New: Atlanta / Alpharetta / Kennesaw, Georgia

[Takahito Torimoto]

I'm still in Tokyo (moved there 2.5 years ago as an expat for work) and will move back to the ATL Area (currently looking at Kennesaw or Alpharetta) in July!

I'm currently a full-time Pre-Sales Engineer (Solutions Architect) for an Software company.

Born in Japan, but grew up mostly in New Jersey; went to GA Tech and stuck around the Atlanta area - because of (technical) jobs and cost of living.

I currently still have 2 single family rental properties - 1 in Suwanee (cash flow is terrible so I want to sell ASAP), and 1 in Alpharetta (cash flow is OK, but I think I can do better). I'm interested in selling my Suwanee property and do a 1031 and buy 2-3 properties - most likely in Kennesaw area (but still needing to do more research - it just looks like one of the better/affordable places to live in as well as buy Rental Properties near metro Atlanta).

Since moving to Tokyo 2.5 years ago, I've been spending more time to understand Real Estate Investments better (and now understand that my Suwanee House is a terrible rental; although it became a rental only after my first divorce).  I've read the Bigger Pockets Rental Property Investing book and learned a lot through that and the web.  Looking forward to moving back to the ATL area, buy a Primary Property to move into, and sell the Suwanee house and get 2-3 properties via 1031.

I've still got a lot of questions that I will be posting soon :-)

Thanks!

[Dave Foster]

@Takahito Torimoto, The timing of your sale could be interesting depending on when you moved out of that one property.  If the divorce happened near the time frame of when you moved to Tokyo then you might actually qualify for that sale to be tax free under the rules of sec 121 the primary residence exclusion.  Tax free is always better than tax deferred.  But if you don't qualify for that then the deferral of 1031 is still a viable alternative and probably a very wise positioning move.