CW 209: Income Property Investment Projects in Atlanta Georgia Yielding 25.2% ROI

Welcome to Creating wealth with Jason Hartman. During this program, Jason is going to tell you some really exciting things that you probably haven't thought of before. And a new slant on investing fresh, new approaches to America's best investment that will enable you to create more wealth and happiness than you ever thought possible. Jason is a genuine, self made multimillionaire who not only talks the talk, but walks the walk. He's been a successful investor for 20 years and currently owns properties in 11 states and 17 cities. This program will help you follow in Jason's footsteps on the road to financial freedom. You really can do it. And now here's your host, Jason Hartman with the complete solution for real estate investors.

Welcome to the Creating wealth show. This is your host, Jason Hartman, and this is episode number 209. Thanks for joining me today. Appreciate having you listening to the show and boy, we've got quite a few things to cover today. The topic of the show will be a market overview of the Atlanta market. We have been very, very busy in the greater Atlanta metro area for the past oh, two years, maybe two and a half years or so. And it's been going quite well. In fact, I just got a nice note on my Facebook page from our client Clay yesterday who said he was having very good experiences there and just wanted to duplicate it more. So that's excellent news to hear. And we've had many other very good experiences with clients in that market. So we' discuss that today. But before we get into it, I thought I'd just share with you. I was reading Forbes magazine yesterday and it's interesting. They had a great chart, kind of a bar graph of 5 year annualized return on some different investments. And they looked at Travelers, Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, S&P 500 index, Allstate Hartford Financial Services, B of A Citigroup and aig. Remember them? American International Group. And I thought I'd just share the annualized returns over the last five years for the these companies. And the beginning of those five years you could easily say we were in the boom times. And at the end of those five years, we were easily in the boom times as we kind of are now. Stock market has done pretty darn well lately and I think that's as a result of all the money printing. So when you look at this, it's, it's pretty interesting. Travelers 7%, Berkshire Hathaway, of course, that's Warren Buffett's company and he is the Oracle of Omaha, the genius investor. Right. Which we kind of burst that Warren Buffett bubble in the Financial Freedom Report. If you're a subscriber of a reader, hopefully you saw that article because it really shows you some of the kind of the myths to that. But anyway, Forbes quotes his return for the last five years at 6.5% JPMorgan Chase 4.8% Goldman Sachs 3.9% I'll withhold my comments on the crookery of JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs and my opinions there. S&P 502.3% all state negative 6.9% and Hartford Financial Services negative 17.4% bank of America negative 18% Citigroup negative. A whopping negative return of 34.7%. And wow, AIG with all of that government bailout money still a negative, they're down 47.9%. Any of these people that invested in any of these companies, even if it went well, they could have outperformed this with some solid income property investments that they had control over of dramatically. I mean they could have beat Travelers, Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett, the Oracle, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, the guys that pay themselves out their six to seven hundred thousand dollars bonuses whether they're up or down for their investors every single year. Nothing like income property, the most historically proven asset class in America, bar none. Not even a close second from these traded investments on Wall street and so forth. Hey, thank you so much for so many of you registering for our Meet the Masters event. We have never had such an onslaught of early registrations again. This isn't till mid October, but you early birds are getting the worm at the major discounts by registering for that@jasonhartman.com but hey, we've got two things I don't want you to miss before for this and one of them is really really cool. So the first one is not the really cool one, but it will be very informative and educational. And that is our monthly conference call and this month it's on self management. One of my properties in the greater Charlotte, North Carolina area, I have a manager for that and the manager, this manager has been sort of good and bad and lately they've been kind of good. So I've been on this sort of axing mission of axing property managers and getting rid of them and firing them and going to self management mode and kind of been thinking I should do it with this one. But lately they've been pretty good. So I've appreciated their service and I've kept them around. But here is another example. I had a tree fall over in A storm, a rather big tree. I've never had this happen before. And the estimates, they got me three quotes on the job and all their estimates were hovering around $3,500 $4,800. Now this is a big, big tree, mind you, it measures about 10ft in diameter at the base and it's about 60ft tall. Think of that. That's