Hey @Yogev Finegoz Congrats on your first post! BP is a phenomenal resource and you will certainly get farther with collective wisdom and seeking out advise vs believing as if you know it all. Also love the fact that you're looking in Tennessee for your first investment as there are some great places where you're 175K can get you far. I think anytime you're looking into a market/area to invest there's basic research that's necessary for you to determine if your investment will thrive. I have to thoroughly agree with Chris when he says things to consider would be a steady population growth as well as job increase. You can determine a lot by just those two factors and when you're ready to go in depth I would certainly look at which companies have located where in which parts of Tennessee and what that means for the future growth of your investment and city it's located in. For example Chattanooga has the Volkswagen plant and Coca Cola plant that provides a lot of mid to high level jobs. It's also known for having the highest speed wifi in the US and is known for their tech growth whereas Memphis seems to be more of a manufacturing and warehouse economy which provides more working class jobs. I like to pay attention to what new developments are in the works and which ones are close to opening so I can also try to determine which neighborhoods will experience growth next. Certain companies can really determine the growth of a city, for example in Chattanooga if a Bass Bros opens up in your town, you can shortly expect some sort of city appreciation of gentrification to come in the next few years. When looking for homes in your price range if you are choosing to spend 175k all in one property (which I hope you'll consider BRRRR'ing out of) it's safe to say in Chattanooga and Knoxville you can look at areas 10-15 minutes outside of downtown. You can't always go in all directions but determine which directions are growing (ex. S of Downtown, N of Downtown) because those neighborhoods are often the fan out of the overinflated Downtown areas. Something that I think may be worth mentioning if you're looking for homes in TN is making checking where the home falls on a flood map and what flood zone it is, this can make a huge difference in your insurance rates. A good standard rule of thumb is if you're looking to buy in a B or better neighborhood is to follow the school district, this highly influences not only the type of people that live there but home prices. Chattanooga and Knoxville both have great schools and strong hospitals that certainly attract a lot of out of state movers as well which is also a good sign. You may also want to find out which areas have the most recent sales and cash purchases, your local realtor can certainly help you with that. Finding out rents are not that difficult either, you can easily get an idea of what 2 or 3 bedrooms are renting in certain areas by speaking to a few property managers. You want to get the most accurate rents you can because you certainly don't want to be off when it comes to your own calculations. I have a few great realtor and property management referrals in Chattanooga and in Knoxville if you decide to entertain those areas, you can always pm me directly! I wish you the best of luck either way, you're getting started on your journey and that's always an amazing place to be!
