Atlanta Areas for First Rental Property

[Eric Telese]

After a wonderful weekend trip to Atlanta to check out neighborhoods we want to invest in, we came to the following conclusions. Would love to hear opinions on any of the areas discussed in this thread, what we might be missing or not seeing. Of course, just driving areas can not paint the entire picture.

(1) Morrow

• Small neighborhood feel. Small blocks, all look well maintained (landscaping, upkeep, etc.).
• Definitely the most rural-feeling of the areas we visited. Looks like quality tenants and felt safe. With that being said, not much in the area, rural and more spread-out. Not much on highways, restaurants, bars, etc.
• Avg rents looking to be consistently over $1,000 with some upwards of $1,500. Good cash flow, but not sure about appreciation.
• Reminded us of East Point, but a bit more spread out. Uber driver was from Morrow and had good things to say.

(2) East Point

• Drove for about 2 hours around the neighborhoods. Got out talked talked to a flipper we saw from his construction truck and he said great things to say. He walked us around and showed us the house. Definitely a solid guy, he's on BP, knows the BRRR method. He said he's completely gutted and flipped 15 houses last year, he showed us pics and the work was impressive.
• Neighborhoods felt very nice, but surround areas seemed a little more rough (strip malls, etc.) Neighborhoods well maintained and a lot of small brick houses around the $120k mark.
• Rents look to be around $1,000, agreed?

(3) Rex

• Looks like 3/2's renting for around $1,200. Lots of homes for sale in the low $100's. A lot of small brick houses. Solid neighborhood.
• More rural & spread-out than some of the other areas we saw.
• Seems decent, but same as Morrow, cash flow seems pretty stable but not sure about appreciation.

(4) Jonesboro

• We were expecting this be more rough just based on some of the listings we've seen online. Don't know if we just saw the better areas when we were exploring, but was pretty impressed. Nice houses, pretty good neighborhoods. Overall well kept up with.
• Didn't spend a huge amount of time there, but rents look over $1,000 and priced at or below $100k. Are we missing anything here?

(5) Riverdale

• Same as Jonesboro, was expecting it to be more rough, but wasn't bad.
• Stopped at a liquor store which we think was on the edge of Riverdale and more rough than the neighborhoods felt. 
• Rents stable around $1,000 and homes at or below $100k.

(6) Forest Park (1263 Watts Rd you showed us)

• Decent neighborhood, didn't get a chance to drive around too much.
• Rents around $1,000 and homes at or below $100k.

(7) College Park

• Didn't drive too much of, rents looked strong and saw some more expensive pockets there. Some people we talked to said its an up and coming area.

(8) Hapeville

• Didn't drive too much of, not too sure what to expect here. A bunch of people we talked to said it was a good spot to invest in. Is this because its close to the southern loop of the Beltline?

Did a bunch more while we were down there too. Scootered all over the city, had some good food good drinks, explored the beltline, saw some of north Atlanta with our cousin. We found a beerfest near Piedmont Park and talked with probably over 20 people about Atlanta neighborhoods and areas to invest. A lot of people are saying near the beltline. While appreciation is great, our main goal is cash-flow. What are your thoughts, are we foolish to not invest near the beltline? Beltline prices seem to already be pretty high. Our original plan was to invest in Clayton County, hence all the areas described above.

We're using the BP deal calculator and looking to get to a monthly cash flow number of $200/month with a return of at least 10% (after all expenses allocated for: PITI, CapEx 10%, R&M 8%, vacancy 8%, property management 8% and other PM "other fees" 4%. What do you think of the percentages we're using? This is how we're filtering through properties, we're looking to hit those CF and ROI numbers conservatively.