All Forum Posts by: John Powell

We will meet at Olive Tree and Vine in downtown Cartersville. There is a nice coffee/tea shop in back, also wine and beer are available. There will be snacks!

This is an informal, networking meetup for investors, and those interested in investing, in Bartow, Floyd, Cherokee, Polk, Paulding, Cobb, and the NW Georgia area. The meetup is not affiliated with any REIA group or other group. There is no speaker or pitch, just a chance for local investors to come together and meet other investors and talk. All are welcome. If you have any questions about the event please feel free to ask!

Join us for the Cartersville Monthly Real Estate Investor Meetup!

🗓 When: Every third Monday of the month at 6:00 PM
📍 Where: Southern Muggs / Olive Tree and Vine, Downtown Cartersville, GA

This is a casual networking event for real estate investors of all experience levels to meet, connect, and discuss the industry. There is no formal programming, no sales pitches, and no cost to attend. We do ask that attendees support the venue by purchasing snacks, beer, wine, or coffee from Southern Muggs or Olive Tree and Vine.

Come and expand your network in a relaxed setting. See you there!

 New driveway or extension to a driveway is always better in the Kennesaw area  reach out if you need a guy we did a few last year the extensions are around 5-6k 

 Kennesaw also has an ordnance that requires heads of house hold to own a firearm. But much like the relationships of the people living in a house hold this is very difficult to enforce across the board but the law is technically the law. 

Sec. 34-21. - Heads of households to maintain firearms.

If you buy a 6 bedroom house in a neighborhood with a small driveway and try to cram 6 couples in the house each with a car you will probably have issues. 

If you have 4 college students in a 5 bedroom house with a reasonable driveway that can fit 4 cars and they don’t throw parties all the time you will probably be ok. But technically you would be out of compliance with an ordinance I think may cross the lines of housing discrimination.

There is a small pocket the South on main street that is good but generally south of I-630 gets pretty rough pretty quickly like don't store any materials on site over night rough. If you intend to invest there I highly suggest you jump on a plane and spend at least a long weekend there. I lived in the suburb of Cabot for 7 years and recently spend 6 months in the city of Little Rock. The suburbs offer very liner returns I have one buy and hold left there and it pays like clock work. I haven't personally invested in the city of little rock because I live in GA and have lots of local opportunity in the Suburbs of Atlanta.

Realtor here from Kennesaw. In the city limits there is no permit needed for any kind of rentals. In unincorporated Cobb there is a STR permit relatively easy and cheap to obtain. No permit required for long term rentals in un incorporated Cobb. As far as occupancy limits enforcement does happen but it's not super common and every case I've heard of for enforcement is due to neighbors complaints typically noise or too many cars. Right now I'm not seeing homes that are economically viable for long term rent by the room if you follow the Cobb county ordinance. I have a few STRs both in and out side kennesaw city limits and they make financial sense. If you were looking to house hack I would recommend finding something that you could rent the top out as an air bnb (STR) and live in the basement with a completely separate entrance.

Entry level homes that need work do appreciate. You may have to force it but there are always buyers for entry level homes. Be sure to get a quality realtor who is also an investor to help you avoid the pitfalls that you may not have the experience to see. If you have a ability to buy a little more house that is rent ready and house hackable immediately that may be a better option for your first one. Renovation with little ones at home, the younger the harder, is very difficult we have done it twice. But the value added can be enough to kick star your investing. If you could afford something with a basement apartment that you rent out or use as a medium term rent that could be the ideal start. If you are really willing to sacrifice to win you could even live in the basement and rent out the main part of the house for 1 year. There are lots of options if you would like to discuss further reach out. 

If you like Acworth look up the Logan. A 1,000,000sqft multi use development directly on the I-75 corridor. In the very northern edge of Cobb County. With your criteria if you are looking appreciation I would look just accross I-75 at Bartow county. This area has been blighted for years but has a technical school and will have a prime development less than 1 mile away And is easily commutable to Atlanta. Feel free to reach out for more info. 

I have a remote manager who handles the client interaction, finances, and scheduling of maintenance/cleaning for my small two bedroom one bath Airbnb in downtown Kennesaw even though I only live a half a mile away. I do spot to check the property from time to time just to make sure everything is still up to my standard but she charges much less than the 25% of the bigger short term rental management companies.

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $200,000
Cash invested: $50,000

Small Single family Short term rental in metro Atlanta suburb of Kennesaw’s historic downtown district.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Location

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

MLS I bought it at the start of COVID when now one Knew what COVID's was goin to do to the house one market

How did you finance this deal?

Cash then refinanced out with a comercial loan.

How did you add value to the deal?

Setup an air bnb

What was the outcome?

Significantly higher cash flows than as a single family rental. 50%+ appreciation in 2 years.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Historic districts can be more difficult to work within.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

I’m the realtor I would recommend. Dough Fountain at Quantum National Bank provided commercial financing and Sierra Eberle at Host my Home manages the property.