Newbie in Atlanta metro

[Karl F.]

Hi everyone,

I am finally sending out my new member introduction after lurking for a while and trying to absorb as much info as possible. I just relocated back to Buford (NE Atlanta) after living in SoCal for 2.5 years.

My goal is to start out flipping houses in the area to build a portfolio of fix and hold for long term rentals and my early retirement plan.

At the moment I think I'm having analysis paralysis but I did manage to send out some 'yellow letter' type of mailers a few weeks ago. Even though it seems that the consensus is that Atlanta is becoming a difficult place, I'm open to any pointers and tips for getting started...I still need to listen to podcasts as well.

Thanks for such an active and knowledgeable community!

[Ali Boone]

Hey Karl. I'm the reverse of you- left Atlanta about 3 years ago to move to SoCal. Lol. What took you to Atlanta?

The market there is stupidly hard right now if you want to find properties to fix up. I would almost never say you're hosed for something, but you are likely going to be hosed in Atlanta for a while. Even the big boy big name investors there are having a really hard time getting inventory. It is very thin right now. All the big boys searching for it are wanting to fix properties as well, so they are who you are up against. It's not undoable there, but it's incredibly advanced in terms of you having to know exactly what you are doing and having the right teams in place. But seriously, I never want to be a Debbie Downer, but I've been around Atlanta as an investors' market now for a couple years, and was there in person for 5 months of the holidays this year working solely with investors, so I know what the inventory search is really like. If you are just starting out, it's going to be very difficult if not impossible. Don't take it as a sign of your skill though or let it deter you. It's not you, it's the market.