All Forum Posts by: Hayes Mercure

 Hey! I appreciate the reply. Gotcha, so just to make sure I'm following you, for example, I looked up one house and there was a name listed as the "owner", but for the mailing address(different section), the name and address was different. Would the actual owner likely be the name and address under the mailing address section? Or would it be the name listed under "owner"?

Just trying to figure out which name and address I would send a letter to. 

Thank you, Christopher!

Hey! So after doing a lot of research in the area I'm looking to buy rentals in the south metro Atlanta area, I want to put a lot of focus on handwriting letters to owners of houses that seem rundown or possibly vacant. I like the idea of taking the time to handwrite a short note so I can get as personal as possible about their property, the area, my interest, etc. I've been "driving for dollars" each day before picking my daughter up from school and recording addresses.

A couple of quick questions: 

1) When I do a search on the address with the county assessor's office and the owner's name(s) comes up different than the name and address for the mailing address to the property, what could that mean? A lot of different things? Is that possibly a good sign? 

2) Any suggestions on what to include in the letter? I'm brand new to RE and haven't done this before. Is it best to keep the note short and to-the-point? I do have cash(not hard money) to buy the property and could cover closing costs as well. My plan is to BRRRR these fixer-uppers.

Any advice/guidance would be HIGHLY appreciated! Thank you so much!

@Steve Vaughan Sorry, I'm a newbie in the investor/real estate world...what is DOM? Days on Market? Can you explain the X 1.5? Thanks so much

@Steve Vaughan Right on, Steve! Yeah, I'm thinking of an idea for semi-"house hacking" by building a garage apartment in the back. The one thing this house is missing is a garage. And eventually, my mother in law wants to start staying with us for weeks at a time(retiring soon) to help us with our daughter, and our potential second child since we're talking about a second. We don't have family around and could use the help. And I did some research and saw that there is a great AirBnb market here, since we're right near the Atlanta airport. So I'm thinking we AirBnb the garage apartment to help make back some money each month.

@Theresa Harris Great point. Thank you! Feeling better about this and passing on the confidence to my wife :)

@Frank Wong Thanks!

@Travis DeForge and @Joe Villeneuve, thanks, guys! Appreciate the input on this. Makes sense across the board. I think my wife and I are just a little jumpy right now with it being our first house purchase. Our mortgage will be roughly 28% of our net income, so I feel comfortable with that. 

I heard on NPR yesterday that a buyer's market is on the horizon. Just curious if there's any validity to this statement? I know it's good for investors, if so, but to go off-topic for second...my wife and I are about to purchase our first home for us personally, so it scares me that we could be buying RIGHT before the market turns. 

Any thoughts on this? 

Hey! Wanted to ask...are there any sites out there that "rank" or "rate" a city or area that someone might be interested in investing in? 

I'm new to all of this and I know there is a ranking system for properties(A, B, C, etc), but didn't know if something like that exists for locations? 

I know of city-data.com and crimereports.com, so maybe it's a matter of just practicing due diligence from word of mouth/research/guy feeling? 

Any advice/insight is highly appreciated. Thank you!

Hey! I'm brand new to BP and real estate as a whole. I'm in the process of closing on selling an e-commerce business I started and am really excited to reinvest in rental properties in the metro Atlanta area. I wanted to see if anyone had/has any experience or opinions on the rental properties in the Tri-City area? Meaning, College Park, East Point, and Hapeville. My wife and I are about to buy our first home in Historic College Park and very eager to engage with that community.

To my very untrained and inexperienced eye, I feel like East Point and Hapeville could be great markets to hunt for rental properties as they seem to both be growing and reinventing themselves. But just curious if anyone in the Atlanta market had any opinions on this? 

Thanks so much!