All Forum Posts by: Michael Ehmann

In the right context, yes. I think it's worth factoring in appreciation and principal payments (assuming conventional mortgage) into the analysis. If you're in a part of town that's historically sketchier but is transitioning (i.e. appreciation and expected future rent increases), it may work. For a lot of bigger cities, this may be the case. But if I'm in a rural area or somewhere with slower and steadier growth, I'd be cautious. And of course there is risk to assuming the growth will be there - it's possible you could be wrong or that you'll have to weather the storm for several years if the market/economy slows. 

Dustin Maxwell , care to slide into my DMs with that info as well?

Go Jackets! I got out with my B.S. Industrial Engineering in 2015. I'm getting ready to close on my first 2 deals, also partnering with a few friends from Tech who graduated around the same time. Atlanta has gotten pretty competitive (as has much of the country from what I can tell), but there are still deals if you look hard enough. 

Sounds like you're already off to a great start by planning to pay off your student loans in 6-8 months. Your W-2 income is going to be a huge asset and make it way easier to qualify for loans whenever you get ready to pull the trigger. 

Glad to hear you're already listening to the podcast. It's a fantastic resource. If you haven't already found them, I'd also recommend the BiggerPockets Money podcast and ChooseFI. Both are focused more on personal finance and financial independence, but they'll discuss some real estate specific topics from time to time. Both podcasts have greatly impacted my mindset on money and financial freedom. 

If you're interested in networking events, there's a monthly meetup comprised mostly of folks from BP. It will usually meet the last Wednesday of the month, but unfortunately this month's had to be moved a day early, so you just missed it. Definitely check it out in the future though - it's a good community mostly of people who are actual investors or who are just getting started. I've also gone to this meetup called Real Estate Connections. I've only been once a few months ago, but I'll go back in the future (just haven't been able to work it with my schedule). It's $20 and can be a little hit or miss (lots of agents and people trying to sell you stuff), but it certainly can't hurt if you can stomach the cover. 

Always happy to help a fellow Tech alum, so let me know if you'd ever like to connect or if there's anything else I can do for you. Best of luck!

How confident are you in the rent rates? Also for property management: many companies charge a placement fee for tenants, which, depending on your turnover, could increase the real cost of management to 15+%.

I have USAA for my personal insurance and love their customer service. My parents have also had great luck with them historically for personal property. If it's a difference in $10/month, I'd consider going with the one you think could provide better service in the event of an incident. But if it's more than that, I think price starts to become a factor. To an extent, insurance is a commodity, so I think you'll just have to call and get a bunch of quotes. If you get a lower quote from elsewhere, you may be able to negotiate USAA down further.

If you're targeting safe areas with good school districts, I'd consider focusing on the North side of town cities like Woodstock, Acworth, Kennesaw, Marietta, and parts of Cobb County. You'll still have some sub-par schools here, so do your due diligence with each one. You can find a school's ranking pretty easily with a Google search. If you're wanting a baseline for good schools: Etowah, Kennesaw Mountain, Lassiter, Pope, and Walton usually rank highly. There are plenty of other parts of town with good schools too - this is just a start.

There's also lots of flipping activity ITP, targeting young professionals and married couples with no kids yet. It's very competitive here though. 

You can find a decent amount on the MLS. Another option is going through wholesalers or public auctions, but you need to know what you're doing with those two.

Also keep in mind that many flips may not qualify for conventional financing if you go the ITP route. If you go North OTP, you may be able to find stuff that can qualify conventional but just needs cosmetic updates (i.e. maybe it still has the wallpaper from the 90s). If you go conventional, you'll need to hold 6 months (unless you want to ruin a relationship with your lender). 

Keep in mind the timing, too. School is about to start, so a lot of families may not be looking to move right now. Doesn't mean that you won't be able to find a buyer if your house hits the market in Jan/Feb, but you may have to hold a little while to get the price you want. 

A few thoughts:

• 20-30 minutes surround Atlanta (I'm assuming you mean the center of ITP, so basically anything ITP or shortly OTP?) - this is a very broad range. I'd recommend honing in on one or two parts of town, at least for now. It's a-okay if you don't know where yet. I was in the same boat a few months ago, and there's no real right or wrong answer. But there's so much variety in a 20-30 minute radius that you've got to narrow it down. You can start down a path and then pivot to another if you really don't like it, but at least try to be a little more focused to start. 
• To figure out an area, I'd start by driving around if you haven't already. See some of the areas in person. I'd recommend jumping on Zillow for a few hours, click the heart to favorite some properties you think are interesting, and then take an hour just to go look at them from the outside. 
• If you're going to wholesale, you HAVE to learn how to analyze a deal. Every property has a "homerun price" and a "base hit" price (to put it in baseball terms). You have to learn how analyze deals to know what a good price is though. If you're wholesaling and get someone who wants to sell their house, you need to be able to figure out what a good price actually is. I'd recommend attending one of the BP Webinars where they analyze a deal. 
• If you're serious, I'd recommend throwing down $20-40 on one or two of the BP books. All of the content in the books exists somewhere on the website, but buying one of the books will save you a lot of time by consolidating it all in one place. 
• You can pay for a mentor, but I'd caution against this, at least in the short term until you get your feet wet. 
• As someone else mentioned, check out the North Atlanta BP meetup - great way to meet some folks. 
• Listen to the BP Podcast if you haven't already started. Lots of great content there, even in the very old episodes. 
• Be warned that wholesaling is hard. A lot of folks on the BP Podcast talk about how challenging it is. You have to be smart with your time and very persistent, and you should be prepared to throw down several thousand in marketing campaigns before you see any real results (if you're going the direct mail route). 

Why wholesaling? Any real estate experience? What's your business/finance background? South side is very broad...any areas in particular?

Have you honed in on a particular part of town? Do you have any other real estate experience? How comfortable do you feel with analyzing deals?

Want to try posting again? I can't see it.