Answers to 40 of the questions Memphis investors ask us most

Collaborate Real Estate Group manages single-family rental homes for investor-owners across Memphis, Northern Mississippi, and the Tampa metro. The business has two sides: full-service property management — leasing, rent collection, maintenance, inspections, and financial reporting — and a brokerage arm for owners who want to buy, sell, or build a Memphis investment portfolio. About nine out of ten things CREG does day-to-day fall on the management side. The company was founded by Scott King in 2018 with a quality-over-quantity philosophy. CREG would rather manage a few hundred properties exceptionally than a few thousand properties adequately.

The shortest version: Collaborate Real Estate Group walks every property and the person who answers your call knows the house. The national companies serving Memphis operate at a scale that requires templated processes — call trees, ticketed maintenance queues, leasing decisions made by people who've never been on the street. CREG is built differently. Diane Robison has been in Memphis real estate since 1983. Chris Throneburg has nine years of leasing and management experience in this specific market. When a question comes in about a Bartlett rental or an Olive Branch property, the person answering knows the property and the neighborhood. That's the difference, and it's the reason CREG caps how many doors any one team member carries.

Collaborate Real Estate Group's typical onboarding runs about 21 days end-to-end. For a property that's already tenanted, that covers collecting the lease, security deposit ledger, tenant contact information, and maintenance history from the prior manager (or the owner if it's been self-managed), setting up the resident in the AppFolio portal, and transitioning the next rent cycle through CREG. For a vacant property, the 21-day window covers onboarding plus market-rent analysis, professional photography, listing across the major syndication networks, and the first week of showings. Most properties priced correctly are leasing within that timeframe.

Three steps, in this order. Step one: give the current manager written notice per the management agreement (most require 30 days). Step two: sign CREG's management agreement, and the team collects property documents — lease, security deposit records, tenant contact info, recent maintenance history, keys, and codes. Step three: CREG notifies the resident in writing about the change, gives them their new portal access, and the next rent cycle runs through CREG. Tenant communication is handled by CREG so the resident's experience stays seamless through the transition. The full handoff typically takes about 21 days from the moment notice is given.

Single-family rental homes across Memphis, Northern Mississippi, and the broader Memphis metro. That's the specialty. CREG deliberately doesn't dilute the model with property types where it isn't best — no large multifamily, no commercial, no vacation rentals. Most of the homes in the CREG portfolio are three-bedroom, two-bath single-family residences renting between $1,250 and $2,200 a month in submarkets like Cordova, Bartlett, Germantown, Collierville, Hernando, Olive Branch, Lakeland, and Southaven. Owners with a small multifamily or a property outside that service area can ask for a referral to someone the team trusts.

Yes. A meaningful share of the CREG portfolio is owned by investors who live somewhere else. The team is set up for it. AppFolio gives owners a real-time view of rent collection, work orders, financial statements, and inspection reports from anywhere. There's no need to fly in. Questions about a Memphis property — comparable rents, lease renewal recommendations, a major repair decision — get answered by people who walk these neighborhoods every week, not a remote call center.

Owners can absolutely use their own agent. The CREG brokerage arm exists for owners who want one team handling buying or selling alongside the management, but it isn't a requirement of working with CREG on the management side. When a managed property eventually goes to market, the team will coordinate with an owner's existing Memphis agent without making it awkward. If a brokerage recommendation would help, Matt Cates leads the brokerage side and has deep roots in the Memphis investor community as a past President of Memphis Investors Group.

*Scott King, Founder & CEO*

Collaborate Real Estate Group charges 8% of collected rent as the monthly management fee, plus a one-time leasing fee equal to 50% of one month's rent when a new tenant is placed. On a $1,500 Memphis rental that works out to $120 a month in management and a $750 leasing fee once, when the property first turns over to a new tenant. The full fee schedule — renewals, inspections, vendor coordination, down units — is listed above.

The management fee covers ongoing operation of the property: rent collection, tenant communication, routine maintenance coordination, financial reporting, and annual lease renewals. It doesn't cover leasing a vacant unit (separate one-time fee), eviction processing (court costs plus coordination time), major capital projects (CREG coordinates, the owner pays the contractor), or the actual cost of repairs. The contractor's invoice is the owner's bill, with no management markup added. Every monthly owner statement is a clean line: collected rent, fees, any maintenance, net deposit.