six stories tall. It's a big tree and it fell over in a storm and didn't hit the house but just fell over. This is a big piece of land this property's on and I never had this happen before. So I said to the manager, get me some quotes and I'll figure out what I want to do. Maybe I'll make an insurance claim and get the insurance company cover part of the cost, etc. But check this out. I put my own ad on Craigslist and so far I've got a quote of that seems like a reputable quote and I'm do the deal here of as low as get this. You listening? You're sitting down $900. Wow. What a difference. So we're going to talk about that and other ways to save money on the Self Management conference call coming up on April 21st. And this is free for members and it is $20 for non members. So be sure to join us for that. I guarantee it will save you far more than it costs by a long shot. So $20 for non members, free for members. Join us. Register@JasonArtman.com for the April 21 conference call. Our monthly call, last but not least event I want to talk to you about is really really special and that is our Phoenix Market Foreclosure Property Tour starting at the Ritz Carlton in Scottsdale in the Biltmore area. Check this out. This is an awesome deal. You could not duplicate this deal if you just wanted to stay at the beautiful Ritz Carlton hotel. You are getting better deal by coming on our tour with all your meals included, six meals included, the two nights at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, the ultra swanky Ritz Carlton Hotel and the tour via luxury motor coach and the educational opportunities and the property opportunities that we'll have all included with this for the low low price of $597 and if you purchase a property that weekend through our network it is free. We will refund your cost of admission. So this is a setting I'll be doing educational stuff at this event. Our local market team will be there educating you about properties at this event and it really is going to be an awesome event. So we've got the room, the accommodations for two nights at the Ritz Carlton. We got the hotel. The Ritz even threw in free Internet access in your room. So no extra charges for that. Six meals. We'll be going out to dinner, we'll be eating lunch together, we'll be having breakfast together. We'll really spend a lot of time together in a small group setting setting and of course, luxury motor coach to tour the foreclosure and the REO properties around the greater Phoenix market. I just bought a property there, a small apartment complex and I'm looking at another deal, a 29 unit apartment there. Single family home. Opportunities are fantastic, fourplexes, many of you have purchased those. So come out, meet us in Phoenix. All you have to do is get yourself to the Ritz Carlton Hotel and you won't need to spend another penny for that whole weekend. Join us for that $597 pretty much all inclusive and the possibility to make it free if you purchase a property. And there won't be any specials on this one, folks, because we're already losing money on the tour. It's a loss leader. We think the property deals are so good there that you're going to end up purchasing properties, probably a few of them, frankly. This is really, pardon the pun, they say Phoenix gets hot in the summer. This is our hottest market right now. But it is a dry heat and this is May 20th through the 22nd. The weather is phenomenal. So you'll have a vacation that is tax deductible. And the tour and the education and everything, pretty much an all inclusive trip here for $597. If you just wanted to stay at the ritz Carlton for two nights, it would cost you $600. So again, the group buying power really would been able to negotiate a fantastic deal. So that's it on Phoenix. And I know we're going to switch gears here because we're going to go about 2,000 miles across the country now and we're going to talk about Atlanta and we've got a few things coming up here on the show today for Atlanta, we're going to give you the market overview from our forecast report and that'll just be a short overview on the market there, which is our forecast of that market. Then we're going to talk to Ken, our local market specialist, you know, hear what he has to say in terms of the investment opportunities there. And then we're going to do sort of an upgrade overview of that market that is also on our website@jasonhartman.com so before we get into that, I want you to go to jason hartman.com and register for the Phoenix Foreclosure Tour. Get in on that now. Space is very limited for that. Again, there won't be any special deals or anything like that because it's already a loss leader type of program. And get registered for that immediately. Do not miss this tour in May. It'll be beautiful, it'll be fine, fun and it'll be very, very informative. And you're just going to see a great lineup of properties. We're going to roll up our sleeves. We're going to get on the luxury motor coach, we're going to go out, we're going to look at the properties together and we're going to spend the whole weekend together in a very small, intimate setting. So space is very limited for that. And I want you to register now. So we will be back when we talk about the Atlanta market switching gears geographically in less than 60 seconds here. We'll be right back with our overview and our forecast for Atlanta.

