Atlanta Rental Cash Flow

[Jonathan Cox]

I am thinking about investing in some longterm buy and hold rentals and was wondering what people are averaging or looking to get for cash flow in the Northwest area of Atlanta. Thanks for your time. 

[Joel Owens]

Long term the higher end rentals tend to do better. The lower end rentals and areas usually do OK in an up cycle but get pounded in a mid to down cycle. Those tenants have very little income to survive and carry lots of debt. They tend to have minimal completed education levels and low problem solving skills but lots of compounded life issues. Not all of them but many can have one or multiple of these things going on.

Strong suburban areas in the ATL MSA counties tend to have less property taxes. More closer to Atlanta housing stock tends to be old or lipsticked with cheap quality flips and high property taxes with mediocre residential tenants. That can give a triple whammy to a residential landlord with a big headache and reduced anticipated returns to even a partial or almost complete loss of investment.

I am born and raised in GA 45 years so far and not a big fan of certain areas. You might want to wait to buy any residential property until this virus thing goes away unless you just land an incredible property and location that does not often come up. If it's a run of the mill average rental no sense in touching that at this point.