Starting out north of Atlanta, GA

[William McGregor]

Hello,

I have been lurking and researching BP and many other resources over the past couple of months. I currently live in Cumming, Georgia and am trying to narrow down on a niche. I want to invest into buy and hold properties and cannot determine if I should aim towards college properties or into SFH.

My current issue is analyzing my market. While I am attempting to determine a niche, I am researching many areas north of Atlanta and am in the max budget of $120k. How do I go upon analyzing the market for these types of investments? I have been searching through the MLS on similar houses and looking at sales prices and DOM. I also have been looking at the rent payments on these types of homes as well. Is there any other resources I should be using to look at similar home values?

I am also hoping some of you could answer what to do in reference to my next steps. I've read mixed posts on here about running my credit to see what types of loans I can acquire. Some have said go to Fannie Mae and do it and others have said wait until I'm ready to buy. I currently own a house and will be tapping into that equity and my savings to begin my investing. I'm going to get a HELOC next week so I can have that line of credit prepared. In reference to LLC's and business operations, should I have all of that set before I make a deal on a property or should I hold off.

Sorry for all of the questions, but I want to be very thorough. Thank you guys for all of your help.  This website and forum is an incredible resource! I hope that I one day have the knowledge to help out others like myself.