No. Every fee CREG charges is published above and written into the management agreement before an owner signs — 8% monthly management, 50% new tenant leasing fee, $250 lease renewal, $150 annual inspection, 15% vendor coordination on maintenance invoices, and $100 per month for properties classified as down units. There are no setup fees, no technology fees, no marketing fees on top of leasing, and no fees that weren't disclosed up front. A property manager that won't show its complete fee schedule before contract signing is one to ask harder questions of.

No. The monthly management fee is calculated on collected rent. If the property is vacant for a month, no management fee is owed for that month. The leasing fee that compensates CREG for marketing, screening, showings, and lease execution is charged once, when a new tenant is placed. The math lines up cleanly: vacancy costs the owner lost rent and it costs CREG the leasing fee that isn't yet earned. The incentives are aligned to lease quickly at market rent.

Rent is due from the resident on the 1st of the month, with a grace period before late fees apply. As payments clear, they're deposited into the property's trust account, and owner disbursements are made on a regular monthly cadence. A full monthly owner statement accompanies each disbursement, showing collected rent, fees, maintenance, and net to the owner. Everything is visible in the AppFolio owner portal in real time. ACH direct deposit is standard.

The contractor's invoice is the owner's cost — CREG doesn't mark up the parts or the labor. A separate 15% vendor coordination fee is added on top of the vendor invoice, which is what compensates the team for sourcing the vendor, scheduling the work, verifying it was completed, and reconciling the invoice. CREG's vendor relationships across Memphis often produce better pricing than an individual owner would secure on a one-off. For larger repairs, CREG contacts the owner with the issue, the contractor's estimate, and a recommendation, and waits for authorization before proceeding. The only exception is a true emergency — active leak, no heat in winter, no AC during a Memphis summer, gas leak, security issue. Those get handled immediately and the owner is notified the same day.

*Chris Throneburg, Portfolio Director*

For a property priced correctly in a typical Memphis suburb — Cordova, Bartlett, Germantown, Hernando, Olive Branch, and similar — most CREG vacancies move from "ready to show" to "lease signed" within a few weeks. Properties priced five to ten percent above true market rent take meaningfully longer, often months, and tend to end up leasing at market anyway. Pricing right from day one is almost always the faster and more profitable path. Properties in the lower rent bands move at a different pace depending on the specific block, and that's a conversation worth having before purchase.

Every applicant goes through the same process: full credit report, criminal background check, eviction history, employment and income verification (a three-times-rent income baseline), and a rental history check that includes calling the prior landlord. CREG follows Fair Housing law strictly and applies the same criteria to every applicant. A properly screened resident is the single most reliable predictor of a low-drama tenancy and a successful long-term hold. The cost of getting screening wrong (eviction, property damage, lost rent) almost always dwarfs the cost of being patient enough to find the right applicant.

CREG doesn't ask owners to approve specific tenants because Fair Housing law makes that legally risky. Tenant selection has to be based on objective, consistently applied criteria — not personal preference. What the team will share is the criteria the applicant met (credit, income, rental history, criminal background) and a recommendation. Owners who want additional written, non-discriminatory standards applied beyond the baseline (a higher income multiple, a specific credit floor) can have those incorporated at the start of the engagement, and they'll be applied consistently to every applicant.

Lease comparables get pulled from properties on the same block or adjacent blocks within the last 60–90 days, not the Zillow Rent Zestimate. Rent Zestimates routinely miss by a hundred dollars or more per month in Memphis because the algorithm can't see what the leasing team sees walking the property: finish level, mechanical condition, school district nuance, the specific street. CREG presents the owner with a rent range and a recommendation. Priced correctly, the property leases. Priced five percent high, it sits for an extra month and the lost rent outweighs the higher headline number.

That's an owner decision. Most CREG-managed properties allow pets. The recommendation is generally to allow them because pet-allowing properties lease faster and at slightly higher effective rent, with a non-refundable pet fee and additional monthly pet rent that compensates for the added wear. Owners who'd rather not allow pets are honored. CREG uses a third-party pet screening service to verify breed, weight, vaccination records, and any prior pet-related complaints from previous landlords.

Every vacant property gets professional photography, a listing across the major rental syndication networks (Zillow, Trulia, HotPads, Realtor.com, Apartments.com, and 25+ others), a yard sign, social media promotion, and inclusion on CREG's own rental listings page. Memphis-area Realtors get a heads-up on new vacancies for their relocation clients. Showings are scheduled directly through the system, with self-service options for prequalified applicants, which significantly shortens the leasing window.

