In early July I took a trip to Nashville, Tennessee to shop for investment properties and to meet with our local team.

I brought along my partner in crime Deena Iverson, and this was our 6th investment scouting trip together.

Out of all the cities we’ve toured, this trip was our favorite. In this article, I will share with you everything that we learned on this investment property shopping trip to Nashville. 

1. There are over 180 development projects happening in downtown Nashville – and cranes are everywhere!

Deena and I arrived in Nashville on a Friday night, and the first thing we noticed when searching for an amazing BBQ place was how many cranes we saw downtown.

We stopped counting at 20 something and googled it instead. According to a news article, there are currently 180+ downtown developments happening in Nashville.

#2 The population is growing, rapidly

When selecting a market to invest in, one of the first things I look for is population growth, and Nashville has grown 20% between 2000-2017 – that’s pretty solid. 

Even better, Clarksville TN where our local team is based has experienced population growth of 47% in that same time period (not including the military population at Fort Campbell).

#3 Tourism is at an all-time high

Nashville is now known as the #1 bachelor and bachelorette party city in the US.  In 2018 Nashville broke a record with over 15 million visitors, 5% more than 2017. 

Major events include New Year’s Eve, 4th of July parties, the continued success of the sports teams, and the growing entertainment and music scenes. 

20 new hotels have or will be opened in 2019 – it’s a happening place!

#4 Unemployment is at record low levels

As of June 2019, Nashville’s unemployment rate was 3.2%, lower than the US average of 3.7%. Nashville’s major employers include Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nissan, HCA Healthcare, Vanderbilt University, Saint Thomas Health, Community Health Systems, Randstad, Asurion, Kroger and many more. 

While Amazon did not pick Nashville for its second headquarters, they recently inked a deal for a massive operations center at Nashville yards that will locate at least 5000 jobs. 

#5 The best cash flow is up North

To be honest, I somewhat knew that the Nashville market was going to have lower cap rates than what I was looking for, and that’s why we spent two of our three nights in Clarksville, TN with our local team that’s been finding amazing off-market properties.

In fact, both Deena and I both wrote offers on two properties  – both 7 unit deals. Deena ended up getting hers, and unfortunately, I was outbid on mine. .

It was so valuable to be able to meet with our local team in person, to drive through the neighborhoods and get a feel for the market.

What we saw far exceeded our expectations, the neighborhoods we would be investing in were surprisingly well kept , and in nice parts of town.

We loved this trip so much that we polled our private facebook group to see who would be interested in joining us on a group trip, and the response was overwhelming.

We like to make these investment trips intimate and small, so we limit the attendees to 30 investors total, and we’re 50% sold out. 

Can’t make the investment trip but want to learn more about the deals our team is finding? You can join the Inner Circle here.

(UPDATE: The Nashville Trip was held in October 2019. We welcomed 30 investors from five states! It was a huge success)