All Forum Posts by: Matthew Nicklin

The Atlanta Business Chronicle just published an interesting article showing that most of Metro Atlanta has seen double digit year over year rent growth. With pretty much every suburban area of the market seeing an increase. Just a few highlights

-In Kennesaw, one-bedroom rents climbed almost 14.5% year-over-year, followed by Stockbridge at 14%.

-Roswell: $1,180 per month, up almost 12.5%
-Brookhaven: $1,470 per month, up 12%
-Sandy Springs: $1,500 per month, the most expensive average cost for one-bedrooms in metro Atlanta. Rents have surged 11% since December 2019.

https://www.bizjournals.com/at...

What exactly do you mean by partnering with universities? I have some rentals near Life University and KSU Marietta campus in Marietta. I have a few professors that refer us tenants from time to time. Also some schools have a local classifieds/bulletin board system you can post on if you know a student or professor. Unsure how you can directly partner with the university as they have their own dorm rooms they want to fill. 

I have a few that I have worked with. Feel free to PM me as I don't think we can post public recommendations. Happy to help anyway I can. 

Skip tracing is going to be your best bet. I use a few different services, as there really isn't a perfect skip trace services in my opinion. There are varying levels of info you can get depending on the service and price point. 

I have been buying in Atlanta for over 10 years. Today the market is the hottest it has been in those 10 years. We are seeing a huge supply shortage. Right now as I write this our supply is at 1.4 months supply which is the lowest it has ever been since they started tracking it in the early 90s. Here is the chart for the entire MLS.

It is without a doubt a sellers market. The last listing I had received 14 offers on it with 4 of them at $10k over asking price, all of them cash.

So it is very competitive if you are a buyer, if you see something you like you have to put in an offer immediately and move quickly. We are still helping buyers and still getting deals under contract. 

I am still very bullish on the Atlanta market as a whole as we have strong job growth with a lot of companies moving here. The low interest rate environment has caused a lot of would be sellers to just refi and remain in their current home. I think we will see more inventory come on market in Q2 or Q3 of 2021. I anticipate we will continue to see good appreciation in the Atlanta market.  

Is the seller actually willing to do seller financing interest only at 3.5%? Those are some pretty crazy terms. Would it be on a 5 year balloon? I think you will have a hard time getting the seller to agree to do that. Also could be a long time until the property is worth $225k so you can refi out, could possibly take more than 5 years. Does the property only cash flow $300 if on an interest only loan? If so then I would rethink the deal, if it doesn't cash flow on a 30 year loan then it is probably not worth doing. 

Ronald I can't speak for Mark as I am not him and this is not my deal. I was just pointing out his experience. I know from watching some of his other content that he owns the shopping center with a partner, so unsure if both entities are disregarded entities, my guess is they are not. 

Is one side vacant or is one of the tenants moving out around closing date? FHA is not going to allow you to buy it occupied. You have to reside in the property as your primary residence to purchase it with FHA financing.

Great question! One I have actually thought about myself, as I was considering an office-hack at one time. 

I was watching a video recently that was discussing commercial appraisals and a shopping strip center. It was by Mark Ferguson of InvestFourMore. He owns a shopping center and his RE Brokerage is a tenant in the center. He said his RE Brokerage was paying under market rent and it actually negatively effected his appraisal. 

I think if they are all separate entities the appraiser is probably not going to look into it too much. Probably a question for a CPA or tax advisor to see how it may effect your taxes.  

 I personally like to invest in Cobb and Cherokee County. As others have mentioned Kennesaw, Acworth, Marietta are all great. I also own rentals in Powder Springs and Woodstock. 

The last rental that got all that activity was actually in Dekalb County. This was a property for a management client of ours.