Macon, GA buy and hold

[Andrew Hyder]

I am wondering if anyone here has experience investing in buy and hold properties in or around Macon, GA? I live in California and am looking to purchase in this area but wanted to get some insight if anyone has any experience there. Any good lenders to start contacting? Areas to avoid? Areas to look into? Top real estate agents? This will be my first property out of state and i will like purchase a turn key property.

Any info would be most helpful, thank you.

Andrew

[Greg Johnson]

@Andrew Hyder

I have several rental properties in the Macon area. As far as areas to avoid, it really depends on your rental strategy. I have been successful at buying class C & D properties in some pretty rough areas of Macon. Property prices have been driven up over the last couple years and inventory seems low as in most other areas of the country. I use a minimum of the 2% rule for purchasing properties but most of the properties have actually fallen into the 3-5% COC returns per month and cashflow extremely well.

One of my biggest pieces of advice, is screen tenants, screen tenants and screen some more. We typically screen through 50-100 tenants before we end up renting a single unit.  So upfront can be tedious but really pays off.  I also have hired a property manager that works directly for me which provides some boots on the ground to control the day to day mishaps that accompany class D properties.  

In my opinion, Macon is an investors dream for cashflow properties, while the deals are hard to come by right now, I plan on investing in the market for the longhaul.