Memphis is synonymous with the blues. This southern city is the hallowed ground of the soulful genre, and others, such as rock & roll and jazz, have their roots built from the blues. From W.C. Handy to B.B. King, Memphis has been host to musical innovators turned blues superstars.

So, the blues are hot in Memphis, but so is our company, Memphis Invest, and the opportunity to invest in a solid, long-term investment market and team.  This is a great time to come to Memphis and visit our team, our offices and our city and maybe even catch some blues while you are at it!

With the rush of foreclosed homes on the market in the past few years, investors were jumping into the business from every direction.  Here in Memphis, the investment real estate market was booming due to the rush of foreclosures and most were caused by a slowing economy and not necessarily an over-heated housing market.  That created a scenario where not only were houses available, but renters were in abundance as well.

As the real estate market is now recovering, easy buys on bank-owned homes are becoming more scarce. Some investors are opting out of real estate because properties aren’t as easy to acquire. As serious investors knows, the real estate market will continue to change constantly over time. 

What makes a good tenant a happy tenant? This is a question everyone asks when real estate investing.  After all, when you have great tenants who pay on time and take care of your investment property, you want to keep them. Plenty of property managers and owners find themselves befuddled with a good tenant goes elsewhere.

Plenty of investors have come to realize that managing property management responsibilities is not for them. Being a real estate investor and being a property manager are two entirely different jobs. Not everyone is cut out to deal with day-to-day tenant issues. Many investors are looking for a means of passive income and know that they don’t want to add to their workload.

There are real estate investors, however, who’ve convinced themselves that they have to do it all. They have to be the owner and the manager simultaneously. There are reasons behind this line of thinking, and we can understand where some investors are coming from.

No one likes to do it and no one likes to pay for it. As real estate investors, staying on top of property maintenance is a key way to keep your tenants content and build a reputation as an investor who cares for their business. Even when you have property management handling the nitty-gritty details and hands-on aspects of property maintenance, that doesn’t mean investors can ignore maintenance and simply rely on that management company.

Smart real estate investors stay in front of property maintenance by accepting it as a capital expenditure (capex) that is going to always be there.  Maintenance is what prevents major issues and when issues arise, whether you landlord yourself or use a management company, time and action are vitally important.  The longer we wait as real estate investors to address maintenance issues, the bigger the problems become and the bigger bite they take out of our check books.

In today’s age of modern technology, where instantaneous communication and an increasing number tricks and gadgets try to squeeze the most work out of us as possible, it’s good to remember to step back and remember balance.

For some, work is life, while others desperately wish to get away, even for a minute.

Part of the job of any real estate investor is to pay attention to the state of the real estate market. More than reading news and keeping up with our professional connections, we need to look into the mind of the consumer. The consumer on all sides of a real estate transaction.  Demographics are important, particularly in a world where real estate investors are looking to draw in tenants and may need to draw in an end buyer.

Not only do we need to observe what makes our tenants tick, but how the face of the modern-day home buyer has changed.

One off the number one reasons people are drawn to renting is the idea of a maintenance-free lifestyle. Yes, not having to deal with broken appliances and property upkeep is an alluring notion for many. For real estate investors, though, when buying investment property, dealing with property maintenance can be a big pain. While particularly big repairs always hurt the wallet, the fact is that any maintenance task takes time and effort to properly address.

The sooner you catch a problem, the sooner you can fix it. So what’s a landlord or property manager to do when tenants keep things to themselves?

This is the first of a few articles I am writing dealing with the topic of tenants.  It is my hope that I can help investors get a better understanding of exactly who the tenant is that is renting their properties.  I figured the easiest place to start was defining exactly what tenants are looking for today.

At the same time, many of the investors that work with Memphis Invest and Premier Property Management are reviewing statements from 2014 and deciding what to add for 2015.  With three cities and varying price points available for portfolios, there is a lot to choose from, but more importantly...there is a lot for renters to choose from.  Here are the top factors for tenants that you need to consider.

Are you considering entering into a partnership?  Partnerships are very common, but how common and more importantly how easy are they to pull off in real estate investing?  Partnerships are those funny things that can be good and bad and both can happen in the same day!