Even if you have to pay more for the purchase think about the costs of carrying the real estate while waiting for the approvals  (debt service, property taxes, insurance, maintenance for the in-place tenant) and the additonal finance charges associated with originating an acquisiton/bridge loan and then a construciton loan at a later date. 

Personally, I love the Atlanta area for investing, I have a ton of clients who invest in Atlanta and in Baltimore and those areas seem to have a decent return on investment for flips even with having low down payments on the purchases. 

What this means for you s that there is a good chance that your existing SFH becomes rent controlled when the ADU is placed in service (I would like to see the law clarified on this as this practice goes against the rationale of the 15 year exclusion). the reason this is important is that any rent reduction places your base rent at that point for rent control purposes.  

However, any of us agents worth our salt will vet that for our clients when buying so it won't be much of a problem for you.

Being out of state if it's a management intensive neighborhood you are going to have a tough time with getting a property manager to give good service there if it's too rough.

Also, if you setup a servicing company to manage the payments (usually like $25-35 a month), they can setup an escrow account for taxes and insurance as well and cut a check to her Trust bank account each month.

Definitely starting to see them, I have helped clients purchase a few.

Hey John, Given we are accountants, we cannot promote our services on BP as its against the rules.To help in your search:be sure to find an accountant who is willing to grow with you, and is not too high priced fee-wise.

We have our clients purchase renters insurance and show proof on that insurance that their insurance covers animals. 

Given we are accountants, we cannot promote our services on BP as its against the rules.To help in your search:be sure to find an accountant who is willing to grow with you, and is not too high priced fee-wise.