The pandemic era brought with it a surprising flurry of real estate market activity. Even people who aren’t into real estate – investing or otherwise – are aware of just how wild things have been over the past twenty-something months.

This year, we’ve embraced a new identity as REI Nation. In the beginning, we had our sights set on Memphis, Tennessee, to provide investment opportunities for passive real estate investors. Memphis remains a huge part of our story — it’s our home base, our first love, and looking better than ever in terms of investment opportunities. 

When we consider the opportunity of real estate, we have to ask ourselves: can we do this anywhere? After all, there is a rental market just about anywhere we go. If this is true, surely we can crack any market and find success and passive income as an investor in any and every market. There's an opportunity for portfolio diversification everywhere around us!

As much concern as there seems to be about the state of the housing market at the end of the year and going into 2019, there is a more specific conversation to be had about the U.S. rental market. For buy-and-hold and turnkey real estate investors, this is perhaps the more pertinent discussion to be had.

In the U.S., the attitude towards renting versus homeownership has been changing for years now. With this year’s tax reform shifting and reducing some of the benefits of owning a home, we’re seeing more and more change in the narrative around purchasing a home versus renting debate. And everything points to good news for real estate investors.

One of the greatest advantages of single-family real estate investment is choice . We have the choice of strategy, properties, and markets. Out of the many ways to invest and build our financial future, it is perhaps the most self-directed. While this is incredibly exciting—who among us doesn’t want to have the autonomy to make our own decisions?—it can also be overwhelming. Not only are we the proverbial captains of our fate when it comes to real estate investment, but we are awash in a sea of choices.