What's great about the shows you'll find on jasonhartman.com is that if you want.

To learn about some cool new investor.

Software, there's a show for that. If you want to learn why Rome.

Fell, Hitler rose and Enron failed, there's a show for that. If you want to know about property.

Evaluation technology on the iPhone, there's a show for that. And if you'd like to know how.

To make millions with mobile homes, there's even a show for that.

Yep, there's a show for just about.

Anything only from jasonhartman.com or type in.

Jason Hartman in the iTunes store.

Supplemental market predictions brought to you by Platinum Properties Investor Network, Atlanta, Georgia.

25.2% Return on Investment 2011 Atlanta represents an investment gem in the southeastern United States. It has spectacular economics from a development and employment perspective that makes it a tremendous opportunity for income property investors. With a wide diversity of employers, many universities and a vibrant cultural presence in the city, Atlanta has attracted a tremendous amount of in migration from young professionals seeking employment opportunities. Since many of these young professionals choose to rent, the Atlanta market has very healthy rents relative to values. Currently, approximately 31% of listings in Atlanta are from foreclosures. Atlanta's experience during the real estate bubble and financial crisis has been somewhat unique. Prices in Atlanta started from a much lower baseline than many other major markets. The price has escalated to a peak in advance of the financial crisis and have subsequently fallen Back to the Same levels were 10 years ago. Most of the other markets that experienced an inflation and deflation of prices like this are bubble markets that typically exhibit high prices relative to rents. Now, in contrast to this, Atlanta represents more of a linear market with attractive rates of return available from cash flows that result from rent revenues. This is one of the primary reasons for Atlanta's strength as an income property investing market. The favorable business and economic environment in Atlanta make it one of the more likely places for an economic recovery to emerge. Our models estimate a return to modest rates of appreciation in 2011, which combines with attractive rates of cash flow to produce a tremendous opportunity for astute investors. By investing in Atlanta, it places you in an advantageous situation where you can afford to wait out market volatility and sell when it's optimal for your long term strategy. Now let's look at the ROI build graph for Atlanta as we predict the following multidimensional return on investment. 4.3% appreciation, 13.5% ROI from leverage, and 7.5% ROI contribution from cash flow for.

An overall total ROI estimate of 25.2%.

It's my pleasure to welcome Ken to the show. He is one of our local market specialists in the greater Atlanta area. Atlanta is such a big metropolitan area that we have had a couple of relationships here because it's really kind of like four cities in one. It's sprawling, as is Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston. Same things in those markets as well. And it's a pleasure to have Ken here with us to talk to us about the specific product that he offers in Atlanta and a little bit of an overview on that market in general. Ken, welcome.

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Yeah, my pleasure. So first of all, maybe let's start with the high level and talk about Atlanta, the areas that you really recommend for investment, and then go from there.

Yeah, you know, I'm not sure if you're familiar with how Atlanta is structured. It's actually metro Atlanta is actually comprised of 12 separate metro counties that comprise what we consider metro Atlanta. We do business in probably three or four of those counties, specifically DeKalb County, Gwinnett County. Occasionally we do a Cobb County. We find that there's what we call micropockets in Atlanta where there's good opportunities, suburban houses, good traditional neighborhoods that just make a lot of sense for our investors. And right now, the climate in Atlanta in terms of where we're at if the bubble bursted or if it deflated. Recent articles that I've read have basically said that Atlanta was more of a deflation than a bubble that burst. I think overall throughout the Depression, we've lost about 17.8% in home value compared to a number of other markets in the country that lost a good bit more. Another report I actually just read today about the about 2010 compared to 2009. Our real estate values are actually up from a year ago, end of 2010 and inventory levels are down. So the prospects for Atlanta look great. We're excited to work with your investors and get them into an investment and capitalize on some of this appreciation and equity gain.

Yeah, I would definitely agree with you, Ken, that it was a minor depreciation more than a bubble bursting. I mean, bubble bursting is in the high flying markets. Florida, California, Northeast, et cetera. So no question about that. Now, in terms of your sort of target investor or target tenant that that investor gets once they invest in the area, what are you seeing? I mean, from what areas are people coming in and purchasing income properties there?

