I am a new member looking to expand my real estate investing portfolio. I have been house hacking my primary residence in Los Angeles since 2014. I should say that I have been unknowingly house hacking until I started reading books on real estate investing at the start of this year and found out it was an actual strategy. Haha. I am in the process of getting my house refinanced for the first time and am scheduled to close in the 1st week of April. Unfortunately, I didn't take any cash out as a part of the refinance so I will probably go the route of taking a home equity loan or home equity line of credit (HELOC) to use as my capital for investment.

I'm primarily interested in using the BRRRR strategy to create passive cash flow through buying small multi-family and single family rentals. Appreciation growth is a definite plus but I don't want to count on it if it means taking low to no cash flow.

After doing some research, a market that has definitely caught my interest is Memphis. It seems there are definite opportunities to fulfill the 1% rule and while historically Memphis has not offered much in appreciation, it seems to have been changing recently as home prices are now rapidly increasing. Although prices are going up, I think there is still an opportunity to get in before it really takes off and goes the way of cities like Boise or Columbus.

I'm looking for properties in B and C+ neighborhoods. As I mentioned I would like to employ the BRRRR strategy so I'm looking for a fixer upper with potential. Ideally, I would like to limit my budget to about $150K all in. I'm anticipating purchasing the property for roughly $75K-125K and spending about $30K-50K in rehab.

I've been spending as much time as I can reading books, going through forums and articles, and listening to podcasts, but I'd like to make sure I don't get stuck in analysis paralysis and I get started with assembling my REI team. I know this is one of the most important early steps I can take and believe that having the right team in place will definitely help me advance in my real estate investing journey. I would love to get the community's input and see if you can help me get connected with investor friendly real estate agents and contractors, and property managers you have had great experiences with. Being an out of state investor I'll need someone who I can really depend on to be my boots on the ground and not steer me in the wrong direction so that they can pad their pockets.

I understand in Memphis the neighborhood ratings really vary from street to street and not just by zip codes. But below are some zip codes and their associated ratings that I have found from browsing the forum that seem to be recommended within my criteria.

B Class: 38133, 38134, 38135, 38018, 38016, 38117, 38125, 38111, 38141

C Class: 38115, 38116, 38128, 38122

Sorry for such a long post but I wanted to cover my bases in one post. Also being a new member of BiggerPockets I wanted show I've at least done some homework myself, and consolidate & contribute some of what I have found browsing the forum. Hopefully this thread could help others as well. Appreciate any and all feedback! Thanks!

Memphis, Tennessee

2 Votes