In today's economy, many people feel uncertain about how to invest their money. If they have a little extra money, they hate to leave it sitting around in a low-yield savings account, but they feel wary of the volatility of the stock market and many other investment options. If you are one of these investors, you may wish to consider real estate investment and rental properties for sale as a portion of your portfolio. According to a recent Christian Science Monitor article, "after five years of weak property markets, real estate is starting to look a bit more enticing for investors."

If you live in Memphis of follow the headlines of real estate news, then you may be as surprised as I am to find every news story written about the real estate market coming from the view point of doom and gloom.  Sales are down, prices are down, values are down, buyers are down, my dog is down, my girlfriend left me, my car broke down, my wallet is empty...sorry, I seemed to have gotten caught up in my 'Country Music' moment!

Three research or news organizations have ranked Memphis real estate at or near the top of major real estate news stories over the past few months with a brand new research paper being released this past week showing Memphis as the #2 market in the country for affordability.  The Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER) gathers data from 309 urban areas to rank them in their Cost of Living Index (COLI) and Memphis has always ranked as one of the most affordable cities to live in as well as raise a family and invest.

Planning for Success Takes Preparation and Time

Real Estate investors should treat their investment properties just like a business and with every business there needs to be time set aside for planning.  The entire staff of MemphisInvest.com came together last week to present our plans for 2012 and the owners presented our plan to the staff of new programs, new cities, new hires, new promotions and the exact steps we were going to implement to grow over 60% for the second year in a row!  Spending five days together was fantastic for the entire team even though it really shook up our normal routines.  Planning for success and sharing as well as involving the entire team was by far the best thing we could have done to start 2012 with a bang!

Heading into a new year is always a great time to take stock of where you are and start preparing for any changes or adjustments you need to make.  It's also a great time to educate yourself and real estate investors are not immune to continuing education!

We get asked all the time why we don't send out emails to our entire list of the latest and greatest deals that we have available.  That is, after all, the traditional way wholesalers sell their properties. They spend a lot of time getting as many emails as possible, throw those email addresses into an email tracking system and start pounding that list with everything you get under contract.  When I get asked why we don't send out houses by email I give two easy answers: