Hi, I'm Collins. I'm new to real estate and learning wholesaling. I'm researching Memphis and would love to connect with others who are learning or investing there. What do you wish you had known when you started?
Lender · Licensed in 28 States · Member since 2026 · 161 posts · 46 votes
1w
@Oyinniyi Oyinniyi Collins Welcome, Collins! Memphis is an interesting market to learn. One thing I’d recommend is getting your financing options figured out early, even while you’re learning wholesaling. If you ever need help exploring lending options for your next deal, feel free to reach out. Happy to connect!
Thanks, I appreciate that! I’m still learning the Memphis market and trying to understand the financing side as well. What type of lending options do you usually help investors with?
Attorney · 10451 Mill Run Cir #755 Owings Mills, MD 21117 · Member since 2024 · 483 posts · 177 votes
1w
Quote from @Oyinniyi Oyinniyi Collins:
Hi, I'm Collins. I'm new to real estate and learning wholesaling. I'm researching Memphis and would love to connect with others who are learning or investing there. What do you wish you had known when you started?
@Oyinniyi Oyinniyi Collins, one thing I wish more new investors understood early is how important the contract is. With wholesaling especially, I wouldn’t put a property under contract until I understood exactly what I was agreeing to, the important deadlines, and what happens if the deal doesn’t work out the way I expected.
I’ve worked with investors where a deal looked good at first, but once we got into the contract or title, there were issues that needed to be worked through before they could move forward. Learning how to spot those questions early and knowing when to bring in an attorney can save a lot of headaches.
Welcome to BiggerPockets, @Oyinniyi Oyinniyi Collins. I’m a real estate attorney and investor, so I always enjoy connecting with people who are learning the business and asking questions before jumping into deals. Happy to stay connected as you learn the Memphis market.
Thanks, I really appreciate that! I’m still learning wholesaling, and the contract side is one area I definitely want to understand better before putting anything under contract. When you’re looking at a wholesale deal, what are some of the contract or title issues you see new investors overlook most often?
Customer Success & Onboarding Specialist at BiggerPockets · Charlotte, NC · Member since 2023 · 85 posts · 33 votes
1w
Welcome, Collins! Memphis is a market with a lot to learn, especially when you’re just getting started. Focusing on learning the numbers, building a solid local network, and getting comfortable analyzing deals could be a great way to start, Good luck with the wholesaling journey!
Real Estate Agent · Memphis, TN · Member since 2018 · 102 posts · 102 votes
1w
@Oyinniyi Oyinniyi Collins The only thing I'd suggest early on is learning the neighborhoods and submarkets before getting too excited about the numbers on a deal. Memphis can change pretty quickly from one area, and sometimes one street, to another.
I'm waiting on the September market report now. Memphis Area Association of Realtors usually releases the monthly numbers around the 8th of the following month. August was interesting. Sales were down 6.6% from last year and inventory was up, while the median sales price was still up 5.9%. Buyers have some leverage right now, and I'm seeing some pretty good opportunities out there.
I've been investing here for years and own/manage rentals myself. Happy to share what I'm seeing as you learn the market.
Here's the August report if you want to dig into the numbers. It also breaks the market down by area:
Real Estate Agent · Memphis, TN · Member since 2023 · 642 posts · 333 votes
1w
Welcome to BiggerPockets, Collins! I’m an investor and investor-friendly agent here in Memphis, and one thing I wish I understood earlier is just how important it is to know the market beyond simply knowing what houses sell for. Especially if you're learning wholesaling, start practicing by analyzing ARVs, realistic rents, rehab costs, market trends, and learning the overall layout of Memphis and the differences between neighborhoods. That will help you recognize whether something is actually a deal and, just as importantly, understand what kind of investor would want to buy it. I'd also start building relationships now instead of waiting until you have a property under contract. Connect with active investors, an investor-friendly agent who also owns rentals, property managers, reliable general contractors, hard money lenders, and DSCR lenders so you understand what each buyer is looking for and already have people to call when you find something. Memphis is still a market where investors can find properties that meet or exceed the 1% rule while also getting appreciation over time when they buy in the right locations, and BRRRR buyers are a great group to build relationships with. We have local hard money lenders that can finance 100% of the purchase and 100% of the rehab, with many investors getting into deals with around $10,000 out of pocket before refinancing into long-term financing, so there are active buyers looking for value-add opportunities. If you learn the numbers, learn the neighborhoods, and build genuine relationships with the people actually buying properties here, you’ll be much more valuable than someone who simply blasts out wholesale deals to an email list. With that being said, add me to your buyer list! I am buying and I can close in 7 days all cash! If you send it to my email and I pass on it, I will pass it on to my clients and if they buy it, then they will pay my commission! Let’s close some deals!
Contractor · Memphis, TN · Member since 2026 · 67 posts · 78 votes
3d
Welcome, Collins. I'm a Memphis GC rather than an investor-facing agent, and I want to be straight with you up front: I'm not asking for your deals and we aren't buying right now, so there's nothing in this for me. That's exactly why I'd take the advice.
What I wish somebody had told a new Memphis wholesaler: the thing that will make or break you here isn't finding houses, it's being able to describe their CONDITION accurately. Every retrade you eat, every buyer who stops opening your emails, and most of the deals that die at day nine trace back to a sheet that said needs work.
Needs work is not a condition description. It's an admission that nobody looked.
Four photos that will separate you from almost every other wholesaler in this city, and they cost you nothing but a few minutes in the house:
The electrical panel with the cover door open. The water heater, close enough to read the date sticker. The outdoor HVAC condenser with the data label readable. And the roof from all four corners, not just the front.
Then put the year built on every single sheet you send. In Memphis the year built tells a buyer more than the square footage does, because pre-1965 means cast iron drain lines and galvanized supply, 1965 to 1973 brings aluminum branch wiring, and the 1980s bring polybutylene. A cash buyer can price risk off that line alone and will move faster because of it.
The distinction that took me too long to learn, and it's the one that matters for your business: there's a difference between a house that is UGLY and a house that is BROKEN. Ugly is dirty, dated, bad paint, awful carpet, a wrecked kitchen. Ugly is where your buyer's margin lives and you should be hunting it. Broken is a bellied or collapsed sewer line, a slab that's moved, fire damage, or a house that's been standing open and stripped. Broken is where your reputation goes to die, because that's the stuff your buyer finds in week two and comes back at you over.
They look nearly identical in listing photos. They are not remotely the same deal.
So the cheapest edge available to you: learn to spot the five or six things that turn ugly into broken, and start saying them out loud in your marketing. A wholesaler who writes drain line scoped and clear, panel replaced 2019, roof is on its second life gets better offers and far fewer retrades than one who writes needs TLC. That's a real competitive advantage and almost nobody in this market bothers.
And a standing offer that has nothing attached to it, since we aren't buying: send me a Memphis or Shelby County address and I'll tell you honestly what the work actually is. Use it to check your own read against somebody who'd have to perform at that number. That's how you build the instinct faster than doing ten deals would.
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