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Old 11-04-2015, 09:57 PM
 
3 posts, read 4,461 times
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Hello all!

We are in the process of negotiating a relocation to Memphis with my husband and our 5 year old daughter and are interested in living in Germantown or possibly Collierville.

I have not been there yet, but will be the one doing most of the leg-work for our move and wanted to see what resources are available to find rentals in the area. Our child will be entering kindergarten and so school district is of upmost importance to us. In general is there a "most used," method in finding a rental house in this specific area? Are there shortages in quality single family home rentals? Do people work with realtors to find homes?

I ask because our last relocation was to Raleigh, NC and with the explosion in growth here, there is a huge supply of new-build rentals available pretty much everywhere you go in the city. A quick search on Craigslist yielded hundreds of quality properties, but on Memphis Craigslist I seem to be striking out. I was hoping someone had a good website (other than Zilllow/Homes.com/Realtor.com) or contract that might be helpful.

Thank you very much in advance and have a great evening!
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Old 11-05-2015, 06:38 AM
 
737 posts, read 1,909,812 times
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You are looking for an actual house, not an apartment or condo type of thing?

The house rental market in those areas isn't huge. But, you can look on Zillow, Hotpads, or something like that. Zillow shows a lot of rentals, but always beware of scams on there.

One of our most used realty companies here is Crye Leike and they have a good website you can search on. I pasted a search below, not sure if it will come out right. But I searched for homes in both suburbs and put the max home price as $5,000 (which would mean it shows most rentals and not any houses for sale). It came up with a couple pages of options for you. Most are $2000 and under so it depends on your price range. I would NOT use Craigslist to do this, most everything on there is a scam. You can guarantee that any house listed on Crye Leike's website is legit, as these are MLS listings. My suggestion would be to look at one of the Crye Leike rentals listed, contact the agent listed who will be a part of their property management team, and then go from there. Have that person set up some showings for when you visit.

Real Estate Search Results. Crye-Leike. Results page 1

Be aware too, Germantown Elementary is NOT a Germantown school anymore. It is Memphis City/Shelby County. So if you find a rental that is near Germantown Elementary, just be aware your child would not be attending that school. The elementaries are Dogwood and Farmington, which are both very nice. Everything in Gtown and Cville is going to be fantastic for your child.

Schools

Collierville Schools
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Old 11-05-2015, 08:48 AM
 
191 posts, read 300,675 times
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I would use Realtor.com, which is driven by MLS and the local real estate association. A lot of owners don't like to pay a month's rent in commission, but those that do are professional and highly unlikely to be scams. Those properties should be well-maintained, too. Another option is to use one of the real estate management companies. The problem there is that some are great, others are not. Some big investment groups have bought properties in Memphis (and elsewhere) and they are bottom-line driven, so may be less likely to spend on maintenance and upgrades.

We own several investment properties (no houses in that area), and our tenants tend to stay for a long time. We invest in our properties and take care of issues immediately. We also charge below-market rent, so folks have no incentive to move. Our neighbor also owns investment properties, but is the biggest cheapskate going. When we re-did our kitchen, he asked for the old cabinets and appliances! He is not alone.

Ask around to make sure the owner of a house you rent has a good reputation.
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Old 11-05-2015, 07:29 PM
 
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Thank you very much. I think that I was unaware of how small each of the towns are. It now makes sense as to why I am not finding heaps of home rentals.

We are looking for a newer build home, but it seems Germantown has a lot of older homes?

I will make sure to check out the Crye Leike website and reach out to some property management teams! I also appreciate the heads up about scammers and Germantown Elementary. We've always rented from Craigslist in the past, but every market is certainly different.
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Old 11-05-2015, 08:45 PM
 
185 posts, read 333,974 times
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You are not having any luck because both areas are not really transient and there just isn't a rental culture in either area. You may find a house here or there for rent but don't count on a lot of choices. Both areas do have *some* older homes but most development is less than 20 years old. They are typically large homes, on large lots and families are mostly affluent. Newer homes built between 2000 and up til now can range from 3-400k to 3-4 million to buy just as a frame of reference.