You know, I would say that the majority of the investors that we work with are out of state investors. We have a lot of investors that come from California, we have a handful of investors that come from the Northeast and even some that come from out of the country that finding opportunities in the US Especially with the decline of the dollar. And you most investors, they're not super wealthy, you know, they've got good W2 income, they've got good credit and it's an opportunity for them to capitalize on just a window of opportunity to buy real estate, put 15 to $20,000 down into a house and make a great investment. You know, in terms of our tenants, most of our tenants, again these are in suburban, oftentimes white collar neighborhoods. And so we've got professionals, we've got, you know, maybe a professional married to somebody that's blue collar, responsible people. A lot of our folks end up buying the houses from our investors. We typically stay out of the neighborhoods associated with violence and gang related activity. And even Section 8 houses, for the most part, we try to work with houses that we would want to own ourselves and more importantly that our tenants would want to own.

When you talk about the investor profile, one of the questions we get fairly often is, well, why can't I invest right near me? I heard this, heard someone tell me 25 years ago that I should buy property within an hour, hour of where I live. Well, the problem is you don't live in the right place necessarily. And so I always say my sort of famous quote is invest in areas that make sense. So you can afford to live in areas that don't make sense.

Right.

And Atlanta, this general market and of course there are sub markets and some big sprawling cities. So in the areas we recommend there, those places make sense. And even if one did live there, I wouldn't recommend that they have all their eggs in one basket. If they're going to own a few to several properties, they shouldn't have them all there anyway, even if they, they live nearby. Diversification is a wise idea. Certainly we're seeing a lot of foreign investment lately that's really, really picked up over the last, oh, I'd say year and a half and it was really high for a while and then for a couple of years the dollar got stronger and it seemed to tone down. But when the dollar gets weak, that's one of the key indicators for foreign investors. We're seeing a lot of Australians, a lot of New Zealanders, and of course European, Asian countries as well, Middle Eastern countries over here looking at American real estate. And, and the thing.

Makes it so attractive is that ever since the Great Depression over seven decades ago, it's really always been subsidized by the government. And what I mean when I refer to that, I'm referring to the mortgage market. And I was just listening to an old show that I did with the head of Global Property Guide and I had him on the line and we discussed all of the world real estate markets within about an hour and 10 minutes. We went around the planet and the one thing he said came is that the mortgage financing is either pretty much non existent around the world or it's incredibly inconsistent if you even have it at all. And in the US you have it. And your cost per square foot is far lower than many other places around the world. So this is a highly desirable country in which to invest. It's certainly got more than its share of problems. But I tell you, I'm still very bullish on US real estate as long as it's in the right markets. So I certainly echo that sentiment about the foreign investors and so forth. So anything else you want to say to that, by the way, before I move on?

You know, it's funny, a lot of our investors actually fly out here and want to see their properties and we're more than happy to show them around, show them their property, show them other properties. And it's funny, time and time again they come out and their mouth just drops open when they see these 2,000 square foot houses that they're buying for $79,000. And they're telling us this is bigger than the house they live in in California. That half a million dollars. Oh yeah, it's just apples and oranges from, from Atlantic compared to a lot of in markets.

And I want to make sure the listeners know, and I've been talking about this on previous shows, but there is some talk that, and it's getting to be a roar a bit, that we may see the end of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And I think that if that happens, that is going to cause havoc, I mean, destruction in some of the markets that are based largely on high land values, like California, like the Northeast, like still a couple of the primo areas in Florida and Chicagoland and so forth. And there's many others. Not just those, but those are sort of the ones. But the markets where you're buying well below the cost of construction, well below the cost of replacement. Think about what you just said, Ken. A 2,000 square foot house for $79,000, just as one of your sort of typical examples. You couldn't build that for anywhere near that cost today, could you?

Right, that's exactly right.

Yeah. So if you want to be a commodities investor, do it in the way I recommend, which I call packaged commodities investing or assembled commodities investing, where you're buying all these commodities houses made of things and they're sitting on that piece of land that you get for free and you buy the commodities at half the price.

Hard to beat that or even less than half the price. How old are the properties that you're dealing in?

