I write this post to warn others about a property I have come across and in the hope that the company that was marketing it removes it from their list of available properties.
I recently met a young lady at a property expo. She mentioned that she was considering buying a home through an Australian company in Atlanta. The property being considered was 78 Bisbee Avenue Atlanta 30315. I was immediatley concerned knowing the area this property was in is a very rough neighbourhood.
I offered to run some reports and send through comparable sales and do some research on what the property last sold for or was currently under contract for.
First alarm bells went off, the property was being sold to her at 70k (and it took me less then 2 minutes to identify it was under offer for 44,900) Why anyone would pay anywhere near this price for it is beyond me. I guess as the seller was playing hot potato with this property and didn't plan to keep it I can only assume they didn't care. Buying anything in this area to promote to investors in my opinion is simply irresponsible.
Secondly when we ran reports of surrounding streets many of the properties (you could clearly see from the photos) were boarded up and even more alarming selling for VERY VERY low prices, well under 20k in many instances.
We currently have a client in Atlanta and we thought it would be a good exercise to show her the good , the bad and the ugly so they drove past this house today "it ended up being an example of what not to buy". The feedback I received today on this property was shocking. My client suggested it was one of the worst streets she had ever been in and felt physically ill when she drove past the street knowing this client almost paid 70k for this home. She said had it been her she would have been absolutly devastated. Just about every home in the street was boarded up. We expected it to be a very undesirable property as our management company was managing a property just streets away that is almost unmanageable. To paint a picture the contractors refused to go out and do work on the property as they just did not feel safe doing so and the management company no longer was prepared to continue managing it.
The purpose of my post is to warn others as I can only imagine that the same company is promoting this property to other Australian clients and I would hate for anyone to get stuck with this one. Not only would it be highly unlikely that you would be able to resell it for the 70k but I suspect finding and keeping a tenant in this property would be very difficult. Who is going to want to live in a street full of boarded houses?
If there is anyone out there considering purchasing in Atlanta please ensure you do the following.
1) As a bare minimum please check http://www.zillow.com and type in the property address. You really need to try and identify what the person selling you this property last paid for it or what it was last listed for.
Here is a link to this property.
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/78-Bisbee-Ave-SE-Atlanta-GA-30315/35882958_zpid/
If you view the map at the bottom of the listing you will be able to see that there have been some very low comparable sales.
2) Ask for video footage not just of the house but of the surrounding area. You really want to see what is across the road, next door etc and view some of the surrounding streets. Its not enough to view photos only.
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Karina Perez Ronderos
Select American Homes LLC | Phone +61 412 900 111
Just like any big US city Atlanta has its share of Ghetto's.
this same story can be repeated hundreds of times from Detroit to Memphis to Rochester, Cleveland, St Luis, Chicago,
Indy etc etc.
The fact remains there are many companies out there and operators in the US and OZ that are just plain bad people, and they are what I call financial Sociopath. If they can make 30k on selling you a house that is worth next to nothing and never produces rent , and be down the road that's all these folks are really.
And if what Karina is saying is true a street of board ups the house is probably being bought for between 5 to 10k MAX.
Would not doubt that some one is flipping it to the one buyer at 40k who is then trying to suck in the Offshore buyer for 70k.
I think by and large the public is catching on at least those reading this site.
JLH
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