All Forum Posts by: Rick Baggenstoss

Be more specific about where your land is.  There's no such thing as unrestricted land in Atlanta.  

You really should approach the Zoning group for the county/city where you're buying the land.  Ask for a "zoning verification" and confer with them on your potential plans.   

There are likely Tiny House builders near your land or you could fly into Atlanta and buy some at the Tiny House Festival.  At least, you could meet some builders.  

Maybe, you meant to say 1000sf.  Find some example houses in your area that were recently built and ask/search the permitting records for the GC.

The market has tightened over a couple of years, but BRRRs continue to happen. I think you have to think bigger and push yourself on the "Rehab" to get the BRRR method to work. Light, cosmetic rehabs aren't available. However, I still see lots of deals where adding a bath to a 3BR/1BA would greatly boost the value and rents.

I hope people will come to hear Bill Cook share his experience in dealing with uncertain markets.  He has been a successful investor for decades and approaches deals with a very creative mindset.  While some of us can only thrive with cash, Bill has lots of techniques for acquiring properties such as options, master leasing, sandwich leases and owner financing.   He is a very reputable, giving teacher who cares more about investors succeeding than lining his pockets.  

Personally, I've gone to several of his classes all over the country.  I highly recommend everyone come meet him and get exposure to this very different way of investing.

In addition to Bill speaking, we will have some snacks, drinks, and networking before and after the meeting.   

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GaREIA is a nearly 30 year-old not-for-profit focused on education and networking in support of real estate investors.   We meet nearly 10 times per month in-person and hybrid meetings. 

@Jingru Sui. No, the leases are 30+ days.  Tenants pay weekly and can provide short notice.  Of the 7 rooms, 3 have been there for more than a year and 3 have lived there just over a month.

I've had a 7 BR Padsplit for nearly 3 years with no evictions. Pretty good considering COVID was happening for 2 of those years, and I still got paid. Members/Tenants pay weekly, so reaction time to payment problems is pretty quick. I've certainly had tenants get behind, and in one or two cases, they left owing 2 - 3 weeks rent. Not a big deal in a 7BR house -- you're a little more diversified.

Evictions do happen. They use an eviction service for serving the tenant and coordinating with the courts. This service also subs the legal work out. It just so happens, I use both of these services for the properties I manage, so I'm happy with the selection.

The bad news is that evictions can become contagious in a house. If one person stops paying and it's tolerated, It's more likely to spread within the house. Quick response and a fair cash-for-keys offer is still the fastest and least expensive way to get someone out who isn't paying.

The folks who are doing best with Padsplit have a portfolio of them, manage the houses themselves, and they are good at it.  It's very lucrative for them.  If you have one - you need to let the property manager handle it or be prepared to spend a lot of time on nuisance calls -  ants, toilets, etc.  

Good luck!

Rick

You need to add:

What will the property be worth when it's fixed up?  What other work is suggested?  What part of Atlanta is it in?

Get to know them a bit.  Confirm their work (the reason why you'd want to partner with them).  Ask if they'd partnered with people in the past on deals and what they liked/didn't like about it.  If possible, speak with their former deal partners.  Propose a partnership on a deal and what that might look like.

It happens a lot in real estate on single transactions.  Longer term partnerships are more rare.

@Arman Ali. I hope you're looking elsewhere.  BP is not a great place for GCs.  

Additionally, you need to characterize your scope so you get a better match.  Some GCs are great at cosmetic rehabs, others can do extensive framing, etc.  I wouldn't hire one GC for the other type of scope.  You need to look locally as well.

One good tip is to check the permitting database in your area for a job you remember going well.  You can find the GC who pulled the permit.  If you have a good plumber or painter, you might ask them too.  Good contractors know other good contractors.

@Scot Evans. Already great advice above.  

Funny thing, I see a lot of investors everywhere.  I drive down the street and can spot a rehab or rental.  Run into folks at the store, meetings, and talk to them on the phone.  Sometimes driving down the road, I stop, meet them, learn from them, share a some wisdom, if I can help, and move on down the road.  

I probably go to a couple meetings a week.  This week, I went to a great meeting of "Exchangers" -- swapping services, assets, promises, etc.  Everyone was very experienced.  I went to a Landlording meeting which was mostly new investors, but there were a handful of VERY experienced people.  Today, there's a large group meeting to talk about using the stock market as a hedge against real and as a way to ease your way out once you have too much money.   

Next week is even busier.  Tuesday morning, I'm meeting a bunch of rehabbers and landlords in Decatur at 'failed flip' turned rental.  That night, I plan to go to Vince Crane's meetup at Scofflaw.   Wednesday morning, I'll meet with mostly landlords and a few flippers to talk about the market, exchange contractors, tips.  That night, I'll be at a Southside group in College Park.   I'll attend a community meeting to hear a group of Commercial Investors smooth things over with the neighborhood and connect with them afterwards.  

By the way, I'm not trying to network to find a partner or pick up a client.  I do it because I enjoy it, and I want to learn from others.  If I had an agenda, I'd probably do a little more.

Hope that helps!

Rick

Atlanta has hosted the Olympics and more recently the SuperBowl.  The city has 100,000 hotel rooms, so it absorbs the crowds pretty well.  Airbnb hosts barely saw a bump in rents and the many speculators who jumped in just for the SuperBowl were very disappointed.  Some said it had a lot to do with the teams that came --- some teams fans travel more than others. 

I imagine the same will be true for the World Cup.  It's a great catalyst for already planned projects.  Not a lot of new stuff will happen just for the World Cup.  Atlanta continuously builds out to host events like this.  There's no hangover afterwards --- just a bump then we're on to the next one.

Not sure there's a great way to invest in real estate as a result of the World Cup.  Longterm focus seems like the smart way.  You avoid the hype and hangover of events such as this one.