Real estate investors, especially active investors, make deals all the time. We most often look to buy — after all, investors are interested in snatching up suitable properties to generate investment income. Selling also plays a big part in the real estate investment business. There will come a time when it may make sense to streamline a portfolio and either sell or possibly trade into different properties.

For many businesses, customer service can be an elusive art.  However, offering the best customer service possible should be at the top of your business priorities, even at its' most demanding, inconvenient and difficult times.  Real estate investing, especially from long-distances and with Turnkey companies can be very taxing on the mind and uncomfortable or some investors.  More than ever, real estate service companies need to be great at customer service.

Premier Property Management Group Continues To Impress

Premier Property Management of Memphis and PPMG of Texas have both been seeing this same trend their management portfolios since the4th quarter.  A rise in rental rates over-all, a rise in demand for our services and a decline in vacancies.  Each city have seen increases in lease extensions coupled with fewer monthly move-outs.  We cannot say for sure that these trends are company specific or if they are related to the cities themselves as there is very little published data. 

What we can say is that an increased focus on staff, training and service to tenants has absolutely paid off.  We continue to have the outlier properties that take  a little longer to rent for no rhyme nor reason and we continue to turn down un-qualified applicants only to have them complain.  However, both scenarios continue to occur on a decreasing scale and happy, satisfied tenants continue to extend leases at an increasing rate.

Over-all, we are thrilled with the job our teams in Memphis and Dallas are doing!  Here is a quick breakdown of some key numbers:

Your investment property is not your home.

There, I said it.

It’s something every investor knows, but that doesn’t stop some from getting tripped up when they get a vision in their minds of what they want their investment property to be.

We have to hold ourselves back at times when we are renovating properties that real estate investors will purchase from us as investments.  It is easy to justify each dollar as a smart investment, but harder to make each dollar pay off in return.

It’s not a bad thing to want your property to be the best possible version of itself, but focusing too hard on shaping it into your vision of perfection can end up draining your time and money faster than you can think. Before you know it, it’ll take several years of renting to even begin to make up for the cost of property renovations.

Sinking stomach. Swimming head. Anxieties galore. Stress can be taxing on us mentally in ways that really hinder productivity and contentment. Stress can also have long term physical repercussions. Blood pressure and other heart problems can stem from stress, along without diseases and bodily ails.

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.