Usually, you know, most of the properties that we're dealing in are built in the 80s or newer. We sold plenty houses that were built in the 90s and in the 2000s. Occasionally, if the house makes sense and the neighborhood is very stable, mostly owner occupied, will buy a house that was built in the 70s. But by and large we're talking 20 to 30 years old.

One of the things I want the listeners to know is that we like the 1980 and newer houses because at the end of the 70s, that's when you saw the end of the lead paint and asbestos and that kind of stuff. And so you're very. It's very unlikely that you'll see that in houses built after 1980. The deal was they had to stop manufacturing it. But occasionally there's an old product used in a house built after that time. And the architecture improved quite a bit in the 80s and beyond. I think too now certainly there are some fantastic rental properties and good investments for older properties. I just Find though that with the investor, that's the non local investor that wants to view things from a nationwide perspective, 1980 and newer is sort of that cutoff point where they feel a little bit more comfortable that they're not getting into the money pit and they're getting something with nicer architecture.

Right, right, right, agreed.

So tell us a little bit about your business model, if you would. How are you sourcing the properties and what are you them and what are you offering to our clients that are listening to the show?

Yeah, well, our business model is essentially geared towards an investor who's looking for something turnkey, somebody that's not on the ground, doesn't know how to necessarily acquire a property, doesn't have the contacts to fix a property up, maybe doesn't even have the contacts to get the financing in place. So our business model is geared around catering to that person. We're offering a product at wholesale prices. We've got the crews in place that do the rehab, usually the tremendous discount just because of our economies of scale. We've got local lender contacts to put the financing in place. And lastly, we've actually got the ability to put tenants in these homes too. And more often than not, the houses are sold with tenants in place with good cash flow. Two, three to four hundred dollars a month in positive cash flow. And so for an out of state investor who's got a full time job, wants to get into real estate, this is the perfect opportunity to capitalize on this window of opportunity with the low interest rates, phenomenal housing prices, and that's sort of what we want, to be able to cater to them.

Talk a little bit about how you're sourcing the properties though, specifically, if you would.

Yeah, that's a good question. We actually, we've got a number of contacts on the ground, REO agents that really give us the inside scoop on houses. I'm not sure how aware you are of this, but it's an incredibly competitive market right now finding properties. And you'll find newbie investors who try to go out and buy a house on their own. And they're finding that every house they have offers on, they're getting outbid.

By the way, I want to echo that sentiment because almost every deal we do now is multiple offers and that is a sign that we are at or very near a bottom or maybe even coming off a bottom. And I don't mean that nationally, I just mean that in the markets we recommend because they're such good values. I mean, people know that even if they pay above list price. They're still buying this property for far below the cost of replacement. So that's just the built in protection. It's your airbag, if you will, against a bad deal. So you've got supplemental safety features there.

You know, and it really, it does, it takes somebody on the ground that has the contacts. And for us, we know a number of these REO agents that actually will call us before listing hits the market and says, hey, hey, Ken, just so you know, this is about to hit the market. I think it's something you're going to be interested in and it gives us a competitive advantage, you know, against a lot of other would be investors.

Let me take a brief pause. We'll be back in just a minute.

Here's your chance to catch up on all of those creating wealth shows that you've missed. There's a three book set with shows 1 through 60, all digital download. You save $94 by buying this three book set. Go ahead and get these advanced strategies for wealth creation. For more details, go jasonhartman.com.

So when you talk about REO, of course, Ken, that means real estate owned, in other words, real estate owned by a bank, a lending institution that has foreclosed on the property. And what the listeners really need to understand that like any business out there, this is a business of relationships. It is a network. And for better or worse, to some extent lesser than before. But in the south there's kind of a good old boys network a little bit, right?

Most definitely, yeah.

I mean it's not as prevalent as it was in the past, of course, but, but it's still there. It still remains. So if someone were to look on realtor.com or something like that and just look on the general Internet, they're going to see a property that has already hit the multiple listing service, the mls. They're not going to see that property that was handed to you by someone you had a relationship with for the last three years and someone who knows you can bring them a buyer from our network, for example, who can perform close that deal quickly because time is money and banks want to dispose of things quickly. They don't want false starts, they don't want deals to fall through and that can be well worth it to them rather than squeezing the last $5,000 out of the deal.

