So you want to learn a little more about cash flow real estate before you take the big plunge. It can be hard to know what to think about all of the information available online about real estate investing and rental properties for sale. What is reliable? What is too good to be true?
Here at Memphis Invest, we are committed to getting you all the information you need and brokering a fair deal. But if you want to do some independent research, then here are a few resources for you to consult.
When we speak with real estate investors today who want to buy investment property in Memphis, they are almost always attracted to the concept of positive monthly cash flow and rarely look at other signature pluses of real estate such as appreciation, equity and almost never depreciation. The last one is one of those terms and concepts that comes across as so technical that many fail to realize exactly how crucial and beneficial it can be!
Clear Capital reports in the latest Home Data Index that five of the ten top markets for real estate performance are set to improve even more in the second half of 2011. Even if the gains are modest as Clear Capitol reports, this continues to point to an improved real estate market on the local level. Memphis was named as one of the top 10 performing markets and according to Clear capitol has had a fantastic first half of the year.
Memphis Invest has earned a reputation among our clients and even our peers as a company that truly understands how investors want to calculate REAL value. Too often, investors are fooled into thinking that the value of real estate is the price you pay for it. I cannot tell you how often investors contact us after having bought "great property" right here in Memphis from a company located in a state like California or Nevada and they are having trouble getting it renovated and occupied. Their idea of great is the cheap price they paid for it. The reality is a 900 square foot 4 room shack located in an area that very few want to visit, much less do renovation work and management.
As a real estate investor myself and as a partner who works with real estate investors from around the world, it is music to my ears when I hear about the leadership of our city being proactive in telling the great story that is Memphis, Tennessee. I have spent countless hours on the road over the past 18 months, talking to investors from coast to coast about the advantages of Memphis as a real estate investment city and how companies like MemphisInvest.com are not alone in turning the city around. When stories like this one come out, it makes my job easier and makes my investment portfolio poised for growth in the very near future!
Chandler Reports, the local real estate information aggregating company, released their monthly tally last week which included 1st quarter totals for all things related to real estate in Memphis and the surrounding areas. Memphis Invest is interested in many of the numbers including total sales, days on market, average sales price and number of transactions as each of these data points is very important to the over-all health of a market. But we are also extremely interested in the over-all sales numbers for the area and for the 8th quarter in a row, MemphisInvest.com was the leader in local company home sales.
Many of the recent articles you read on the housing market seem to convey almost polar opposite messages. Markets are up, other markets are down and no two pollsters, spinsters or prognosticators seem to agree on exactly what is happening. Real Estate Investors have to get past all the white noise of the national housing market and get down to the fundamentals of particular markets that provide quality, stable investment opportunities.
If you've heard Memphis Invest speak at various events around the country, you've heard us talk about the 'intangibles' that make Memphis investment properties unique when compared to other real estate investing cities. One of the unique characteristics that makes Memphis a great city for real estate investors is the location and, because of location, the industries that support the city. Here is another great example of the tremendous economic growth that is expected for the city and how that growth effects real estate investors.
As I was reading a report last week on the status of real estate investing in different markets around the United States, one number kept jumping out at me - the percentage of real estate investors paying cash was huge! In some markets around the country, real estate investors paying cash made up more than 75% of the transactions. Since real estate is a hyper-local industry, with each individual market able to vary wildly from the next, keeping an eye on the trends of investors before making assumptions is a huge task.
