This Issue August 2026 edition
462 vs 682
Operators recording at least one flip resale this edition, against the same period a year ago
Flip exits are thinning faster than investor buying: 462 operators sold 1,047 homes this edition against 682 selling 1,441 a year ago, while investor purchases held flat
Resale supply from flippers is contracting on both counts: 1,047 flips sold this edition versus 1,441 a year ago, produced by 462 operators versus 682. Investor purchase volume did not follow — 3,732 recorded buys against 3,724 a year ago — so the pullback is concentrated in who is finishing and listing projects, not in who is acquiring. Pricing on the exits barely moved, median $328,000 against $336,500, and gross margin held at $68,000 versus $67,900. Fewer sellers competing on the same rehab product is the operating condition this period.
Investor Playbook
What this issue's numbers suggest checking, by investor type. Observations from recorded data — not investment, legal, or tax advice.
Sell into the zips where operators are still closing
Only 4 assignments surfaced on recorded deeds against 86 a year ago, and that count is a floor. With 462 buyers active instead of 682, the data suggests tightening lists to zips with the most flip resales this edition — 30016 and 30127 at 23 each, 30032 at 20, 30052 at 16 — and to the flip buy box the records show: about 1,728 sqft, 3 bed, median year built 1986.
Less exit competition, unchanged pricing math
Median resale held at $180/sqft against $181 a year ago, gross margin at $68,000 (31.5%), hold time 180 days versus 184. Cobb took 15.1% of resales this edition against 12.3%, while Fulton slipped to 13.7% from 15.8%; worth checking whether your acquisition basis in Cobb still supports the $328,000 median exit before adding there.
Basis gap between product types is the decision this period
Single family bought at a $310,000 median and $167/sqft; condos at $280,000 and $242/sqft; mobile/manufactured at $102,000 and $87/sqft. With the overall investor median down to $307,750 from $325,000, the data suggests pricing offers off $/sqft rather than headline price, especially in Covington ($195,000 median buy) and Decatur ($215,000).
The small rehab loan is the visible hole
Recorded private loans fell to 28 from 54; over the trailing 12 months 64.6% of observed purchases were financed, 29.8% of those financed loans funded rehab (865), median loan $197,631 at 0.83 loan-to-price. Kiavi wrote 80 loans with a 73.8% rehab share and a $191,250 median purchase. Worth checking demand below that median loan size, where recorded private paper has thinned most.
Small multi is a thin but repricing tape
Eighty-nine 2-4 unit purchases at a $660,000 median ($277/sqft) and 29 apartment 5+ purchases at a $1.71M median ($116/sqft) frame the two ends. Small multi was 1.3% of flip resales this edition against 0.1% a year ago — a small base, but the first sign operators are exiting 2-4 unit product; worth tracking before assuming a thin resale bid.
Factoids
Numbers from this period a practitioner would repeat to a colleague. Each computed directly from recorded instruments.
$307,750 — Median investor purchase price this edition
Acquisition basis is lower even though purchase count is flat at 3,732 versus 3,724. Buyers are transacting at the same pace on cheaper paper.
$277/sqft — Median price per square foot on 2-4 unit purchases
Eighty-nine 2-4 unit deals cleared at a $660,000 median. Small multi carries the widest basis premium in the residential mix this period.
25% — Share of investor purchases by out-of-state buyers
Out-of-state buyers paid a $324,465 median, above the local median. TX (295), AZ (149) and FL (94) lead the feeder states.
28 — Private loans recorded this edition
Median recorded private loan rose to $278,000 from $200,000. Fewer, larger recorded notes leave a visible gap at smaller loan sizes.
61 — New seller-financed notes held
Median note size fell to $210,067 from $347,500. Seller paper is being written more often on cheaper properties.
3.3% — Share of flip resales in 30135 (Douglasville South)
The largest zip-level share gain this edition. Meanwhile 30157 (Dallas) went from 1.8% of resales to none recorded.
Market Activity — Investor Purchases
Monthly count of investor purchases of MSA properties (left axis) and the median purchase price (right axis), trailing 13 months. The most recent month can grow up to ~15% as late recordings arrive.
Investor purchases per month (bars) and median purchase price (line), trailing 13 months.
Which vintage of housing investors bought this edition, by decade built.
Where the Money Went
The geography of the period's investor activity: which zip codes saw the most recorded deals, and the largest individual transactions at street level.
The 8 busiest zip codes for investor deals
Pins rank the busiest zips by recorded investor deals (purchases + flips of existing homes) this period — #1 busiest; orange = top 3; pin size scales with deal volume. Median buy is the typical investor purchase; median sale the typical flip resale. Click a pin for details; full table below.
| # | Zip | Area | Purchases | Flips | Median buy | Median sale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | 30349 | South Fulton | 77 | 14 | $231,200 | $271,450 |
| #2 | 30331 | Southwest Atlanta | 68 | 15 | $201,000 | $258,000 |
| #3 | 30310 | West End | 68 | 12 | $221,200 | $262,750 |
| #4 | 30309 | Midtown | 76 | 1 | $377,500 | n/a |
| #5 | 30318 | West Midtown | 71 | 6 | $252,900 | $378,245 |
| #6 | 30052 | Loganville | 53 | 16 | $350,001 | $335,000 |
| #7 | 30016 | COVINGTON | 44 | 23 | $196,000 | $277,000 |
| #8 | 30032 | Belvedere Park | 44 | 20 | $215,000 | $276,450 |
A representative deal in each of the busiest zips
One deal per zip: the largest matching this market's typical house (typical for this market: 1713 sqft, 3 bed, built around 1985; priced within 4x the county assessment and under 5x its own zip's median).
$1.2M · Purchase
40 12TH ST NE, Atlanta 30309
Street View Mar 2025 — before the purchase
$749,832 · Purchase
316 HENRY AARON AVE SW, Atlanta 30310
Street View Apr 2012 — before the purchase
$588,400 · Purchase
1805 ELLINGTON ST, Decatur 30032
Street View Jan 2025 — before the purchase
$457,000 · Purchase
305 STERLING CREEK WAY, Loganville 30052
Street View Mar 2026 — before the purchase
$350,000 · Purchase
908 SILVERWOOD DR, Atlanta 30349
Street View Nov 2024 — before the purchase
$295,000 · Purchase
3380 COLONY DR, Covington 30016
Street View Oct 2022 — before the purchase
Deal sheet — private lending, in date order
Private loans recorded against residential property this period, oldest first.
| Date | Lender | Amount | Property | Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 3 | Patrick Burrows | $240,000 | 1781 Jody DR Ne, Marietta 30066 | Single family |
| Mar 10 | Atlfolks Trust | $275,000 | 1300 Lavista DR SW, Mableton 30126 | Single family |
| Mar 10 | Heslep Doug | $225,000 | 4028 Rock Mill DR, Marietta 30062 | Single family |
| Mar 16 | Wallace Robert | $117,449 | 1365 Victoria ST, Douglasville 30134 | Single family |
| Mar 18 | Groover David | $450,000 | 389 England PL, Marietta 30066 | Single family |
| Mar 30 | Fisher Jeffrey | $248,000 | 1299 Seven Springs Cir, Marietta 30068 | Single family |
| Apr 1 | Fisher Jeffrey | $187,500 | 5536 Richland DR, Douglasville 30135 | Single family |
Largest flip margin deals of the period, at street level
Gross margin = recorded sale price minus the flipper's recorded purchase price. Purchase deeds are recoverable for roughly 4 in 10 flips; rehab and carry costs are not public record.
$1.1M gross · bought $407,500 (Mar 2025) → sold $1.5M
1138 JANES LN NE, Atlanta 30324
Street View Apr 2012 — before the flip (pre-renovation)
$955,000 gross · bought $435,000 (May 2025) → sold $1.4M
2685 KNOX ST NE, Atlanta 30317
Street View Jan 2026 — during the flip
$899,000 gross · bought $303,000 (May 2022) → sold $1.2M
134 LOST LAKE TRL, Villa Rica 30180
Street View Feb 2023 — during the flip
$885,000 gross · bought $390,000 (Mar 2025) → sold $1.3M
1207 CONWAY RD, Decatur 30030
Street View Dec 2022 — before the flip (pre-renovation)
$730,000 gross · bought $460,000 (Apr 2025) → sold $1.2M
3342 PRETTY BRANCH DR SE, Smyrna 30080
Street View Mar 2015 — before the flip (pre-renovation)
$720,000 gross · bought $370,000 (Jul 2024) → sold $1.1M
429 WOODHAVEN DR, Decatur 30030
Street View Jan 2026 — during the flip
Flip Structure — Year over Year
How the flip market itself is changing: margins, who is doing the flipping, what they flip, and where. Same two calendar months, this year vs last, from the current data extract.
