhere you live, you can have a natural in California, we had earthquakes as kids. So anywhere you live, you can have a natural disaster. But, yes, have it is important to be prepared on the insurance side. We I have a directory of different insurers here, and, you know, you it's very important to understand what flood which floods on your end. X is, the best, a e, a little bit more high risk.
Speaker 4:A is you gotta watch it, and you you you it's mandatory to have flood insurance. So the state has, implemented more regulations because of so many storms and and so but it's like with with when we had the hurricane here, both our business and our home had some damage, and we ended up having to get a public adjuster because a lot of the insurance, carriers will just you know, they'll off they offered me $1,400. I'm like, really? So it so but, you know, you I can help navigate who to go to for what around here in in light of that. But it is I think you're gonna find that anywhere you go, there's there's fires and natural disasters and things that can be caused anywhere.
Speaker 4:But to me, the it's a high quality of life for the, and you just can't get these views or this lifestyle anywhere
Speaker 3:that I'm
Speaker 2:The juice is worth the squeeze.
Speaker 4:Right? Absolutely. Exactly.
Speaker 2:And kind of what we talk about in almost every podcast is building your own personal board of directors.
Speaker 4:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And making sure that those people are in place in your life and and having that risk management piece is is very important. So,
Speaker 3:And Chris, to that point too, it's almost, you know, me and you obviously talk a lot about this where it's for for a business owner building up their their own BOD. So that's your your attorney, your accountant, etcetera, etcetera, building it. But, Crystal, it actually seems like you help your clients set that up here. Is that right?
Speaker 4:So Absolutely. Yeah. I've never been one of these, high like, volume is not really my focus. It's more about the quality of the client I work with and the experience. I I had a long reputation a long standing reputation in the community store industry I worked in.
Speaker 4:I I like high high service. And so we we like to provide a lot of value to our clients, not just, you know, I'm not just transactional in nature because I become friends with these clients and we work to on I've worked on 20 transactions with some clients. And so when you get to know them at that level, you, you know, you'd better be doing something right. So I prefer that though. It's it's a it's a better I I enjoy my life better doing that.
Speaker 4:So yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 2:In our private practice, we've got the you know, your friends become your clients, your clients become your friends. We're probably reversed, but that's just one of our one of our sayings. Yeah. Well, this has been amazing. I'm so happy we picked a place that's near and dear to my heart on in our inaugural spotlight for, location spotlight, market spotlight.
Speaker 2:I know you have quite a following on social media. We'll have to have you in in another podcast about disrupting markets and and kind of some cool stuff. But how can anyone that listen to this podcast, follow you and learn more about Panama City Beach?
Speaker 4:Oh, you can, Google crystal ball. I'm all over the Internet now. And, or just go to investorinvestshortterm.com or, Investors Gone Wild Realty.
Speaker 2:We'll put that in the show notes. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt. Yeah. Put that in the show notes, and, and we really appreciate it.
Speaker 2:We couldn't have a better guest to be our inaugural market spotlight person. Thank you very much.
Speaker 4:Thank you, guys.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Thank you everybody again for joining us for one of the Teaching Tax Flow podcasts. As we continue to build this too, feel free to shoot us those questions, those topic ideas. Again, as Chris likes to mention as well, which has a lot of truth behind it, teaching tax flow as a whole is built for you, not for us. So Yeah.
Speaker 3:Chris, do you have Yeah.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. In the notes? We it's built for new. We're gonna put this stuff in the show notes. Make sure you rate, review, subscribe, give us feedback.
Speaker 2:And thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Thank you so much, Crystal.
Speaker 4:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Have a good week, everybody.
