Knoxville for Beginners?

[Brendan M Hornung]

Hi all,

I live in Santa Monica and am looking to buy my first investment properties before the end of the year. Ultimately, I would love to scale to a large portfolio over 10 years, but to get started, I want a fixer multifamily under $250,000. This is literally impossible in LA, so I am looking out of state and Knoxville continues to pique my interest. Ideally, my first investment property would either be a long-term rental or a mid-term rental for travel nurses/traveling business professionals.

Does anyone know much about beginner investing for Knoxville? What neighborhoods are good vs. what I should avoid? Any other market insights?

[Sarah Ware]

Good morning Brendan!  Congrats on focusing in on Knoxville, it's a good location and still has some instant cash flow, as crazy as that sounds in this market.  Just to be realistic though, $250k wont buy you a multifamily here unless you are going farther out of town, or are talking about a distressed property from wholesaler.

I personally have found long-term rentals to be my own personal happy place but I'm a little less risky.  Our foray into travelling nurse furnished rental flopped a bit because in this market, you have to be in the exact right spot (Oak Ridge, Downtown Knox) or a small 1-bedroom at a low-price point.  Truly the bread and butter of travelling nurses in Knoxville this summer seems to be the unused extra 1-bedrooms in a family home that people are renting $800-1000/month all in.  Those rooms also do well for travelling couples, students, etc etc.

Example: this is only Multi (duplex) under $300k currently.  Let me know if you want to talk more details and we can hunker down and start diligently searching out the right place.