Right, Exactly. That's exactly right.

Yeah. So that relationship and that network really, really count.

Well, the other thing I was going to say is we've over the last year to two years, we've Become sort of experts on HUD properties as well. Well, hud, as you know, were government owned properties. Most of them were FHA backed loans that went back to the government. And the government has their own way of disposing of these properties. And we've actually built, believe it or not, some proprietary software here locally to identify and take down those properties literally at the earliest possible moment. And we've been able to snag a number of really, really good properties for our investors using this proprietary software that we've developed in house.

That's so interesting that you say that Ken, because it reminds me of my roots. When I first got into the business back 20 plus years ago, I actually started by selling HUD and VA foreclosures and some were to regular homeowners, some were to investors, but I remember the sealed bid net to hud, all of that kind of stuff. And of course that's changed a little bit over the years, but just kind of interesting to remember that, huh?

Yep.

Okay, so that's how you source them. Do you act as the seller? I know you do, but want you to tell the listeners, you buy the property, you acquire it, your company actually acquires it and takes title, right?

Correct. We'll buy the property, take title to it, go ahead and begin the rehab, go ahead and start working on getting it fixed up and work on finding a tenant. And then at some point during that process, we're usually introduced to an investor who's interested in buying it. Could be after the rehab is done, could be while the rehab is being performed. Regardless, we document, document, document. We'll give our investor the scope of work, exactly what work was done on the property. We'll take pictures, we'll do videos, whatever we need to do to make an investor comfortable with the property.

So generally what's involved in your rehab or fix up of the property? I mean I know it varies from property to property, but can you give kind of an overview generally of what happens there?

Sure thing. Ideally we want to take a house and most of these understand, are distressed properties. They haven't been cared for. And so we'll come in and we want to make that house look good inside and out. Most of the time that involves exterior paint, some landscaping, a roof if needed, inside definitely paint all new flooring. We always put new appliances in. Most of the time we're putting new H Vac systems in, water heaters, fixtures. When we get done with a property, our tenants mouths drop open when they see that the house because they're coming from an apartment that wasn't well maintained to a house that's got brand new carpet, brand new appliances, fresh paint. And it's a really good looking rehab. And I'll tell you, most of our rehabs run us between 15 to $25,000 and that's really a wholesale cost because of some of the economy, economies of scale, being able to buy in bulk and having the same crews that really work full time for us. But again, by and large most of our rehabs are somewhere in the 15 to $25,000 range.

So you've rehabbed the property and then the property is offered to one of our clients and they can see it on the website of course. Jason hartman.com Click on Properties. What else should they expect? I mean are they getting a warranty, Are they getting a tenant? Is it pre leased or is there a rent guarantee? What happens there? And then let's talk about property management afterward.

The fact, great question. Most, most of the time there's already a tenant in place where we've already finished rehabbing the property, we've put a tenant in and then we're selling it. Sometimes we're introduced to an investor and we're still rehabbing the property and they're basically waiting for us to finish the rehab before they close on the property. In that scenario, we typically provide a three month rent guarantee just because we're so confident we're going to put a tenant in place. And I honestly, I've never had to pay three months of rent ever. We always place tenants. It's Atlanta is a great, very strong rental market market. We've got a steady stream of tenants coming in and out of our office. So I'm more than comfortable offering an investor a rental guarantee if there's not somebody already in place when they purchase the property.

Okay. So many times on those performas or projections, performance projections that are on the website jasonartman.com properties those are actual rents. That is not a projected rent. It's a, it's a rent you're already receiving because the property may well be rented already, right?

Exactly, that's correct.

Good, good. And then of course a vacancy rate of 8% is included in and property is not vacant. So it performs hopefully better than stated even. Let's talk about property management. You said you have tenants walking into your office. So you are offering property management services as well.

We actually have a property manager that we've partnered with here. Locally we are just really good at tenant placement and so it's something we sort of held onto and continue to do in house. And we like having that control of being able to put tenants into house. And then typically, once we place our own tenant, we turn it over to a local property management company that we work with. It's really an extension of us. You know, we're on the phone with the property manager almost every day anyways. It's just not handled directly through our office.