Tennessee law allows landlords to recover actual losses from a tenant who breaks a lease early, with a duty to mitigate — meaning CREG has to actively try to re-lease the property, not simply bill the tenant for the remaining months. In practice, the tenant typically forfeits the security deposit toward unpaid rent and damages, the property gets remarketed aggressively to minimize vacancy, and a reasonable lease-break settlement is negotiated with the tenant when that makes financial sense for everyone. The specific outcome depends on the lease terms and the circumstances of the break.

*Diane Robison, VP of Operations*

The owner. CREG coordinates the work, but the contractor's invoice is the owner's responsibility. For routine maintenance under a defined threshold, CREG proceeds without prior approval to keep the property running and the resident's experience intact. For larger work, the team contacts the owner with the issue, the estimate, and a recommendation, and waits for authorization. The only exception is a true emergency (active water leak, no heat in winter, no AC during a Memphis summer, gas leak, security issue), which is handled immediately and reported to the owner the same day.

Yes, with two requirements. First, the contractor has to be licensed and insured for the work, and a current certificate of insurance needs to be on file. Second, after-hours emergencies may require CREG's on-call vendor if the owner's preferred contractor can't meet the response time. A no-heat call in February doesn't wait for someone who's out of town. For routine scheduled work, an owner's contractor is fine. Most owners default to CREG's vendors because the response time and pricing have been built up over years of working together.

Three touchpoints. Move-in: a documented walk-through with photos before the keys change hands, which becomes the baseline for move-out comparison. Periodic: regular interior and exterior condition inspections with written reports and photos visible in the owner portal. Move-out: a full walk-through against the move-in baseline, with security deposit deductions for damage beyond normal wear and tear within Tennessee law. The periodic inspections are how small issues get caught before they become expensive ones.

Day one through five is the grace period. On day six, late fees apply per the lease and the first notice goes out. Within the next several days, the formal pay-or-quit notice required by Tennessee law is issued. If the tenant doesn't cure the default in the notice period, CREG files in Shelby County General Sessions Court. Court dates typically land two to four weeks after filing, and from rent default to legal possession the full timeline runs about six to ten weeks. CREG coordinates the entire process with the eviction attorneys it works with regularly.

AppFolio's resident portal carries a 24/7 maintenance request system. True emergencies — active leak, no heat in winter, no AC during a Memphis summer above 90°F, gas leak, no electricity, security issue — are dispatched immediately to an on-call vendor. Non-emergencies (a slow drip, a refrigerator that's making noise) are queued and addressed during business hours. Residents have clear written guidance on what qualifies as an emergency, and the 24/7 infrastructure is one of the operational pieces that's hard to do well at small scale.

Yes. When a property sits in an HOA, CREG manages compliance — communicating the rules to the resident, addressing any violation notices from the association, and coordinating any required maintenance or modifications. HOA dues themselves aren't part of the management fee. Owners can pay the association directly, or CREG can pay the dues from the property trust account on their behalf. For properties in master-planned communities (Lakeland, certain Germantown subdivisions, most of the Mississippi suburbs), HOA work is a meaningful piece of the management role.

*Chris Throneburg, Portfolio Director*

Tennessee has no statutory cap on security deposit amounts. Landlords can charge what the market will bear. In the CREG Memphis portfolio, security deposits typically equal one month's rent. The law does require the deposit to be held in a separate, identifiable account at a Tennessee bank, with the tenant given the bank name and account information in writing. CREG handles all of this through AppFolio's trust accounting.

About six to ten weeks from the date of default. The timeline runs: notice to pay or quit, court filing, court date (typically two to four weeks out), judgment, writ of possession, and physical possession by the sheriff. Tennessee is one of the more landlord-favorable eviction processes in the country, but it still takes time, and a tenant who knows the system can stretch it further with continuances. CREG coordinates the entire process so the owner doesn't have to navigate court personally.

No. Tennessee law requires reasonable advance notice before entering, typically 24 hours, except in emergencies. The lease specifies the notice period and the acceptable reasons for entry (inspection, repair, showing the property near lease end). CREG follows this strictly. Residents who feel they're being entered without proper notice have legal recourse, and that's not a position CREG will put an owner in.

The core Tennessee statute is the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (URLTA), which applies in cities with populations over 75,000 — so it applies in Memphis but not in all of Shelby County. URLTA governs notices, security deposits, repairs, entry, evictions, and lease terms. Properties in Mississippi (Hernando, Olive Branch, Southaven, the MS side of Lakeland) fall under Mississippi's Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, which differs in several material ways. Most notably, the Mississippi eviction timeline can be slightly faster than Tennessee's.

