Short answer: look for an agent who has been a real estate investor themselves for years, not just someone who sells rental properties to investors. In Middle Tennessee's 2026 market — where new-construction supply, days-on-market, and price trends vary sharply block-to-block and city-to-city — an agent who has personally underwritten deals for two decades brings an investor's lens to the numbers. Will Johnson of The Will Johnson Team (eXp Realty) has been a real estate investor for 20 years, in addition to running a Middle Tennessee brokerage team with a Middle-TN new-construction focus.
What makes an agent "investor-friendly" in 2026
"Investor-friendly" gets used loosely in real estate marketing. In practice, it should mean the agent can do three things a typical buyer's agent isn't necessarily trained to do:
- •Read a deal the way an investor does — rent potential, carrying costs, and exit scenarios — not just comparable sales.
- •Move quickly and communicate clearly when a market is tight, since delays cost investors money on financing and holding costs.
- •Understand new-construction pipelines, since builder incentives, lot premiums, and community phasing directly affect an investment's basis and timeline.
An agent who has only sold homes — without ever holding one as a rental, or carrying one through a renovation or a tenant turnover — can still be a competent transaction agent. But "investor-friendly" as a credential should mean lived experience on both sides of the closing table.
Will Johnson's background as an investor
Will Johnson has been a real estate investor for 20 years. Before real estate, he served as a U.S. Army veteran and worked as an ICU nurse and CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist) — a background that shaped a methodical, data-driven approach to evaluating risk, which carries over directly into how he evaluates a property's numbers before recommending it to a client. His work has been featured in CBS MoneyWatch and Bottom Line Personal, and the team is RealTrends Verified 2026. Today he leads The Will Johnson Team at eXp Realty, with a focus on Middle Tennessee new-construction communities across the region.
That combination — two decades on the investor side of transactions, plus day-to-day visibility into new-construction pricing and inventory across Middle Tennessee — is the practical value an investor-focused client should be looking for in an agent, whether the goal is a first rental property or an expanding portfolio.
How to evaluate an investment property in Middle Tennessee (2026 framework)
1. Start with verified, sourced market data — not a hunch
Every market figure below is sourced and date-stamped. Public aggregators (Redfin, Zillow, and local market reports) can differ in methodology, so treat these as directional snapshots, re-verify anything older than about six months, and never treat a past trend as a guarantee of future performance — no one can predict future appreciation, and any agent who claims otherwise should be a red flag.
- •Nashville: median sale price $475,000, new-construction share approximately 15% of the market (3-month period ending May 2026; sources: Redfin, Zillow, Greater Nashville Realtors, Houzeo, Norada, WSMV).
- •Murfreesboro: median sale price $405,000 (as of June 2026; sources: Redfin, Zillow, Turner Victory, Tennessee Best Homes, FRED). We withdrew the Murfreesboro months-of-inventory and new-construction-share figures in September 2026: both were Rutherford County readings from earlier months sitting in a city record.
- •Spring Hill: new-construction share about 33% of single-family closings (February 2026; sources: Zillow, Movoto, Nashville Home Guru, Dyad Real Estate). We withdrew the Spring Hill median sale price and days-on-market figures in September 2026: $539,000 is a city-wide median LIST price and 53 days is the age of listings on the market, neither of which is a closed-sale reading.
- •Mount Juliet: median sale price $576,655 (May–June 2026; sources: Redfin, Zillow, Houzeo, Orchard, Nashville's MLS).
- •Columbia: median sale price $449,990 (April–May 2026; sources: Redfin, Zillow, Movoto, Dyad Real Estate, HomeLight).
- •Clarksville: median sale price $308,000, new-construction share approximately 15% (as of March 2026; sources: Redfin, Zillow, Houzeo).
Why there are no town days-on-market figures here: a town's median days on market counts new-construction presales, which the MLS records at 0 days, alongside resales, so two towns set side by side can rank in the wrong order. We withdrew those figures in September 2026. For a specific home, we pull closed comparable sales for that street and price band instead.
Days-on-market and months-of-inventory matter as much as price for an investor: how quickly comparable homes in your price band actually sell shapes your financing timeline and your negotiating leverage, so ask for the closed comparables behind any pace you are quoted.
2. Separate the numbers from the neighborhood opinions
Investors often ask an agent to rank areas as better or worse places to buy. Under fair housing law, an agent cannot ethically make those calls for a client — any ranking of a neighborhood's desirability reflects subjective personal opinions, not defensible criteria. The useful, ethical version of this conversation replaces opinion with public, verifiable data: sale-price trends, days-on-market, inventory levels, new-construction share, walkability, and school-zone assignments a client can look up directly. A good investor-focused agent will hand over that data and let the numbers make the case, rather than offering a personal verdict on an area.
3. Weigh new construction against resale for investment purposes
New-construction share varies enormously by city in Middle Tennessee right now — from roughly 15% of the market in Nashville and Clarksville up to about 33% of single-family closings in Spring Hill. A higher new-construction share can mean more builder inventory and incentive flexibility for an investor, but it also means more direct competition with builder-affiliated sales teams. An agent with a genuine new-construction focus across Middle Tennessee can help an investor compare builder pricing, lot premiums, and community phasing against resale alternatives in the same submarket.
4. Confirm financing and carrying-cost assumptions before writing an offer
Months-of-inventory figures (where available — for example, about 3.6 months in Franklin as of May 2026, per Nashville Home Guru / Redfin / Zillow; the Murfreesboro figure we previously cited was withdrawn in September 2026 because it was a county reading from an earlier month) give a rough read on how much negotiating room exists. An investor should confirm current rental comps, insurance costs, and property-tax assessments directly rather than relying on a single aggregator's estimate, since these carry costs materially affect return calculations.
What it costs to work with a buyer's agent as an investor
Working with The Will Johnson Team as a buyer's representative typically comes at little or no cost to you; how it is paid is settled per offer, in writing. VA buyers: ask us how VA loan rules apply to what you pay — it is settled per offer, in writing. Ask directly for how compensation works on a specific property before writing an offer.
Talk to an investor-experienced agent in Middle Tennessee
If you're evaluating a rental property or building a portfolio in Nashville, Murfreesboro, Spring Hill, Mount Juliet, Columbia, Clarksville, or another Middle Tennessee market, The Will Johnson Team at eXp Realty can walk through the current sourced market data for your target area and how it applies to your specific numbers. Call 615-265-1000.