Now, as our listeners know, I've been talking a bit lately about self management, where investors can manage their own properties and do it from afar. It really is possible to do this, and frankly, on my own portfolio, I'm finding it quite easy. Easy to do, and I love getting my whole check every month. But people can do whichever one they want. Of course, if they're not experienced, they really should have a manager. But if they have some degree of sophistication and they've managed properties before, it's something they might want to consider. So in your model, you're leasing the property up initially, but you're not doing the management contract with the investor. So the investor would be free to just take over the property and not even hire a manager, right?

That's exactly right. And you know, I have a number of investors that do exactly that, that they're comfortable talking with the tenant and collecting rent on their own.

And are they doing that from afar? I was always afraid that I couldn't do that. And I'm finding it to be quite easy to do on properties that I've never visited, never seen, that are 2,000 miles away from me. Just self management. It's another option. It's really kind of neat.

It is, and I'm glad you brought that up. A lot. A lot of people think that they have to have property management, but we found that it's definitely not necessary. It is convenient. But yeah, if you want your whole check, then it may make sense to be the person managing the property yourself, even from afar.

Good. What else do people need to know?

You know, we've been at this a long time. We feel like we picked properties that make sense. I'll tell you, I'll look at 50 properties before we choose one, and we may or may not even get that one. We're very picky, we're very choosy about the neighborhoods that we're in because we're operating in many of the same neighborhoods and same zip codes. We know the streets like the back of our hand. We know where to buy, where not to buy, buy. We bring a lot of value that somebody who's not local or even somebody that is local wouldn't necessarily know or be able to operate as efficiently as we do and as intelligently as we do. So we're excited to work with your investors. I feel like it's a safe investment right now. There's definitely a window of opportunity with interest rates and home prices where they're at. Especially now seeing that home prices are slightly on the increase in Atlanta. There should be slight sense of urgency that 2011, and I'm sure 2012 as well. These are going to be the years to really capitalize on this market, and we want to be there to help your investors do that.

Good. Well, anything else you want to mention to the investors before we go, Ken?

Yeah, I think that's it. You know, we'd be more than happy to talk to you. We're available five days a week. We're there to consult with you. And the other thing we promised to our investors is we're there for you for the life of the investment. So if you buy a house through us two years down the road, you lose a 10, you get me on the phone and we'll immediately replace that tenant for you. We'll take care of any issues. We are your eyes and ears on the ground and it should give investors a sense of confidence in dealing with us.

Good stuff. Well, hey Ken, thanks so much for joining us today and we will talk to you soon. Thanks.

Thanks, Jason.

Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the state of Georgia, as.

Well as the urban core of one.

Of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in states the United United States. Considered a top business city and a transportation hub, Atlanta is the world headquarters of The Coca Cola Company AT&T Mobility and Delta Air Lines. The surrounding area contains additional corporate headquarters, including Home Depot and UPS. Atlanta has the nation's third largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 75% of the Fortune 1000 companies have a presence in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Our analysis of Atlanta as an investment opportunity will focus on demographics, the overall property market and the emergence of attractive.

Micro markets with a comprehensive network of freeways that radiate out from the city. Residents rely on their cars as Interstate 285, a beltway locally known as the Perimeter, which has come to mark the boundary between the interior of the region and its surrounding subject, mostly encircles the dominant mode of transportation in the region, Atlanta.

Three key attributes make Atlanta a tremendous opportunity for investors. These are favorable demographics, superior quality of life and an attractive business climate. Any of these three factors can help an investment market, but the combination of all three creates an unparalleled opportunity in the Atlanta area.

The combined metropolitan area for Atlanta has a population of 5.4 million people people, which represents growth of 1.1 million people from 2000 through 2008. The population of Atlanta is expected to grow to 7.7 million residents by the year 2025. The driving force behind this rapid growth is the strong business environment and employment opportunities in and around the city. The median income for a household in the city was $47,464 and the median income for a family was $59,711. About 21.8% of the population and 17.2% of families lived below the poverty line. When combined with the low cost of living in Atlanta, many residents have significant amounts of disposable income that help support vibrant culture and entertainment options throughout the city. Atlanta is growing very quickly and has a very sizable affluent population that will only grow in relevance as more commerce concentrates in atlant. As an ideally placed business and transportation hub for the southeastern United States, Atlanta is ascending on a growth path. While many former industrial cities are experiencing significant economic contraction, Atlanta is home to.

