New Member in Intown-ish Atlanta

[Anna Watkins]

Hi all.  I'm new to the site, but have had a single-family rental purchased about 13 years ago in the SE area inside the Perimeter.  Probably not the best business decision ever -  it's worth significantly less than I paid and only has cash flow since a recent refi. But, it's almost always been rented and has mostly paid for itself.   It was always meant to be a long-term investment anyway, so I'm not going to beat myself up about that.  I'm 100% a buy-and-hold person.

Now that my kids are headed to college in 2 or 3 years, I'm getting serious about investing for income, and thinking of it as a business more than a little side thing. Closing on SFH #2 (I have a thing for little 2/1 postwar starter homes) in December, and dreaming ahead to adding to my retirement empire. Planning to establish an LLC for my properties in 2015.

I found Bigger Pockets through Paula Pant's Afford Anything blog (thanks Paula!), and my head is exploding!  I'm listening to tons of podcasts, taking notes, and thanking my lucky stars that all the dumb things I've done, and smart things I haven't done with my first rental property, haven't fatally bitten me!

My area of interest has been the SE Decatur area, zip 30032, because it's close to where I live and now because it's got slow but steady upward growth.  Y'all are making me wonder about looking further away ( @Rick Baggenstoss :-).  I'm also looking for possible rental investments in or near my hometown in Tennessee (possible retirement location).

I'm really looking forward to networking, and LEARNING from other landlords and investors in the area, especially other women investors/landlords.  I've got the November 20 meetup in my planner, but doubt I can make a lunch meeting in Norcross.  

You may have noticed, I tend to talk a lot.  Thanks for listening!