Is location, location, location an urban myth?

[David T.]

Here's something I don't understand, especially since I had the choice of choosing any place in the country to set up my business and chose Atlanta.

So many people here on BP talk about investing out of state and in other countries. I've been there and done that, but let me tell you that when it comes to rehabs and flips, it's really and truly a hands on business. Not only that, when I worked out of Ireland travelling to places like Shanghai and South East Asia to do deals I realized after a year clocking over 300,000 air miles (about 20 weeks of physical travelling between airport time and actual flying) that this was a unique form of lunacy, regardless of the profitability of these deals.

So I came to fervently believe that we make our own deals, wherever we are, through vision, negotiation and hard work. That is to say, even if you live in Hicksville or Ballygobackwards it is possible to do great deals locally, it just takes a commitment and I'm specifically referring to continental USA which is a truly unique and wondrous property market.

Not only this, but the more rural areas seem to deliver the more consistently profitable opportunities with much less competition whereas the trending and higher population centers are much more expensive with very competitive margins and therefore a higher risk. 

So for me, it's not just the numbers that make a deal, it also takes vision to look at a property and see how to create an economically viable end product that will generate a decent profit at the end of the day. 

Yeah, as the cow said to the bull "that grass sure looks greener on d'other side of the fence".

[Bill Gulley]

Seems more like an opportunity to post about international dealings than to the first rule of real estate, which is applicable everywhere, if you think not, try putting a Hilton on a two lane street in an industrial area! Unless you can transform a large area to be complimentary to your project you need to place your project in the appropriate area, that means location, location, location. :)