All Forum Posts by: Chris Boselli

@Pamela Villa thanks for reading! We actually found this property on the good old MLS! We are up to 4 rentals in Memphis and all of our deals came from the MLS, however in the last 6-9 months Memphis has become increasingly competitive and inventory has become even more sparse. We have historically leaned on agents and wholesalers, but recently people are just willing to pay more for properties and leave more in deals as long as it still beats the traditional 20% down method.

Its a tough time to get started with how competitive the market is currently, but bottom line is keep analyzing deals and getting comfortable submitting offers which at the very least will help you learn the markets/neighborhoods and build momentum/confidence. We're due for a correction sooner or later and once the foreclosure moratorium eventually ends and people get more comfortable with the idea of moving again (hopefully this summer) that should open up some inventory and by then you'll be ready

Hi Keleisha!

Unless you are buying retail/turnkey then I will be tough to be competitive in Memphis with financed offers...I know personally the last 6-9 months have been extremely competitive even using all cash as a lot of sellers won't even consider anything but cash for investment properties. Have you considered potentially using hard money? As long as you can get the deal for the right price this can be a helpful way to scale. Hard money is definitely more expensive, but it can help you scale a little quicker than traditional financing until you can build a track record and begin pitching to more private money lenders in your network. 

Congrats on the first deal and best of luck with finding the next one!

Hi @Steve Pizzarella, I am also in my mid-20s from the Boston area and had $30k to start with last summer when I began investing. I partnered up with my brother and started buying single family rentals in the Memphis market due to the more affordable costs and better cash-flow potential. Fast forward a year to today and we have 4 SFHs under management with one flip under our belt and planning to continue with both to grow our portfolio and generate some active income to support operating costs as we go. 

Bottom line is there's a million ways to get going, it all depends on your goals and you can always pivot and tweak your strategy as you go. Most important thing is your head is in the right place thinking RE long term, its arguably the most tried and true method of wealth building out there. Best of luck with getting started, feel free to PM me about out of state investing or just to connect/chat

@Sean Howell so far all on the MLS but it has surprisingly stayed very competitive through Covid, working on building the off market lead machine now so hopefully we will start seeing a good mix moving forward

Thanks @Evan Lam!

Great post @Marky Suazo! Glad to see you stuck with it after your first project, it’s  easy to get disheartened after a not-so-great deal but you learned some things from it and will come back stronger. We should meet up again as Covid restrictions continue to ease up!

@Hannah Singer I use @Tyler Tapley and he’s awesome, definitely shoot him a message 

Hi @Michael DeRienzo lot of good info on this thread so far, really depends on where you are in life and what your goals are. If you are currently looking at buying a house to live in you could look at buying a small multifamily to live in one unit and rent the others or even look at doing a live in flip over the next couple years (save up as you go and make steady improvements while living in the house). I was looking at the former before I ended up accepting a new job down by NYC, and now instead I have completely shifted to buying rental properties and flipping using all cash in Memphis, TN. Might be viable to look at some other cheaper markets in the Midwestern US, but again depends on your current situation and goals. I was initially looking for a personal residence to double as an investment, now I am waiting on that until I move back up to the Boston area in the next few years and want to start building a solid cash-flowing rental portfolio in the meantime. David Greene's book on long distance RE investing is a good start for how to approach out of state markets like this, just my two cents. Good luck!

Hi @Hannah Singer while off market deals may net you the most meat on the bone I can certainly say as a relatively new investor myself in the Memphis market there are still plenty of deals to be had directly off the MLS! I have done 3 deals in my first 9 months in Memphis (2 BRRRRs and 1 flip) and all were off of the MLS. This may be a good way to start and build your network by working with agents/PMs etc in the area. We are just starting to now build our off market lead generation machine and have been using listsource.com to build our target motivated seller lists as @Sean Tagge mentioned. It may be good to just get your feet wet any way possible and learn the market so you can recognize and jump on a good deal when it comes up. Best of luck!

@Doug Ford I should also mention this allows you to keep the property deeded in your personal name and you can then take advantage of the much cheaper personal mortgages like @Greg K. mentions above. Once the refinance closes we simply QC deed the property into our LLCs name for liability purposes (yes this can cause the note to be called due, but we have been up front with the lender doing our refinances about our plans and they do not have an issue with this as they know we are investors)