Savannah Investors Need Help in a ‘Hostile’ Market
If you are considering investing in the thriving market of Savannah, Georgia, you probably should take a friend. At least, that is the consensus of many buyers in a market that continues to post massive volumes of offers on nearly every property and record huge over-asking margins on those properties. With barely more than half the sale inventory available today that was available a year ago, Savannah homebuyers are nearly universally electing to work with buyers’ agents (88 percent of sales include such a professional), but real estate investors interested in the market need someone a little more specialized in order to enter and succeed in the area.
At present, Savannah has posted one of the biggest flipping declines on record across the country with an average return on investment (ROI) that is down 80 percent from 2020. The reason, most experts agree, is that the market is simply too competitive for new investors to handle, resulting in investors paying far more than they can afford just to acquire inventory. The solution is to work with established, embedded investor service providers who can provide access to off-market deals that fit a flipper’s needs and allow room in the renovation budget for the necessary upgrades. Failure to achieve this type of lead generation may lead to what Todd Teta, ATTOM Data’s chief product officer, refers to as “an extended holding pattern” for many flippers in which they either stop acquiring properties during periods of extreme market heat or begin holding those properties as rentals in hopes of making up costs accrued during the acquisition process.
“After riding the housing boom along with others for years, [flippers] now might be having second thoughts,” Teta said in June. However, he added, “It is too early to say for sure whether home flippers have indeed gone into an extended holding pattern.” In Savannah, specifically, it seems likely since flip volumes were down 43 percent earlier this year. While this might seem like negative news for would-be investors in the southern city, the reality is that a smaller population of flippers in the Savannah area simply adds fuel to established businesses like ours that have been serving Savannah-area investors for decades.
We have been building a network of investors, contractors, and lead generation systems in the Savannah area for more than 10 years, which is why we are still able to acquire nearly double the number of properties on a monthly basis than our nearest “competitor” in the area. With inspection and work approval times skyrocketing, investors must have a trusted partner in Savannah if they want to acquire profitable, wealth-building real estate investments in 2021.
