Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
So earlier in another thread I was considering buying a house in macon to live in. After thinking about it and being resigned to the lack of what I would consider suitable neighborhoods, I decided to scrap that. Frankly, there just isn't anywhere here.....I want to live. That said I did buy a house in ingleside area and have already started renting it. I think it will be an easy long term rental, and plan to repeat this model.
But besides the best 8-9 streets on ingleside, what are some other areas of macon where one can buy a decent house for a reasonable price and then make it an attractive long term rental?
I'm not looking for real low end housing that is going to rent for like 900-1100/mo. I'm thinking more of 3/2 type properties that are going to sell for 185-265k and rent for 1450-1800/mo.
So earlier in another thread I was considering buying a house in macon to live in. After thinking about it and being resigned to the lack of what I would consider suitable neighborhoods, I decided to scrap that. Frankly, there just isn't anywhere here.....I want to live. That said I did buy a house in ingleside area and have already started renting it. I think it will be an easy long term rental, and plan to repeat this model.
But besides the best 8-9 streets on ingleside, what are some other areas of macon where one can buy a decent house for a reasonable price and then make it an attractive long term rental?
I'm not looking for real low end housing that is going to rent for like 900-1100/mo. I'm thinking more of 3/2 type properties that are going to sell for 185-265k and rent for 1450-1800/mo.
thanks in advance!
None. We're beyond full of out of town landlords. Half of this city's issues can be attributed to out of town landlords/slumlords who buy houses and don't maintain them, don't maintain the yard, and rent to people who pile 10 people in and destroy otherwise nice neighborhoods.
None. We're beyond full of out of town landlords. Half of this city's issues can be attributed to out of town landlords/slumlords who buy houses and don't maintain them, don't maintain the yard, and rent to people who pile 10 people in and destroy otherwise nice neighborhoods.
well that's not me as I'm not aiming for those sort of low end rentals and I actually turned over to a reputable management company who makes sure even minor problems are fixed. They don't let things like that happen. I was even asked to fix something minor the other day for the tenant(and gladly did so) that were I living there myself I never would have even bothered.
Also a side note- it's the tenants responsibility(typically in most contracts) to do basic lawm maintenance(like make sure it's cut regularly). Obviously big outdoor/yard projects would be deferred to and handled by the owner.
And I agree with you about slumlords and such. That's definately not the kind of thing i'm going for. I would like to have 4-5 more properties in the ingleside area(streets like riverdale, vista, the good parts of ingleside, Albermarle, marjorie, etc) for the reason that it does look relatively nice and well kept(by macon standards) and I like the style of the houses as well.
I'll also add that in towns like macon that have a lot of what I consider 'C-' residential properties, having a vibrant landlord community can be a good thing, *if* the landlords are investing in the properties and the communities.
What I mean by a 'C-' property is just an older house that isn't in the best shape(but isn't completely useless or a teardown) in a fairly undesirable neighborhood(but a neighborhood that isn't overtly dangerous).
What happens is the capitol and landlords get in there and buy one of these slowly declining unappealing C- properties(that may not be too far away from being uninhabited at some point and then REALLY declining) and put some money into it to repair it, make it look better, and just make it be a more inviting place to call home. And then of course it's ready for rent.(or flip, if thats your thing)
the house above clearly has some issues or needs a little 'tlc' as we like to say in the business. And looking at the street view, the neighborhood would likely be best described as subpar and unappealing but not overtly dangerous. If this house were fixed up a little bit, it can be a perfectly usable house for someone to live in.
So what happens is a landlord(or a flipper, but I'm speaking more to landlords here) buys it for 60k, puts about 20-25k into it because they have connections with contractors/materials/etc) and it gets new paint, and a low cost quick to install new bathroom and kitchen put in(low end but perfectly usable). Likely new flooring as well(not carpet...carpet is not good in this business lol). So then they have 85k in it, it looks a lot better and like a home that someone wouldn't mind living in on a budget, and they can rent it longterm for 1000/mo or maybe even a little more after the upgrades.
Macon has *tons* of homes just like this......in my opinion it's the landlord types that are doing good and saving them for the most part. Because think about the alternative- if a landlord or someone with capitol doesn't come in and buy it and fix it up a little, it will only continue to deteriorate likely.....
Note that I don't have a personal stake in the above game because those aren't the properties Im targeting. I'm targeting small(3/2....14-1600 sq ft) properties in ingleside and such in the 200k or a little above region that don't need a lot of work and would be inhabited either way.