One of the largest concentrations of colleges and universities in the country. The city has more than 30 institutions of higher education, including the Georgia Institute of Technology, a predominant engineering and research university that's been ranked in the top 10 public universities since 1999 by U.S. news & World Report, and Georgia State University. Atlanta is also the home to four major league sports teams, plays host to the PGA Players Championship, and contains the world's largest aquarium in downtown Atlanta. One of the key attributes that attracts so many people to Atlanta is its superior quality of life. With a strong business environment, reasonable commute, extensive culture and educational institutions, there is no shortage of opportunity for people of varying.

Interests. As the unofficial capital of the southeast United States, Atlanta represents a shining gem of opportunity. An example of Atlanta's Importance is its 270 billion GDP, which represents nearly two thirds of the Georgia economy. This is largely why Atlanta is among the top three major cities in relocation and growth. People are choosing relocation to Atlanta because of its superior business environment. The importance of Atlanta's business climate cannot be understated as there will be many companies redeploying resources out of high tax states and into more business friendly environments over the coming years. Atlanta is standing directly in the middle of this progress trajectory and investors who are positioned to ride this wave can can realize tremendous.

Gains. Atlanta has a highly diverse base of employment with nine Fortune 500 company headquarters in the city, there is no shortage of employment opportunity. This broad base creates much more economic stability for Atlanta than is experienced in many industrial cities that have become dependent on a small number of companies or industries. As the business hub of the southeastern United States, Atlanta can be counted on to continue on its growth trajectory for a considerable amount of.

Time. Atlanta is one of eight US cities classified as a beta world city by a 2008 study at Loughborough University and ranks third in the number of Fortune 500 companies headquartered within city boundaries behind New York City, Houston and Dallas. Several major national and international companies are headquartered in Atlanta or its Nearby suburbs, including three Fortune 100 companies the.

City of Atlanta possesses very attractive housing affordability and cost of living, being ranked the fourth best major metropolitan area for both housing affordability and cost of living. The attractiveness of Atlanta as an affordable market makes it an ideal focal point for the next wave of economic growth as young professionals flee from highly taxed and highly regulated.

Markets. The housing market in Atlanta has been damaged by the financial crisis similar to most major metropolitan areas. The key difference is that the strong economy of Atlanta and continued population growth has created a large population of prospective renters. This presents a rare window of opportunity for investors to capture good cash flow, excellent return on investment and favorable location in one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the.

Country. Atlanta offers the opportunity for a tremendous ROI 12 pump. The first step is short term cash flow on a superior investment property. The second piece is long term appreciation from an investment that's located in a rapidly growing metropolitan area. There are multiple micro markets in and around Atlanta that are very attractive at the current time. Are you ready to take advantage of.

Them? The rehabilitation that is going into these properties looks like it belongs on a reality show. Many houses are being transformed from older average looking residents residences to new and attractive homes for the burgeoning population of professionals in the Atlanta area. These opportunities are very near the once in a lifetime status since Atlanta is expected to grow significantly in the near future and prices may rise to the point where investment in the area becomes much less lucrative than it is.

Today. If you would like to learn more about the investment opportunities available in the Atlanta Market market, contact your investment counselor for a one on one consultation. In addition to the investment properties, ask your counselor about our coaching programs where they work alongside you to develop a holistic strategy that merges attractive investments, solid financial planning, exceptional education and a strong focus on personal values to help achieve your goals now and into the future. We are ready to help you realize the success that you've always driven, dreamed of. Are you ready to take the next.

Step?

This show is produced by The Hartman Media Co. All rights reserved. For distribution or publication rights and media interviews, please visit www.hartmanmedia.com or email me.

Nothing on this show should be considered specific personal or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own and the host is acting on behalf of Platinum Properties Investor Network, Inc. Exclusively.