Real estate investing is a team sport and at different points in the game different players will play more important roles.

Based on my experience, it’s often not worth the time and expense because appeals frequently lead to no change in the tax assessment.

Wouldn't buy leads from them. 

Most of our team leads are generated on YouTube with long-form content, neighborhood reviews, market updates etc.

You could also bring on a business partner that specializes in sales/marketing to lead that side of the business

That leads you down the path of refinancing your first mortgage into the construction financing or coming to the table with $$$.  

You can learn to do this independently or get a rockstar REALTOR to lead the way.

I've seen this and it's the blind leading the blind.

According to the article, around 5% of the properties are being bought by investment companies, leading to concerns that regular homebuyers are being priced out of the market.1) Do you think this could become a long-term issue, given that the current percentage of investor-bought properties is relatively small?

These are not great investments and while the experience is not typical for Memphis, nothing I've read or seen should lead you to believe your experience will improve.