Kindly help a complete neophyte!

[Cristina S.]

Hello,

I am looking to purchase a very first rental.

I am 100% new to this game and I would greatly appreciate any kind of advice or tip at this very early point in the process - particularly how to find a good real estate agent.   

I am using "I" because I am applying for a loan on my own, as  husband's credit is frozen because he had an identity theft situation a couple of years ago.

Overall, my husband is a bit reticent about the whole rental thing owing to a bad experience we had during the Great Recession with our own home. 

Like many at that time, we were forced to move cross country for another job, we could not sell the townhouse we left behind, it went under, we had to rent it from a distance, had a bad experience with the tenant, then roof required serious repairs even though the unit was new when we'd bought it 5-6 years before. Anyway...the whole thing ended up in short sale with us losing around 15,000$ between repairs, depreciation and everything. A mess my husband is still not completely over. 

Time went by though, we recovered, our careers (both full-time) are now stable and we have about 70,000$ waiting to be invested (this is in addition to emergency fund, retirement through employers, some college money, etc). 

We considered REIT-s and other options but we would like to invest for a better return - as we have some catch up/make-up to do so we need to be more aggressive than "mattress" or "quasi-mattress" type things. So we decided RE would probably help us best over the long term.

We want to start with one small unit only. 

A property between 100,000-150,000 with 50% down, a condo/maybe townhouse, in a rather nice area, right outside of Metro Atlanta, targeting young professionals.  

Husband doesn't want house due to too much maintenance, neither does he want to be too aggressive for maximum gains in "shadier" areas. 

He just wants to try "safe, clean, secure and close to where we  live" first and see how this works. 

Then later proceed to a few more pieces if everything seems to go well with the first one or maybe trade up for something more expensive like a house.

Trouble is ..I don't know where to start with the purchase.

I need a real estate agent who specializes in rentals....though it is still not clear to me why I would believe that a REA would HAVE TO have our best interest at heart.

I understood that the deals of a lifetime (particularly for flippers) can never be found on the MLS or through RI agents. Granted, wea are not looking to flip or anything...but we would still want a good piece that is rentable, competitive and will do the work.

We both careers and two children and can't spend the time to get  the best deal ever without middleman, through our own marketing or other super-smart RE strategies.

If you could recommend a place where I could start looking for a good RE agent specializing in rentals in the North Atlanta area, I would truly appreciate it.

Thank you so much,

[Frank C.]

If you are like most people, you drive around constantly.  Just keep your eyes open. 

Look for distressed houses.  I saw a boarded up house this AM that I have never noticed before.  I have driven by it thousands of times.  Within 2 blocks there are houses for $350K.  Look up the address to find the owner.  Call of mail a letter to them to see if they are interested in selling.  You will get a lot of "no"s I bet.  But one yes in 10 may be worth it. 

Look for wholesellers by googling, "we buy houses in Roswell" and see what comes up.

Purchasing a great deal is more important than deploying your hard earned dollars right away.  When done correctly you make most of your money on the purchase rather than the cash flow, depreciation, appreciation, or equity paydown.  All of them are great benefits and add to your bottom line, but getting in at the right price is key.  It is good to take action, but find a good deal first.