These areas are not really tiny though, together they are about the size of San Francisco, although not as densely populated.
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Old 11-06-2015, 06:32 AM
 
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Germantown is sort of divided into 2 parts, with Germantown Rd/Pkwy cutting it in the middle from north and south. The western part is older, and the homes look more like typical east memphis homes. To the east are going to be newer, more cookie cutter looking homes. Collierville for the most part is going to also be newer cookie cutter homes, however I'm guessing that a lot of Cville rentals will be the older homes. Most people who buy there now want NEW NEW NEW and so I think the older homes in that area might get rented out. But as mentioned above, these suburbs are filled with families, and families buy there. Not rent. Renters usually can't afford $2,000 for a big house, you know? Memphis isn't a wealthy area. People who have that type of money probably prefer to buy.

I would just take what you can find, stay a year, then you'll have a better idea of what you're looking for.
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Old 11-06-2015, 07:04 AM
 
191 posts, read 300,675 times
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Collierville and Germantown are the most sought-after school districts in Shelby County. It is a long and complicated story, but this school situation is recent, and families now have increased incentive to move there. If anyone had overbuilt single family homes there, say prior to the real estate bust, they could easily sell them in today's market for good money.

There are lots of homes for rent at reasonable prices within the Memphis/Shelby County school district, but you are going to pay a premium for the two municipal districts to which you are trying to relocate. There are some decent elementary schools in East Memphis and unincorporated Shelby County, as well as some of the other municipal districts. The bigger issue seems to be with middle and high schools.

Since your child is entering kindergarten, maybe you could rent elsewhere for a time, then consider buying in one of your preferred districts. If you indicate your housing budget, someone can suggest a good area to look.
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Old 11-06-2015, 08:31 AM
 
737 posts, read 1,909,812 times
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Here's a 5 bedroom for rent in Germantown for $2950. Is this sort of what you are looking for? A giant new build house? Germantown isn't going to have any small new builds. Collierville may have some smaller newer homes. Germantown is older and was a "suburb" first, so it got filled up and there isn't any more room to build. Collierville is a "newer" suburb so there is plenty of vacant land to build on.

9481 Plantation Way Ln, Germantown, TN 38139 | Zillow

Here's a smaller 4 bed in Collierville for $1895.
289 John Cv, Collierville, TN 38017 | Zillow
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Old 11-10-2015, 09:34 AM
 
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We move relatively frequently and so buying has never been a fiscally beneficial option for us. (7 moves in 6 years, 2 of them international.) We have also never lived in an area without a thriving rental market and I think that is probably the largest difference we are experiencing in our search thus far.

Thank you so much for the incite you guys. I think we will need to discuss the possibility of renting an apartment for a year and then getting to know the area more intimately to see what fits our lifestyle best.

You're right, it seems everyone wants NEW and HUGE, but we just don't. We have one child and the 3000 square feet we have now is just WAY too much. We ideally want an 1800-2000 square foot new build with upgraded finishes, but that seems extremely unlikely without building it ourselves.

Budget-wise, we could go up to $2250/month for the right property, but I would prefer to stay around $1800/month or less. The additional savings will go into our daughter's education fund.

What about the Lakeland/Barlett/Arlington areas? I noticed that the Lakeland school district is still quite young, but it has excellent reviews! It seems that there is not much out there other than a series of newly-developed neighborhoods, but I'm trying to keep our options as open as possible. Are these areas, for a lack of understanding and better words, "country bumpkin?"
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Old 11-10-2015, 10:50 AM
 
Location: Seattle
7,511 posts, read 17,141,446 times
Reputation: 4789
I mean, I guess there aren't hundreds of empty suburban houses out there (who knew in Memphis this could be an issue? haha), but I found a few in just a 5 minute search in the Collierville area......

Newly Renovated Home in Collierville!

$499,000 Gorgeous Collierville home ONLY $1650/MO!! (read the description ... kind of strange, but might work for a few months till you find something else)

3 Bedroom, 2 Bath Home , 2 Car Garage

RENOVATED 4BR/2BA COLLIERVILLE HOME

4BR/2.5ba Remodeled Home

(The same landlord has the last two listings, so s/he might be someone you want to connect with.)
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