All Forum Posts by: Alex Craig

@Shashank R.undefined that is surprising, these guys are typically vultures.  Which group did you post in?

@David Hutson I did not know you were involved. The group will surely benefit from what you have done here.

@Abigail Cariaga I am going to be completely bias here as I own Memphis Turnkey. LOL. I like what we do and the team I have put together. REI's reputation in the industry is excellent. @Chris Clothier has a lot of content on Bigger Pockets. I like the owner of MIP, but I do not know much about their operation.

@Jackson Long nothing the last 2 years.  Just way to many "We Buy Houses" signs on every corner. 2 summers ago, some dude held a we buy houses sign outside of Starbucks on White Station.  The amount of phone calls, text and mailers I get pretty much made the car sign invisible. I have even heard of some wholesellers going door to door; I do not have that type of energy or time to track deals at that level. All those guys are going to do is wholesale to people like me. We did a billboard sign for 9 months in Little Rock 3 years ago, well before any other wholesellers were operating in that market.  Spend $7,000 on 3 or so signs, got one house that we made $9,000 on.  Total traffic count going by the sign was something like 30,000 a day.  Was surprised that did not work in that market.

@Samir Patel you can go to the Shelby County Register and see if anything jumps out, but not really.  I am in the middle of a $95,000 title insurance claim because a wholesaler created a sense of urgency for us to close with Preferred Title & Escrow.  Because that title company is terrible, they overlooked obvious title issues and because we close over 200 deals a year, it is impossible for us to check behind tittle companies.  A good title company will avoid those types of issues--good rule of thumb, do not close with the wholesellers title company of choice.  We use 2 really good ones who look our for our best interest on our purchases, our clients when they purchase and when I do private lending.

@Jackson Long to funny. I once told my family I was going to put the We Buy Houses on the side of my car and my kids pretty much told me that I would no longer be able to take them to school if I did. Instead I had my leasing agent put it on his car.  Prior to the past 2 years, I would say it was good for one deal a year.

@Jackson Long no doubt. Jeez, these guy's call and text me 15 times a day.

@Mel Hayes there is a Memphis Real Estate FB group. Go to and post you want to connect. Most of these individuals do not have deals, rather they will wholesale another wholesellers deal.  Most of the legit ones will only close with people they know can close quickly and without an inspection. Lastly, 1/2 of the deals we put under contract never make it to the closing table because of title issues. The off market scene here is bizarre. 

@Jackson Long I am not in front of my laptop, but I want to say 70% of our leads came from internet and the other 30% was referrals and yard signs.  We do a lot of SEO for rental leads, thus ours may be higher then other locals landlords and PM companies.  We actually get more tenant placements from our "Coming Soon" rental sign that we place 30 days before a vacancy then we do the "For Rent" sign when the home is vacant. My view is, even if 10% of your leads come from signs, the cost to print a sign is small, thus make sense to place the yard sign.

@Shashank R. there are plenty of wholesalers in Memphis for sure, actually way to many as I get 10 calls a day from someone wanting to buy my rental homes. MIG is a good group of savvy, old school guys who have done well. It is a wealth of information, but I am not so sure a lot of the old guard is up to date with current market trends and ideas. If your in town, I would recommend going to get their POV along with the new trends and ideas of the BRRRR Realtors and TK providers you will be meeting. Not to mention the burger is great.

@Dallin Johnsonundefined

Dallin, really, the rents drive the areas you want to be in and those you want to avoid. With rents up right now, I would say anything under $795 is probably an area to avoid for 3/1's and anything under $925 for a 3/2.  I typically like to avoid rental homes close to apartment complexes as most of the Memphis large complexes in areas that SF make sense are problematic. As for section 8, I am not a huge fan of the program here as you will get hit for minor expenses each year to renew your tenant.  With section 8, I do not think you can do multi-year leases whereas we are getting 2 year leases with a built in rental increase in year 2 without an issue for non-section 8. Don't hold me to that last statement as we have not participated in the section 8 program in Memphis in a few years, maybe something has changed, but that is something you would want to look into.