Investing in rental homes in Marietta Georgia

People frequently asked me about buying Marietta rental homes for investment. I tell them that it is a good idea depending upon their investment objectives. But that’s really the same answer for the same question in just about any housing market anywhere in the country. For example, ask yourself these questions: Are you going long or short? Are you planning to flip or truly invest? Because in my mind, flipping is not investing. Flipping is just flipping and the risks and the skills needed to do a good job with that are totally different than those of an investor. If you are going to invest, are you looking for cash flows or long-term appreciation? These questions simply must be truthfully answered if you are to begin to intelligently answer these questions.

So the answer for the Marietta market is this: If you want to flip, or go for cash flows, you may find just the right product in Marietta and surrounding Cobb County. But also, if you are planning to stay in for a long time, say five or more years, it can be a good place to invest. Your money would be pretty well invested going long because values tend to rise faster in the Marietta home sale market than in other counties in the Atlanta area.

Although the final numbers have not yet been tabulated, according to the First Multiple Listing Service, the average price of homes sold in 2014 in the metro area was about $251,000, while in Marietta the average price was about $300,000. The Marietta area showed a tremendous 8.5% growth over the previous year. In the 1990's we saw annual growth in the mid 15% range, and that was a little scary. Too rapid of growth usually corrects itself and the corrections can be portfolio killers if the investor cannot ride the tide until the market recovers. So a lot of it has to do with timing, as it does in any investment of any kind.

If you want to talk more about investing in Marietta rental property, contact me and let's chat.

Daniel R. Wilhelm 
Executive Broker 
3 Options Realty, LLC., CRMC®, 
The Green Broker 
678-397-1282