We help property owners create wealth, save time, and grow successfully by eliminating the work of rental property and creating passive income for our property owners. Our goal is to fulfill the needs of the real estate investor, individual owners, and tenants by Providing excellent levels of service and care.
We know that Property management can be stressful, but we eliminate all the headaches and create passive income for Owners. Our mission is to provide a service we are certain you won’t find anywhere else.
We represent you, the owner, as we rent out and lease your properties.
We make sure your property is safe and well taken care of to reduce liability.
We make sure our occupants carry rental insurance to further reduce liability.
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5+
Years Experience
Scott McGrath is an experienced real estate professional with a background in land use and zoning, project management, construction management, and property management experience. Scott holds a Bachelor's in Urban Planning and a Master’s of Science in International Real Estate, he is the best person to assist with your property transaction or manage your project and grow your investment.
Mr. McGrath is an investor in land, single-family homes, and small multifamily buildings. He also develops multifamily properties, assembles real estate for investment funds, and helps others learn more about real estate investing. Scott is a long-time resident of Florida and a licensed real estate Broker in the State of Florida.
I became a property investor somewhat by accident. I came to Florida for a paid internship in 2007 with no money in the bank, $55,000 in student loan debt, and a used car with over 200,000 miles on it. I would not even have made it to Florida without the credit card I just got a month earlier. Once my internship became a full-time job, I bought a condo for $99,000. I paid almost nothing down, it cost me less to own than it would to rent, so it sounded like a great idea. After living in the condo for about 9 months we decided that it was too small and we needed something bigger and went house shopping.
It was now spring of 2008 and home prices were falling fast, and we, like most others, bought the biggest and best house we could afford at the time. By the time we bought the house, the value of the condo had dropped to $75,000 and I was upside down on the mortgage. We had 3 options, rent it out, sell it via short sale, or let it go into foreclosure. So, I became a landlord. We struggled with 2 mortgage payments and dealing with renters for several years and then became somewhat successful at being alandlord.
We loved vacationing in the Florida Keys, often staying at a short-term rental home. So naturally after so many trips we decided to buy a home there as well. In 2014, we felt we could buy a house and then rent the home for a year, then use the house for a couple weeks (freshen the paint and such) and then rent it for another year. We found a home that we could afford, and in a neighborhood that we really liked, so we bought it. However, this house came with a renter, so we were not able to follow that plan. That renter stayed there for 6 years. This house cost us than a $100 per month to own, but with a renter in place we were unable to use it.
The next spring the market was hitting the bottom, foreclosed houses were selling for as low $27,000. We believed that we should buy one of these while the properties were so affordable. At this time, loans were very difficult to get as Lenders were requiring high credit scores and lending primarily for owner-occupied properties. We found a home in Deltona Florida on the auction site Hubzu.com for $39,000. We clicked the buy it now button and it closed at $42,000. We chose a very unconventional financing method; we bought a property with a $35,000 personal loan and some personal cash. This property needed $45,000 in repairs, which we put on credit cards and then transferred the debt to 0% for 12-month credit cards. This allowed us to rebuild the house interest-free, only paying $300 each time we did the balance transfer.
Then as the 12 months free interest expired, we would transfer the balance to different 0% credit cards. We did this for 3 years until the house was paid off entirely. We had hoped to do a BRRRR (buy, renovate, rent, refinance, repeat). However, we didn't know how or where to refinance the property since we didn’t know about private lendersand hard money loans at this time.
After owning it for nearly ten years I sold the condo, and honestly, I only broke even. The HOA was getting very difficult to work with, and I didn’t want to hassle with them anymore. I tell my investors to always be leery of condos as an investment.
Between 2016 and 2019 I worked in Economic Development and came across several master degree programs in real estate. I was instantly intrigued. I chose the Masters of International Real Estate program at Florida International University and I absolutely loved it! While working on my MSIRE, I stumbled onto podcasts from Bigger Pockets, Rod Klief, and Grant Cardone. Most importantly I discovered the Rich Dad Poor Dad book, this books views on money were completely life-changing, it shows a completely different mindset on money, finances, and investing. I created my first syndication for a small multifamily for 2 reasons. First, I believed it was a good investment (and it was), second I really wanted the experience. Having knowledge without experience is like having half of a dollar bill. I gathered money from friends, started my first LLC, and bought an older 4-plex that was in need of repairs. We raised$130,000 which covered the down payment of 27% down and left $35,000 for repairs. Over the next several weeks, we completed many repairs including one bathroom renovation and major electrical upgrades.
The electrical upgrades required the tenants to be relocated for 3 days. Oddly we didn’t see any bugs in the initial walk through but once we got in, we found a complete infestation of roaches and bed bugs. While the tenants were dislocated, we had the building fumigated, twice, it was bad. After all renovations we were able to raise rents, which raises the value of the property. Many people don’t realize the income of the property sets the value on an investment property. Over the next couple years all the money went into back into building improvements. The building got better, the rents went up, the value went up. After 2.5 years, we did a cash out refinance and we’re able to pull $130,000 back out of from the property. We basically owned it for free at that point.
After finishing my MSIRE we also began renovations on the Key Largo house right before covid 19 struck. Covid ended up being a blessing for my family, the family stayed in the Keys for 6 months but I would travel back and forth; from Orlando the Key Largo every weekend. I would work in Central Florida 4-5 days per week and then in the keys every weekend. The drive was 5 hours one way and I was putting almost 1,000 a week on my car. We were able to enclose some covered porches that we didn’t see ourselves using. Originally, the plan was to enclose the front porch and make a bedroom, bathroom, and closet with private access. We had planned to use this like a hotel room and keep renting the rest of the house as a long-term rental.
However, after stay in the house for the first time, we quickly decided that we were not renting it out again, as we loved staying there. We were able to afford to keep it vacant because the Deltona house was now paid for, allowing us to utilize the rent from that house to cover the mortgage on the keys house.
After the pandemic ended and the keys renovations were largely behind us. We spent a lot of time with our son and his passion for swimming. His team went through a series of bad coaches so we switched teams. He loved his new team and we saw ourselves possibly relocating to that area so he could attend the high school at which the pool is located in the future. This meant it was time to buy another house. Interest rates were low and prices were climbing. We felt we needed to buy before we were priced out of the market.
We found a lovely late 60s early 70s ranch house. It was very1970s, with arches in the entry way, a sunken living, and the price de resistance, the sunken master bath shower that is completely circular. It’s about five feet in diameter and is two steps lower than the rest of the bathroom, and covered in small dark green tiles. We were able to clean the house, fix some minor repairs, and had it rented in less than a week after closing. We were correct about buying before prices went any higher.Within six months the value went from $380,000 to $430,000.
Next, I started managing my friend's house. He took a job out of town and could not take his furniture with him so we rented it furnished. It was rented out via Airbnb and VRBO, after several months this became fairly successful. But the owner decided he wanted to sell and reinvest in other things. I listed the house as a short-term rental and after several months with no interest I decided to put together another syntactic andLLC to buy it.
The Key Largo property is on stilts but it’s well above the floodplain so decided toenclose a portion of the lower lever. I highly recommend that anyone doing work in South Florida hire private inspectors for both plans and building inspections, well worth the money. This project created a one bedroom, one bathroom unit that can be separate from the rest of the home. We did this for 2 reasons, first this Additional Dwelling Unit (ADU) allows for additional income. Second, as we get older the less we like stairs, once our son is out of the house we’ll move into this one bedroom and rent out the 3 bedroom upstairs.
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