Time of Year to Buy Rental Property

[Alix Daniel]

Hi Everyone!

So I'm in the process of building my foundation to start investing in buy and hold properties. To do this, we're selling our primary residence (should be listed this week), we'll use the money from that to pay off "bad" debt and set aside the down payment for our first property. We plan to rent for a short period of time (probably somewhere like The Fairways at Jennings Mill that offers < 12 mo leases) while we look for a property that ideally we can live in until we rent it out (shoot for August 2021). 

ALL of that leads to my question -- since so many Athens rentals start their leases in August, is it harder to buy these types of properties at certain times of the year? I'd think fewer people would sell a property in the fall, right after the tenants are in place so should I expect it to be harder to find a good property until say, spring? (And if UGA doesn't go back to normal in the fall could there be MORE listed if properties aren't filled...I know that's all guesswork right now...)

Thanks guys!