But for the people who do go for the lower end properties, I think they are doing good.
Now I think your earlier response may have been geared towards the very very low end properties and they may not put much into or care about. I agree there- that's not good.
But what anti-landlord types have to remember is that for the most part the landlords *do* care about the home and keeping it appealing, because they are the owner and they plan on pulling their capitol back out at some point when the time is right. That can't be done effectively if they don't care about their property.
I'm not anti-landlord, but pro-homeowner. In my 17 years living in a relatively nice neighborhood, the landlords you describe are not the majority. There are some good ones, but I would estimate the ones I have experience with break down as 20% good ones, 30% decent, and 50% money hungry jerks who only respond when neighbors (like me) get code enforcement involved and things have to get pretty bad for the city to step in.
The issue is that Macon's housing prices are low enough that anybody who has their act together can buy a house rather easily. This leads to two types of renters: those who want to rent (often young people or singles who go for lofts or apartments) and those who have no choice due to credit. ( the latter are a majority).
My experience is maybe 20% of SFH renters actually mow their lawn, take trash cans back to the home after trash day, etc. (I know...the trash can getting left on the curb and never brought to the house seems Karen-ish, but I have found it to be the best correlation to decency as far as neighbors are concerned Those too lazy to wheel the trash to and fro are lazy in every other aspect). Most landlords don't care as long as the rent check comes. They don't have live next to the yard, the barking dogs, the cars in the yard, etc. It used to be just low end renters, but now it's homes renting for $1500-1800 often filled with lazy couldn't care less types. Management companies can help, but often aren't much better. Once again, as long as the renters pay, they don't care.
You would think that the owners would want to maintain the homes, but in reality, it seems its easier to just replace with contractor grade everything every few years and let the renters destroy whatever they want.
My experience with rentals has been typically negative and occasionally dreadful. If you take care of your properties, that is wonderful, but I disagree that "most *do* care". Far too many only care about getting as many checks as they can for as long as they can and then unload the trashed house for whatever they can get....rinse....repeat.
No homeowner wants a rental next to them ever. And for good reason.
Last edited by midgeorgiaman; 08-24-2023 at 02:03 PM..
I'm not anti-landlord, but pro-homeowner. In my 17 years living in a relatively nice neighborhood, the landlords you describe are not the majority. There are some good ones, but I would estimate the ones I have experience with break down as 20% good ones, 30% decent, and 50% money hungry jerks who only respond when neighbors (like me) get code enforcement involved and things have to get pretty bad for the city to step in.
The issue is that Macon's housing prices are low enough that anybody who has their act together can buy a house rather easily. This leads to two types of renters: those who want to rent (often young people or singles who go for lofts or apartments) and those who have no choice due to credit. ( the latter are a majority).
My experience is maybe 20% of SFH renters actually mow their lawn. The rest don't care and as long as the rent check cashes, the homeowner doesn't care either. They don't have live next to the yard, the barking dogs, the cars in the yard, etc. It used to be just low end renters, but now it's homes renting for $1500-1800 often filled with lazy couldn't care less types. Management companies can help, but often aren't much better. Once again, as long as they pay, they don't care.
You would think that the owners would want to maintain the homes, but in reality, it seems its easier to just replace with contractor grade everything every few years and let the renters destroy whatever they want.
My experience with rentals has been typically negative and occasionally dreadful. If you take care of your property, that is wonderful, but I disagree that "most *do* care". Far too many only care about getting as many checks as they can for as long as they can and then unload the trashed house for whatever they can get....rinse....repeat.
No homeowner wants a rental next to them ever. And for good reason.
I think some of this speaks to just how bad the housing/neighborhood options are in macon. And how many of them are low end houses/neighborhoods to begin with. Because if an owner is looking at things like "unloading the trashed house for whatever they can get", then they are dealing in some pretty crappy properties. If you buy decent properties to rent, you simply *will not* make money if you don't take care of the place and let it go to ****. The margins on non-crappy houses just aren't big enough for that, and in fact part of the investment strategy when you are dealing with respectable homes(which in macon is a lot lower than most places.....a respectable home here may be 180k but in parts of atlanta 800k) is to not only take a slice of profit on the annual rent but also on longterm appreciation. If you let the house break down and it falls into disrepair, you don't have access to that needed second slice and it's a losing game.
