So this is creating more competition and more agreesive rent rates and/or concessions like 1 month free to get those vacancies filled.

I agree with the others here that say you need to have some skin in the game, if you are going to live there yourself, get an FHA loan rather than owner financing, you can get a 3.5% down loan, personally I do not love these as they require  PMI which is an additional expense, and you also need  bring additional funds for closing at least for taxes, title, attorney and transfer fees . borrowing from anyone else for the down payment, to include a personal loan from the bank is not a good idea, those again will be higher int. rate.

As-is cap rate of 7.5% in my market (kc) would be pretty awesome to buy. 

Also look at those Vrbo and Airbnb calendars and see how full they are and what nightly rates they are getting.Should be easy from here to see if a new property would pencil in or not. 

At any rate, I saw someone trying to explain how the @... works yesterday and I tried, but I really couldn't figure it out.

Daniel,Memphis is a great market for investors and we have continually seen growth in both rental rates and property values. 

Here is one piece of advice When looking at areas to invest in check out this website https://www.areavibes.com/ its pretty cool it gives you a total livability score and rating for that areaBest of luck!

However, value add with a sale is not as implacted by rates.  

25% is the going rate, high end 30%/35%

Our first year out was crazy good renting for $3300 when market rate was around $2100, but by mid 2023 and 2024 it felt harder.