This week’s Transformation Tuesday is from Memphis, Tennessee.
Though a little older than some of the more recent "transformations" we've shared, this property held so much potential we couldn't pass it up! In addition to its curb appeal, the back yard—complete with a courtyard and barn-like garage with storage and a powder room—would impress any resident. With a little TLC added in, of course!
In the above subject line there are two assumptions that are generally misconstrued to the average real estate investor. For perspective, I’m an underwriter at a community bank that makes portfolio loans and other types of real estate investment loans.
Father's Day is upon us, so it seems appropriate to reflect on a few of those fatherly axioms that dads drill into their kids -- er, I mean, "gently instill in their children." There's a reason this kind of advice from fathers gets handed down from generation to generation: It's really good advice. And the thing about really good advice is that it can often be applied across many areas of your life. Such is the case with the words of wisdom I'm going to share with you today -- they can easily be applied to your real estate investing career.
The Memphis Area Association of Realtors (MAAR) showed a tremendous increase in year over year sales for January to start 2013. The association released data entered into the MAAR data property records database showing over 1,250 sales for the month of January which was a 46% increase over January of 2012. The total number of properties sold was also an 8.9% increase over December of 2012.
I have been making a concerted effort to keep the numbers up to date each month on here for all our readers and clients. But, I also want to make these posts as a way to give a lot of credit and praise to Premier Property Management. By far, that is the most thankless part of our entire business from staff to clients and we all owe them a big thanks for the effort and attention they give to our portfolios...including mine! There is a reason Premier Property Management is quickly growing into the largest Single Family resident management company in Memphis.
Memphis real estate had a very good third quarter with many of the traditional real estate numbers trending in the right direction, but they are not telling the whole story. Housing starts were up, foreclosure actions were down, sales prices actually inched up and the federal lending rates continued to hang near historic lows. But investment purchases continue to be a HUGE part of the equation in Memphis real estate and continue to be a big reason why the numbers of properties sold have been consistent.
Billionaire Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg has chosen Memphis as one of five cities whose Mayor's he is supporting through an initiative at his Bloomberg Charities. The Grant is designed to assist Mayors who are in the first 18 months of their terms and are in unique positions to not only tackle problems but also have a willingness to work together to share what is working and what is not.
The Memphis media recently published information pointing to a rise in rental rates and a decline in vacancy among Memphis multi-family units in Memphis (see the article here). Premier Property Management of Memphis has been seeing this same trend in the single-family homes that they have under management for real estate investors around the country. The trends have been moving toward a stabilization of rent and even slight increases in most of the neighborhoods that Premier Property Management manages properties. Here is a breakdown of the month of May for Premier Property Management:
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.
Real Estate investors buying discount properties in Memphis have been keeping a sharp eye lately on the economic numbers coming out. Some of the big story lines that have so many excited are those around employment. With Memphis landing several big announcements in the past two months from major international companies, economic recovery and the roll Memphis is going to play for the nation seems to be forefront.