| Flip market structure | Same months last year | This edition |
|---|---|---|
| Flips sold | 1,441 | 1,047 |
| Median sale | $336,500 | $328,000 |
| Median $/sqft | $181 | $180 |
| Sale vs county-assessed | 1.06× | 1.05× |
| Median gross margin (matched buys) | $67,900 | $68,000 |
| Median margin % | 32% | 31% |
| Median hold | 6.1 mo | 5.9 mo |
| Homes bought by flippers | 1,590 | 1,246 |
| Net to inventory (bought − sold) | +149 | +199 |
| Active flippers | 682 | 462 |
| Top-10 flippers' revenue share | 60% | 53% |
| Median house: sqft / beds / built | 1842 / 3 / 1992 | 1728 / 3 / 1986 |
| Pre-1950 stock share | 4% | 6% |
| 2–4 unit share | 0% | 1% |
| Median distance from downtown | 33.3 km | 32.9 km |
Homes bought counts every deed recorded to a known flipper in the window, resold or not. Net to inventory is that minus flips sold. The standing stock is in the Flip Pipeline section.
Attributed profit per flip (per-investor aggregates, by drop period): Feb 26→Jun 26: 1,985 flips, $105,086/flip · Jun 26→Aug 26: 63 flips, $182,083/flip.
County mix (share of flips, last year → this edition): Cobb 12%→15% · DeKalb 14%→14% · Fulton 16%→14% · Gwinnett 12%→11% · Henry 6%→7% · Clayton 4%→5% · Douglas 3%→5% · Carroll 4%→5% · Cherokee 5%→4% · Newton 3%→3% · Walton 2%→2% · Forsyth 2%→2% · Bartow 2%→2% · Rockdale 3%→2% · Fayette 1%→2% · Barrow 2%→2% · Butts 0%→1% · Haralson 0%→1% · Pickens 0%→1% · Dawson 0%→1% · Coweta 2%→1% · Meriwether 0%→0% · Lamar 0%→0% · Pike 0%→0% · Heard 0%→0% · Paulding 4%→0% · Morgan 0%→0% · Jasper 0%→0% · Spalding 1%→0%.
Biggest zip share moves: Douglasville South 1.2%→3.3% · Dallas 1.8%→0.0% · South Fulton 3.0%→1.3% · 30132 1.6%→0.0% · Duluth 1.6%→0.1%.
Flip Pipeline — Buying, Selling and Inventory
Homes bought by known flippers and homes they resold, per month, alongside the stock sitting in flipper hands. A house enters inventory when a flipper buys it and leaves on the next recorded sale, at any price. Purchases still unsold after five years are treated as holds and drop out.
Solid = recorded, dashed = projected. Green bars are inventory on the right axis: homes bought and not yet resold. Aged out is purchases passing five years unsold. Inventory moves by bought minus resold minus aged out.
| Flip pipeline | Bought / mo | Resold / mo | Aged out / mo | Inventory |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Latest recorded month (2026-04) | 549 | 602 | 371 | 19,156 |
| Projected (2026-10) | 498 | 617 | 191 | 17,348 |
Method: a straight-line trend through the last 24 months, adjusted for the month of the year, shown dashed as a projection. The series stops before the newest month or two, where deeds are still recording.
Who's Funding the Deals
First mortgages open on flipper purchases from May 2025 – Apr 2026 that have not yet resold. 65% carried recorded debt; the rest closed cash or off-record. Ranked by deal count.