Ex: Let's say one buys a house in macon for 210k. Rent is 1550/month. After insurance, property taxes, maintenance, budgeting for repairs, etc the total profit before taxes for a year may be 8k. if that. If the person rented it for 4 straight years and progessively let it go to crap, they only have a net profit from the rental side of things of 32k. And that's if things go well. Now consider what happens to that resale if they have a trashed house in 4-5 years? As you see.....the numbers just don't make sense if you are buying respectable properties to not keep them up.
As to what homeowners want.....well, it's not their property. Just as I want I want for their house is not relevant lol.
I will add this on the lawn care though- if 20% of the renters aren't keeping their yard decent, those people are going to do the same thing anywhere. That's not a landlord issue.....that just means there are lazy people out there. Nothing anyone can do about that. They are going to be out there in the world not mowing their yard regardless of where they are living and under what arraingment......
But back to the numbers- I agree with you that it makes sense for the owner to not care on low end rentals/houses. But if you look at the numbers it just doesn't make sense on decent properties to not care. The margins on decent properties are *much too low* in terms of annual rental as a percentage of home price to let it go to crap and throw away appreciation(or worse have to put more into it to restore it after several renters than it would have appreciated in pristine condition).
If I could rent a 200k house here for 3200, sure......maybe it works to allow it to go to crap. But that's not the case, so unless one wants to lose money they better make sure their houses aren't being trashed(assuming they are not dealing in low end rentals)
I think some of this speaks to just how bad the housing/neighborhood options are in macon. And how many of them are low end houses/neighborhoods to begin with. Because if an owner is looking at things like "unloading the trashed house for whatever they can get", then they are dealing in some pretty crappy properties. If you buy decent properties to rent, you simply *will not* make money if you don't take care of the place and let it go to ****. The margins on non-crappy houses just aren't big enough for that, and in fact part of the investment strategy when you are dealing with respectable homes(which in macon is a lot lower than most places.....a respectable home here may be 180k but in parts of atlanta 800k) is to not only take a slice of profit on the annual rent but also on longterm appreciation. If you let the house break down and it falls into disrepair, you don't have access to that needed second slice and it's a losing game.
Ex: Let's say one buys a house in macon for 210k. Rent is 1550/month. After insurance, property taxes, maintenance, budgeting for repairs, etc the total profit before taxes for a year may be 8k. if that. If the person rented it for 4 straight years and progessively let it go to crap, they only have a net profit from the rental side of things of 32k. And that's if things go well. Now consider what happens to that resale if they have a trashed house in 4-5 years? As you see.....the numbers just don't make sense if you are buying respectable properties to not keep them up.
As to what homeowners want.....well, it's not their property. Just as I want I want for their house is not relevant lol.
I will add this on the lawn care though- if 20% of the renters aren't keeping their yard decent, those people are going to do the same thing anywhere. That's not a landlord issue.....that just means there are lazy people out there. Nothing anyone can do about that. They are going to be out there in the world not mowing their yard regardless of where they are living and under what arraingment......
But back to the numbers- I agree with you that it makes sense for the owner to not care on low end rentals/houses. But if you look at the numbers it just doesn't make sense on decent properties to not care. The margins on decent properties are *much too low* in terms of annual rental as a percentage of home price to let it go to crap and throw away appreciation(or worse have to put more into it to restore it after several renters than it would have appreciated in pristine condition).
If I could rent a 200k house here for 3200, sure......maybe it works to allow it to go to crap. But that's not the case, so unless one wants to lose money they better make sure their houses aren't being trashed(assuming they are not dealing in low end rentals)
This is the problem with homeowners vs landlords. Homeowners want a safe clean community to "live" in and are fully invested in the community whereas landlords are only financially invested. Yes, livability affects their ability to make a profit, but nuisances only affect them on paper whereas homeowners take a financial and quality of life hit from nuisances. I think local government could do a lot more to incentivize proper care of property, but that is for another day. As far as Macon goes, I know the pulse of this town pretty well and rents are about maxed out for the incomes here while prices on anything decent continue to rise albeit slower than before. The extreme profitability that existed for investors here since 2008 is hopefully (for me) slowing. I am seeing more nice homes sell to homeowners and those that go to investors seem to be more AirBnB investors which is a whole other issue. But to my point: respectful landlords who maintain their property are fine, but I just haven't met as many of them as I have the sorry ones which is why my view is so negative.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
