Atlanta Market

[Jessy Milner]

Hello everyone,

I am experiencing the squeeze from institutional investors in areas where I typically invest and was considering Atlanta as my next option for picking up a couple of buy & hold properties with good cash flow.

Does anyone have a point of contact for an agent or investor in that area who could help me get started? Any suggestions about the area would be useful, I am not looking for a war zone property just to get a good price or maximium cash flow, I am fine with a consistent, long-term property that I can safely hold on to for a few years.

Thanks guy in advance!

[J Scott]

Originally posted by Manesh Hardeo:

We sold one the other day for 52.9k that rents for $850/month in a good working class neighborhood in Stone Mountain. -- definitely not a war zone.

The problem I've found with those areas (Stone Mountain is a great example), is that there is so much inventory that it can be difficult to acquire tenants at market rents in a timely fashion. I know plenty of landlords holding property in that area who are seeing 10%+ vacancy and end up putting in sub-par tenants in just to get the income. Then, those tenants either trash the place or stop paying (or both) and the landlord wishes he would have just waited.

Additionally, with all the distressed inventory, those houses aren't appraising for what the turn-key sellers are selling them for, so they can't be resold to owner occupants or even effectively lease-optioned.

That's just my perspective on this market -- I currently work in west Cobb, which is pretty comparable in socio-economic demographic to Stone Mountain and other blue-collar suburbs.

Put it this way, I was planning to acquire 10-20 rentals this year...I've scrapped that plan based on the current market here in Atlanta...