Areas in Atlanta to look for fix and flips/ fixer uppers

[Oliver Gates]

Hello all,

I have for the most part focused on rental properties but would like to now move into flipping, particularly rehabbing and subsequently reselling properties, as the return is faster than rental properties. Could any of you recommend good areas in and around Atlanta, in reputable school districts, that are safe, where I could look for fixer uppers. Furthermore, could you recommend any reliable sites to use when looking for fixer uppers, and no, I don't mean Zillow! I'm relatively new to the real estate investment game as I only started out with rentals two years ago and I'm just going about looking for flips now, so any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[Michael Ehmann]

If you're targeting safe areas with good school districts, I'd consider focusing on the North side of town cities like Woodstock, Acworth, Kennesaw, Marietta, and parts of Cobb County. You'll still have some sub-par schools here, so do your due diligence with each one. You can find a school's ranking pretty easily with a Google search. If you're wanting a baseline for good schools: Etowah, Kennesaw Mountain, Lassiter, Pope, and Walton usually rank highly. There are plenty of other parts of town with good schools too - this is just a start.

There's also lots of flipping activity ITP, targeting young professionals and married couples with no kids yet. It's very competitive here though. 

You can find a decent amount on the MLS. Another option is going through wholesalers or public auctions, but you need to know what you're doing with those two.

Also keep in mind that many flips may not qualify for conventional financing if you go the ITP route. If you go North OTP, you may be able to find stuff that can qualify conventional but just needs cosmetic updates (i.e. maybe it still has the wallpaper from the 90s). If you go conventional, you'll need to hold 6 months (unless you want to ruin a relationship with your lender). 

Keep in mind the timing, too. School is about to start, so a lot of families may not be looking to move right now. Doesn't mean that you won't be able to find a buyer if your house hits the market in Jan/Feb, but you may have to hold a little while to get the price you want.