All Forum Posts by: Berenger Greer

Sara, 

Welcome to real estate investment. 

You should check out peter pasternacks real estate connections monthly meet ups as well as Vince Cranes Atlanta Real Estate Investment monthly meet ups. 

I've bought, sold, flipped, managed over 1000 properties here in the Atlanta Metro area over the past 7 years and will be happy to talk about strategies and areas I've found to be the most lucrative and easiest to navigate as a new investor.

Nir, 

As an atlanta investment agent I can say Stockbridge as a neighborhood does not have the best appreciation. In fact, the city has actually had a 3 year history of depreciating. See photo: 

With that being said, rents have been stagnant for the past 3 years statewide, and stockbridge should be seeing in uptick in rental prices in the next year or two. 

Out of 140 rentals managed under my brokerage, we have not been able to increase rent much in all of metro atlanta since 2023. We should see a shift soon with homes being unaffordable and more renters on the market. 

All in all, I do think it is a waiting game at the moment. Real estate has been a bit slow all around, and I think it is too soon to judge where this one is going. 

In the future, I will recommend researching a cities appreciation prior to purchasing, and any deal that needs cosmetic rehab be sure to get much lower than list price in order to give you more of an escape plan by mitigating losses if it doesn't preform as you originally expected. 

Andrew, 

This is a great question, and something I actively do for clients and myself.

Getting into a solid B class market is what I believe will be your best bet, and where I have seen the most success. 

I sell, as well as manage, a good amount of house hacks in the Cobb County, Gwinnett County, and Cherokee county areas. 

400k OR LESS will be just fine, that'll land you a mortgage payment of about $2400-2500. 

The goal is to find something that will attract renters despite the hassle of living in a single family home that isn't set up to be a duplex. In order to avoid long vacancies it is best to adjust your rental price below market comps and and find a way to fairly split the utility bill. 

My typical approach, using a 2/1 as an example, is to lease about $200-$300 lower than others 2/1's and offer them no utility fees, or only $100 flat rate. It sounds like you'll be losing money, but if the upstairs is a 3/2 and you do the same, $200-$300 less than comps with $100 flat rate or no utilities, I should work out just fine. 

E.G. a home I sold in Kennesaw, $350k PP 20k cosmetic rehab including kitchenette addition, whole home with no utilities paid by owner would've leased about $2400. 

We leased out the top floor, 3/2, at $1800 with $100 utilities paid by tenants

Bottom 2/1 at $1300 with $100 utilities paid by tenants. Average utilities here is about $300 monthly for water electric and gass. 

You went from $2400 rent to $3000 total. 

It isn't an insane gain, but it is an extra $500-$600 a month when completely rented out, lets you capture two low risk long term tenants that are on legal leases, and push yourself to cashflowing despite 7% interest rates. 

I have done this over 100 times within the past 4 years and can tell you this is the main strategy I have found to actually work. 

Leasing both units at market price with full utilities covered will, in most cases, have the property sit vacant for months at a time. 

Alternatively, furnish your addition to the home, and list it to many private facebook groups, zillow may work, and furnished finders. 

What I do personally is buy 250-300k townhomes with basements in the smyrna area, turn it into a 3 unit with 2 1/1's and a studio on the main level with the kitchen, lease out each unit for $1000-$1200 a month $125 flat rate utility bill. 

You get amazing tenants who want to be in the area, and you win by getting an additional $1200 a month in rent, they win by leasing for a much much lower price than anything else in the area. 

I lived in these units myself, it is a bit weird at first, but you quickly get use to it. 

Let me know if you have any questions, 

Berenger

Dock, 

Cobb County, easily. Smyrna is the hottest market I can think of that has plenty of opportunity for first time investors to get a fee simple townhome for under 275k and rent 2/2's at 1650-1850 3/2's at 1900-2100. Smyrna is the next city over from vinings on the northeast atlanta region, it is also one of the most expensive cities in Georgia. Personally, I've done four deals here just this year that have each provided 30k-120k equity as well as renting for $50-$1500 monthly cash flow. 

Try to stay away from things in SW atlanta, the cashflow comes at risk of dealing with high crime rate, as well as the highest concentration of fraudulent applications for renters in all the nation.

Thanks, 

Berenger 

 Chris, 

It's good to see you again. 

"cherokee real estate freedom" is the groups page on facebook. They meet in the same building as your office on the second Tuesday of each month. 

It's hosted by Brad Woodall. 

Welcome Ryan, 

Shoot me a facebook friend request, Teague Greer, and ill invite you to Brad Wooddall's Cherokee Real Estate Freedom. 

It typically meets up the second Tuesday of each month at the same complex the canton reformation brewery is in, I think it's called the mill. 

What sort of monthly return are you expecting to see out of this deal? 

If the short term rental market were to take a slight dip during the winter months/possible economic slow down, is there still a potential to earn positive cash flow via long term leases? 

Why do you think you opted to go STR out of state when you could've gotten pretty good numbers more locally in areas like Smyrna, Atlanta, or even Woodstock as you've seen?

@Blake Henderson

Forget about investing for now. You gotta build your roots.

We all want it tomorrow, we know getting rich quick isn’t true.

Get off BP, find a financial advisor/just really focus on setting up a budget and getting through this.

Live like no one else wants to now to live like no one else can later. It takes sacrifice. We’ve all sacrificed something to get to where we are.

@Josh Norris

Josh, I will recommend myself and @Matthew Nicklin

One source Property management is very personable with a combined 30+ years experience investing in and managing rentals around the state.

So far this year have leased each of our properties within 48 hours of putting them on market, and often get higher rent than our original contract price.

We don’t up charge work orders, rehab, or Reno projects, giving you the quote directly from the contractor.

Main goal is to give our owners a stress free, truly passive investment experience.

Would love to talk more, feel free to message me anytime.

@Jared Sandler

The city may pose a few good opportunities but honestly the prices they’re asking are ridiculous in the perimeter, I’ve had success with properties valued >$500k as it’s left me more room to negotiate due to the less competition.

A few suburbs will do you well, I'll tell you lawrenceville can produce some good ROI but is also probably the busiest market in the state, from my experience.

Just keep looking around, I have been pretty successful and not needing to go 20-30k higher like most, but I am a bit worried I’ll spoil my own niche if I say too much.

Best of luck, and I’m always happy to help if need be.