All Forum Posts by: JJ Mayer

Just going to add a follow up note here... Ashley from Memphis Invest followed up with answers to my many, many questions.  (For us, it worked better for us to do this offline via email).  They have been nothing but professional so far.

@Chris Clothier - Chris, noting my experience and meeting notes with your company below.  Feel free to reach out to me direct if you have any questions.

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So, for an update on my experience with Memphis Invest....  Meeting #1: I met with Ashley Claunch, Manager, Portfolio Advisory Team, at 3:30pm, Thursday (8/24).  Copied below are my raw notes from that meeting.  We chatted for about 20 minutes, she was very amiable and professional, without a strong sales pitch, but a clear objective to make the introduction, build rapport, and set up the next step(s).  Frankly, she did a really nice job, and I am at least interested in learning more.  If anyone has any thoughts or reactions, please share.
 

• My Notes on Ashley's bio - she & her husband were flippers when they moved to Memphis, doing some rentals on their own; Ashley has been with M.I. for 9 years, started with helping their marketing events in different cities, done portfolio advising for the last 7 years 

• (5 min) Started by talking about my experience and what I'm looking for, but didn't get deep into details here since we knew tine was limited
• (15 min) Talked about Memphis Invest - nothing earth-shattering here, but Ashley set then stage well for Memphis Invest as solid, reputable company to do business with
• Kent C started it 18 years ago, company started 15 years ago
• Very experienced; "Been there, done that" so you don't have to it; Currently managing 4600 properties, 60% of sold to current customers/referrals; started in Memphis, then expanded to other buy & hold friendly markets
• In Memphis, Dallas, Houston; just opened Little Rock and Oklahoma City
• "Experience-driven company" focused on the client experience
• Truly Passive: Don't have to worry about, don't have to think about it  
• Retention Rate: Average tenant stay is 4 years; this is a result of neighborhoods, screening, tenant service
• All about providing consistent returns over time
• Available properties are consumed in a few hours [I have to admit that I won't like the need to pull the trigger super-fast without doing due diligence.  Will have to reconcile this...]
• Process Overview…
• 1st, they purchase in good areas
• Renovation, avg $30-60k in renovations
• Release to investors when about 75% through renovations
• Remote closing available
• 3rd party inspections available
• Properties 1-4, 10% mgmt fee; property 5+ goes down to 9% of gross rents
• Owner portal for all information
• Dedicated client relations support, Ashley is the back-up, regardless of the property MSA
• Next steps:
• Ashley to send email with more information with 30 minutes [fyi, Ashley followed up exactly as she said she would the same afternoon]
• I will send her an email with my list of questions (I plan to send this over to her Sat or Sunday this weekend)

@Kenneth Dai,  @Billy Maloney, @Joseph Salegna - thanks for sharing, good to hear you've all had a good experience thus far with Memphis Invest. If you don't mind me asking, what market(s) did you invest in? why?

@Kenneth Dai - thanks for offering your experience with Memphis Invest and your suggested questions. They are now in my hopper for a future conversation!

Thank all for your replies, I really do appreciate it.

@Hank Keller- thanks for sharing another Turnkey option, I haven't considered Indy as a target.  I will definitely take a look at the demographic projections for IN and consider Alpine.

Finally, @Curt Davis - thanks for the dose of practicality ;-)

Hi BP family...

I'm a part-time investor now with 3 cash-flowing, single-family rentals that I actively manage myself.  With lots of travel for work, I'm looking to invest outside of my base area (central IL) and increase the "passive" aspect of my cash flow.  That said, I'm having an initial call with MemphisInvest tomorrow to hear their sales pitch, and I intend to document my experience here in the BP forums.

I've probably over-prepared with my questions and criteria, BUT if anyone has any words of wisdom or can offer smart questions to ask, please let me know and I'll report back soon.

Cheers!

Thanks all, hear you loud and clear. We've met with a local atty to discuss LLC vs S-Corp, and we were advised to hold off a couple months to see how the potential Trump tax reform might impact our tax situation (i.e., perhaps it would be better to incorporate to get a lower tax burden?)

Any thoughts on the Trump tax reform and how it might affect the business structure?  Is it foolhardy to wait?  If corp tax drops to 15% that might be worth the wait...

Question - would love to get a lender's perspective on this...

We have 3 partners that each own a 1/3 interest in our "rental business", but we do not have a formal partnership agreement or an LLC or a Corp set up. So, in effect, we treat it as 3 cooperating sole proprietors.

Now we are looking to take on more debt to expand and buy a bigger, out-of-state multi-unit property.  We've had all of our existing properties cash flowing for more than 1 year, so we can show ongoing "business" profits, but how will lenders look at this?

Without a LLC or Corp, will the lenders evaluate the loan request based our individual credit? or will they take into account our good track record?

Thanks!

Thanks all

UPDATE:  Boo, we took too long to evaluate the deal.  Someone came in and bought it out from under us, and at a pretty reduced price that we could have done.  Bummed.