Nashville’s hottest neighborhood is nowhere near Music Row

This week, we spoke to Dan Beit-Or at Simply Do It about investing in Nashville, TN.

Average home price: $436,355 (down 3.2% YoY)
Homes that sell over list price: 10.7%
Homes that sell under list price: 69.9%
Average rent: $1,810/month

The pros: Thanks to Music Row, “everyone wants Nashville,” says Beit-Or. “The area also boasts strong population and job growth—hello In-N-Out Burger—and landlord-friendly laws.”

The cons: High costs and competition. “I don’t recommend buying Downtown,” Beit-Or says.

His advice: For deals, Beit-Or recommends hitting “the strip”—not the most famous one on Music Row, but the area stretching from Chattanooga through Nashville to Clarksville. “These less competitive areas have better rent-to-price ratios and have quietly outperformed Downtown Nashville for years,” he says. “They also reap the benefits of Nashville’s strong economy and growth without the inflated prices.”

Beit-Or helped a client purchase a house in Clarksville listed for $325,000. But the seller wanted to stay put, so “My buyer ended up leasing the house back to the seller for one year,” he explains. In exchange, his client assumed the seller’s mortgage and snagged the house for $250,000. “Work will need to be done once the old owner/tenant moves out, but right now our client is looking at $75,000 in equity, a mortgage at an unheard-of rate in today’s times of 3.5%, and no vacancy with the tenant paying $100 per month over market value.”

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