65%
2,899 of 4,485 flipper purchases carried a recorded first mortgage
$197,631
median 0.83× the purchase price
30%
865 of 2,899 loans exceed the purchase price, so the lender is covering work as well as the buy
| Lender | Loans | Borrowers | Median loan | Loan vs price | Funds rehab | Median purchase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kiavi Funding | 80 | 47 | $203,900 | 1.24× | 74% | $191,250 |
| Rocket Mortgage | 46 | 33 | $251,100 | 0.90× | 26% | $275,300 |
| Ameris Bank | 43 | 35 | $311,355 | 0.86× | 16% | $384,500 |
| Wells Fargo Bank NA | 42 | 30 | $119,758 | 0.48× | 12% | $268,200 |
| Quicken Loans | 38 | 26 | $158,982 | 0.68× | 11% | $253,358 |
| United Wholesale | 37 | 32 | $247,833 | 0.86× | 22% | $310,000 |
| Bank of America | 36 | 28 | $117,855 | 0.58× | 6% | $220,550 |
| Bank of America NA | 32 | 25 | $115,183 | 0.44× | 6% | $258,400 |
| Kiavi Funding INC | 28 | 22 | $360,750 | 1.15× | 79% | $343,500 |
| Homebanc MTG | 27 | 23 | $123,850 | 0.66× | 4% | $190,200 |
Rates and terms are not published: the county feed models both. Borrowers counts the distinct flippers on each lender's book. Loan vs price is the recorded first mortgage divided by what the buyer paid. Above 1.00x the lender is funding purchase plus rehab; below it the buyer brought cash to the table. Blanket mortgages covering several parcels are excluded, as are loans outside 0.1x-3x the price. Rates and points are not public record.
Flipper Profile — The Working Flipper
The 70th–90th percentile of local flippers by lifetime flip count — the established operators below the whales: 3–6 lifetime flips each. Bath counts are not in the assessor extract.
1,951
each with 3–6 lifetime flips (avg 3.7)
$33,500
37,829 flips matched to their purchase price
5.3 mo
purchase to resale, matched deals
1713 sqft · 3 bd
median year built 1985
Where they work: Belvedere Park (30032) 3% · West Midtown (30318) 2% · West End (30310) 2% · South Atlanta (30315) 2% · South Fulton (30349) 2%.
Market Pulse
| per month, Feb–Jun 2026 | per month, Jun–Aug 2026 | change | avg/mo 2yr | avg/mo 4yr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ▼ Homes bought by flippers | 795 | 623 | -22% | 747 | — |
| ▼ Flips sold (deeds) | 721 | 524 | -27% | 791 | — |
| ▲ Lending deals funded | 41 | 60 | +47% | — | — |
| ▲ Seller/notes held (net) | 31 | 90 | +193% | — | — |
| ▼ Investors (net) | 3,347 | -1,339 | −4,686/mo | — | — |
Flips and flipper purchases = recorded deeds, same two months each year; their 2- and 4-year columns are per-month averages of the deed series. The remaining rows come from the investor file, which spans 13 months, so they have no multi-year average (2026: Jun 2026 → Aug 2026; 2025: Feb 2026 → Jun 2026).
Past Issues
Methodology
Source Data
Every figure is computed from recorded instruments (deeds, mortgages, assignments) and assessor property records for the five counties of the Atlanta-Elyria MSA. No surveys, no estimates, no listings data.
This edition analyzes transactions dated March 1 – April 30, 2026, as recorded through the 2026-08 data extract.
Who Counts as an Investor
Investors are entities whose recorded transaction history looks like investing: rental holding (landlords), short-hold resales (flippers), private mortgage lending, note holding, or contract assignment (wholesalers). Banks, homebuilders, iBuyers, SFR funds, and government entities are identified by name and reported separately from small investors.
How Comparisons Work
The Market Pulse reports activity attributed between successive data drops, from the per-investor lifetime totals maintained upstream — periods differ in length, so per-month rates are shown. Elsewhere, "vs. year ago" compares the same calendar months one year earlier, counted from the same data extract. Transfers under $5,000 (quitclaims, partial interests) are excluded everywhere. Counts lag recording by 4–8 weeks, and the newest month can grow up to ~15% as late records arrive — direction is reliable before magnitude.
Known Limits
Wholesale assignments only appear when they touch a recorded deed, so those counts are a floor. Flip hold times are measured from the prior recorded sale. Names are the owner of record, which may be an LLC or trust.
About
Purpose
A working tool for small real estate investors in Greater Atlanta: what actually closed, where, at what prices, and what it suggests checking next — one theme per issue.
Cadence
Published with each bi-monthly data drop, covering the two most recent complete months of recorded activity.
Disclaimer
Observations from public records, not investment, legal, or tax advice. Past activity does not guarantee future results. Verify any property or counterparty independently before transacting.