From Americus, GA -- Small College Town

[John Stovall]

I'm new to this site and have owned 2 older historic properties with 3 units each for about 18 months. I now have a partner, and we have bought 3 SFH's and have 10 properties under contract. Our business model is having nicer apartments in the historic district of Americus, Ga -- a small college town and birthplace of Habitat for Humanity.

For the last 5 years, I have been closely following 2 of my friends who have about 20 and 15 units. Real estate sales have really been slow here in Americus, and right now, we may be the only buyers in the market. One thing I do is to identify the successful landlords, look up what they have paid for their properties, estimate (or just ask) what repairs were made, ask them where they felt they wasted (or felt they were smart) to spend the budget, and ask them about how they got their best tenants and signs that a tenant was not good. We also cross-market with each other if we have empty properties or if potential renters were not interested in their property. One thing different from the rest on the board is that in 5 years, my mentors have never had an apartment damaged by a tenant over the deposit. (This might be living in a small town where we know most of our tenants.) I think this education will be very valuable.

Let me add that I also have followed other landlords who rent more "distressed" property, and I just cannot enter that market.

One of the things we concentrate is on marketing after the property is purchased. For example, I walked the neighborhood of a house that was closing in 14 days. From this I got a lead from one of the neighbors, and the renters moved in on the day after the closing.

Our goal is to have 35 rental units in 3 years. I hope to learn a lot from this site!