Federal Fair Housing law prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status, or disability. Tennessee adds a few state-level protections. Memphis adds local protections in some categories. In practice, that means every tenant decision — advertising, showing, screening, lease terms, evictions, renewals — has to rest on objective, consistently applied criteria, never on personal preference about who'd be "better" in the property. The CREG screening process is built around Fair Housing compliance specifically.

Generally no, for a small number of properties owned as an individual investor. Tennessee doesn't require landlord licensing the way some states do. Depending on the specific municipality (Memphis, Bartlett, Germantown) and how the ownership is structured (LLC, individual), there may be business tax registration requirements once an owner scales beyond a few properties. CREG can connect owners with a Memphis-area CPA who specializes in real estate investor compliance.

Within 30 days of move-out under Tennessee law, the tenant receives an itemized statement of any deductions — unpaid rent, damages beyond normal wear and tear, cleaning costs that exceed standard turnover — and the remaining balance gets returned to their forwarding address. The deductions get documented with photos and contractor invoices. If a tenant disputes the deductions, the burden of substantiation falls on the landlord, which is exactly why the move-in documentation matters as much as the move-out walkthrough.

*Diane Robison, VP of Operations*

Yes, with discipline. Memphis still offers what makes it a top US rental market: affordable acquisition prices (median sale price around $215,000 as of May 2026), strong rental demand, and meaningful cash flow potential on properties bought right. The risk is that the "Memphis 12% yield" headlines you'll see online almost never survive a five-year hold. Real cash-on-cash returns settle into the 6 to 8 percent range once vacancy, maintenance, and turnover are accounted for. The bigger 2026 story for individual investors is the recent housing legislation capping institutional ownership at 350 doors per entity, which opens up inventory previously locked into Wall Street portfolios.

A 6 to 8 percent cash-on-cash return on a properly priced Memphis single-family rental in the $1,250–$1,800 rent band. That's the realistic target across the CREG-managed portfolio. Returns can run higher in specific situations (off-market deals, value-add, certain submarkets), but the buy box discipline that produces consistent 6 to 8 percent across a five-year hold is what CREG encourages. The headline yields you'll see in turnkey pitches usually compress to that 6 to 8 percent range once real expenses cycle through a hold period.

CREG focuses on submarkets where the math holds together over a five-year hold: Cordova, Bartlett, Germantown, Collierville, parts of East Memphis and Raleigh, plus the Mississippi suburbs of Hernando, Olive Branch, Lakeland, and Southaven. These areas share characteristics that matter for rental performance — a more stable tenant pool, less maintenance volatility, longer average lease terms. CREG generally advises against the lower-rent bands (below $1,250) in the rougher Memphis submarkets. The headline yields look attractive, but the actual returns over a hold period rarely justify the volatility.

Both can work; both have failure modes. Turnkey gets you in the Memphis market faster, with a property already rehabbed and tenanted, but the trust ends up sitting with the wholesaler's pro forma and the rehab quality. CREG sees the cleanup work when those purchases don't go as advertised. Self-sourcing takes more time, more local knowledge, and a contractor relationship, but it puts the variables in the buyer's hands. For anyone going turnkey, a second set of Memphis-based eyes on the property before the wire goes out catches most of the deal-breakers.

Most investors realize they need professional management around door three to five. Below that, the management fee is a meaningful chunk of cash flow and a motivated owner can usually self-manage one or two properties part-time. Above five, the time cost of self-management catches up quickly, especially for someone who isn't local. The bigger consideration isn't door count, though — it's whether the goal is running a business or running errands. Professional management is the point at which the investor stops being the maintenance dispatcher.

Yes. Property management fees are a deductible business expense for a rental property, alongside mortgage interest, property taxes, insurance, depreciation, repairs, and most other ordinary operating expenses. How the ownership is structured (LLC versus individual, Schedule E versus Schedule C) affects how the deductions flow through. CREG isn't a CPA firm and shouldn't be the source for tax strategy specific to a given owner, but the framework is in the linked guides.

Three things matter most. First, Memphis varies block by block. A property that looks good in a screenshot may sit on a street with very different rental economics than a property half a mile away. Get someone local to walk it. Second, class designations from wholesalers ("A-class," "B-class," "C-class") aren't standardized. What one provider calls B-class might be what CREG would call C+. Translate the labels into specific rent bands and neighborhoods. Third, the 12 percent yield numbers in turnkey pitches rarely survive contact with reality. Assume realistic returns of 6 to 8 percent over five years and decide whether that math works.

*Scott King, Founder & CEO*

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Last updated: June 24, 2026