All Forum Posts by: Mark Graffagnino

The lease would not state if the tenants are Section 8; there would be a separate agreement between the landlord and the AHA.  You may want to ask the Seller about that.

One of my properties is off Camp Creek Parkway, outside 285 in a very nice area and the other is in Kennesaw.  I get a much higher class of tenant in both of those locations, although the rents are not really much higher than the houses in 30318.

Another old rule of thumb....you don't want the nicest house in a sh*tty neighborhood.

One other thing....about 90% of your applicants will be Section 8.  You didn't mention if that was the way you wanted to go with this deal.

I own two houses in 30318, on the other side of Hollowell Pkwy, in Collier Heights which is a nice neighborhood and is a Historic District.  That being said I'm going to be selling both because I can't seem to get good tenants over there; have had one eviction and one abandonment that trashed the house.  I screen the hell out of people but maybe I'm just jinxed in that part of town.  I've owned both since 2013, I self manage and these two properties take up 90% of my time compared to the other two that I own farther out.

Appreciation has been much slower than I had anticipated; there are still a lot of distressed sales in 30318.  I am already seeing with the first house I am going to list that I'm going to have trouble with it appraising for what my broker says we can sell for.

Personally I would't buy a duplex off of Hollywood.  Granted I haven't driven that area in a few years but I didn't like what I saw back then....too many people/adult males "hanging out" during the middle of the day when most people are working.  That was enough for me to not even do a night time drive through like I always do with any house I'm thinking of buying.

That is my humble 2 cents.

We also come in once a quarter to replace AC filters and get a look inside the house.  After my last tenant vacated, I've notified all tenants that as part of this quarterly check we are also going to look under all the sinks to check for any leaks.  Had to rip out cabinets, replace a vinyl floor and replace the plywood subfloor because of an ongoing leak in the kitchen sink that they never informed me about.  Slobs had a large pot under the drain catching the water that leaked out, and of course, the pot overflowed quite often.

Boatloads of great advice above.  A couple of things I wanted to add:

In regards to security deposits, I had my bank (BB&T) open a savings account each time I acquired a property and the name on each account is "123 Main St Escrow Account".  That way the security deposits are seregated from each other.

I am always the Property Manager, never the landlord or owner.  The landlord is the mean investor group who never agrees to any of their sob story requests.  Make them feel like they are dealing with a business similar to the utility company.  But the flip side of that is if they have a legitimate maintenance request I jump on it right away.  

Thanks @Taron Young

Thanks for the response @Aaron McGinnis (was hoping you might chime in :))

I realize that there are a lot of variables, many of which I can control with the design.  I'm afraid that $150/sf may be light....will probably bump it to $175 and see if the numbers work.

Thanks @Ronny Crawford.  Just sent you an email.

I'm looking at a deal that would be a pretty high-end rehab and flip in Atlanta. ARV will be about $700K. In order to get to that ARV I'd need to add a master suite over an existing garage that is 400 SF. I've done this exact type of project before, but it was on my personal house and it was 8 years ago.

My question is- for preliminary budgeting purposes only, what is a good $ per SF number to add a master suite?  Not including the additional structural issues I'll need to include for the existing garage, but just to add the space including the floor trusses.  I want to say I spent about $150/sf back in '08.

Thanks for any input.

I use Bug Busters and have my properties on quarterly service agreements.  I've had some difficulties with them keeping the billing straight on the different properties.  I was going to give Breda Pest Control and Allgood Pest Control a call to see how their rates compared.  I've used Allgood successfully on larger apartment projects.