All Forum Posts by: Alan Arena

I'm about halfway between ATL and the mountains in Cumming, GA (heard all the jokes, it's fine) in Forsyth County. Forsyth frequently pops up in lists of "great places to live" depending on who's making the list. Excellent schools, Lake Lanier, and proximity to Atlanta are the main draws. Climbing RE prices have made SFRs difficult to cash flow but there are still affordable properties in adjacent counties. Not so much right now. Next door in Hall county my son bought a move-in ready home two years ago for 169 and just sold it in 3 days for 265 (15 over asking).
We border on Lake Lanier which is man-made and has aprox 12 million miles of shore line. Some of that might make for interesting STRs but beware of the varying county regulations.
Folks I know around here with STRs tend to have them in the mountains of GA, TN, or NC, about 30 minutes to the closest ones. Some have beach units. A 5-hour drive will get you to Myrtle Beach, Tybee Island, or the Gulf.

@Sarah Wilson-Britt, There was one meeting in John's Creek but I've lost track of the info. I don't know if I found it on meetup.com or BP. 

@Corey McNabb, I've noticed the same thing (I'm in Forsyth County) there isn't a ton of multi-family comparated to SFRs and a lot of it doesn't ever seem to hit the MLS and other online resources.
The only thing I've seen pop up here in the last year or so was a duplex in Cumming that popped up on Craigslist and a quadraplex on MLS. There are probably only 20 or so duplexes in the whole county.

There seem to be more over in Gainesville.

I've only kept a casual eye on multi-family so take it with a grain of salt.

Here are the small (ish) multi-fams that I know about. I’ve never seen much south of exit 14, mostly clustered close to town and built in the 70s-80s.

Antioch Road, across from Atlanta Pools. 16 units across 4 buildings. There is also a small apartment building on the next plot to the north.

1400 Pilgrim Mill Road. I believe it’s 4 buildings. Could be as many as 50 units total.

Oakland Street and the area surrounding (close to exit 15). Quite a few duplexes and other small rental in there. Also at least one small complex.

11th, 12th, and 13th street next to Central HS. There are several duplexes and I’m pretty sure at least one quad stuffed in there with some tiny houses.

Kelly Mill just west of the town square. There are several groupings of rentals in there (look up 334 Kelly Mill in tax records for an example) that have duplexes. Also nearby on Tolbert, behind the fairgrounds and off W. Maple in that same area.

Castleberry just south of Hutchinson. I think it’s a quad. This one sold a year or so ago. Mid 200’s maybe?

Hutchinson, just off Castleberry there’s a 20 unit, I think it’s 5 buildings.

There are probably a few more tucked here and there, but mostly close to town.

Connor, I'm in Cumming (NoFoCo, actually. You can hear the banjos out this way ;-). We do have a house almost in Cumming with a detached apartment and RV garage that cash flows well, but have owned it for 10 years. Our current home has 2 basement apartments and a small house on the property, all rented. FoCo is great for appreciation, usually in the top ten places to live in the country depending on who's making the list. But hard on cash flow due to home prices. Our next purchase will probably be a SFR in Hall. Decent schools, a stable job market (driven by healthcare, teachers and general blue collar workers), and the ability to buy basic SFRs for under 200k make it attractive.

All that to say, renting out part of a house is very do-able in the area. You might even find a place, probably outside a subdivision, that has a garage apartment or the space to add one. It could be worth paying a little more for such a property if it has unfinished space that can become rentable. 

On another note, a few months back someone was selling one of those duplexes right off 400 at exit 15. It wasn't a bad deal as I recall.

I'm sort of new to the rental thing and probably have more questions than answers, but I can tell you where the few, true multi-family properties are in FoCo.

@Donald S.

I would love a copy of your edited lease or just the info within it if that is possible.

We have a large, RV size garage with roll-up door on our rental property that we want to lease out.

Thanks!

I

Great info, thanks all!

Did you ever get any replies to this? I'm in the same situation and would love some kind of template for a lease.

Thanks!

Well, I'm looking too. Anybody find one?

@Sam Bagwell, Thanks! Life-long in Cumming? Not many around these days!