Local landlord Doug DeVore explains the complexities of owning rental properties while offering affordable rates
In a Kimball Starbucks inside of Food City, Doug DeVore sits thinking about how he has helped the world. He’s drinking coffee in a in a bright room, wearing a short sleeve button-up flannel shirt. He has a gray beard, short blackish-gray hair, and blue eyes with black glasses. As he talks about the business he is involved in, DeVore says, “Many people think that the rental house business is just wealthy landlords trying to make a buck.” This is just not true. DeVore says that there are a lot of components that go into the final price of rent. The sad part about the rental business is that over the years the price of rent has only been trending up higher and higher.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the average cost of monthly rent in Tennessee has almost doubled in the past three years. It has grown from an average of $971 in 2021 to an average of $1,750 this year (Bryant). Unfortunately, this trend does not appear to be ending soon. This 80% increase in rent has left many people unable to pay rent without a loan or even worse, being evicted (Bryant). This is mainly due to the fact that incomes have not grown as much as the price of rent in recent years.
DeVore owns about 20 active rental properties that he rents out at fair prices compared to the high market value. “We like to be just a little bit below market rate,” he says. DeVore feels by charging rent a little below market value, he is able to attract more long term tenants and to allow the tenants to have a little extra money to make the house their home. “If the rent prices are market value or higher, the renter leaves within a year or two,” he says. DeVore knows he will more than likely have good renters, because he does a background check on every renter. This allows him to see their prior payment history in regards to paying rent. Also, he checks to see if the potential renters have a steady job that is able to cover the price of the rent. He does not require a certain credit score like most rental owners do, because it is not important to him and this helps the renters out. He also looks past student loans and medical bills. This process has worked for DeVore and has prevented him from evicting renters as often as most landlords. DeVore, along with his wife, Carrie, tries to keep rent as fair as possible for their renters.
DeVore grew up in a lower middle class family in Bloomington, Illinois. He has two brothers and one sister. Even though his family was not in the real estate business, he says, ”Even at 12 years old, I knew I wanted to own my own business.” DeVore always tried to figure things out by himself at a young age. He was inspired by his fifth grade friend’s entrepreneurial dad, who would answer questions about owning his own company. At nineteen years old, DeVore worked in a car repair shop and learned from his boss, Chad Wellington, what a successful business owner looked like. He was an understanding man and worked alongside his employees. DeVore learned that being the boss doesn’t mean you get to boss people around. While attending college, DeVore bought his first rental house in 1999 for a mere $8,000. That was the beginning of his rental business. Eventually, he started expanding in the rental houses and expanding his business. DeVore says, “My favorite part of my job is a flexible schedule.” Most days now, he wakes up, drinks coffee, goes to the gym, hangs out a little bit, and starts to work at ten or ten thirty in the morning.
DeVore has lived in Tennessee now for about five years, but he did not start his rental business here. DeVore started renting to people in Illinois. Rent prices in southern Illinois for the first twenty years he was a landlord did not go up. The economy in Illinois was terrible, and it was very hard to evict renters who did not pay. When DeVore decided to move to Tennessee for better business, it became a completely different story. DeVore mentions that he noticed the large impact that COVID-19 made rent prices in 2019 through 2021: "I’ve never seen rents take off and skyrocket like they did in the past four years." DeVore also notes that Tennessee had a different economy with more jobs which made rent prices much higher than in Illinois. Another reason rents have been going up, DeVore believes, is due to “high interest rates." This means that the higher the interest rate of purchasing the rental property the owner has to pay, the higher the rent has to be to make a profit. DeVore believes this is the main cause of inflation now. Many landlords bought properties during COVID-19 when the interest rates were low; however, the interest rates now have come back up forcing the landlords to inflate their rent prices to make any profit at all. Currently, all of DeVore’s rental properties are in South Pittsburg, Tennessee. DeVore says that Tennessee renters are more honorable people than in Illinois. In Illinois, renters constantly lied about not paying rent in court. DeVore has not had a renter in Tennessee that has lied to a judge.
As DeVore reclines back in his chair sipping his coffee, he continues talking and explains that when he does have to evict a renter, he tries to do it with grace and understanding. “There’s been plenty of times where we’ve served someone eviction papers but said here’s a food card," he says. A better economy does not mean no more evictions. Even though this happens, DeVore tries his best to keep an eviction off the renters record. An eviction on a renters record causes it to be very hard to find a landlord that will let them rent from him. Unfortunately, “Every renter has a story [of an eviction]," Devore mentions. DeVore says that in addition to wanting to support his renters for as long as possible, he does not want to evict people because it is a long and lengthy process that takes months. Sadly, sometimes eviction has to happen despite the help from DeVore.
According to Legal Services Corporation, Hamilton County in October 2024 alone had 284 evictions ("Eviction Filings"). This is not a small number. People not being able to pay the rent has become more and more common. Six percent of renters have been evicted in 2024 in Hamilton County ("Eviction Filings"). In July 2024 specifically, more evictions have occurred than in any month in the past five years. This is just the sad reality of rent prices going up.
DeVore believes rental house prices will go down if interest rates lower again. Based on the Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions, the average interest rate in 2020 got down to around 5.2%, while now in 2024 the average is around 8%. This is a massive increase over the years of 2.8%. This directly correlates to the increase in average rent prices from 2020 being about $971 to in 2024 being around $1,730 ("Historical Listings"). This validates that the higher the interest rates are on homes, the more the rent will be. The owners have to make money on the property to pay their loan. DeVore mentions that he has been in the rental industry for 25e years, and the rent prices have only gone up with time.
DeVore is using what he has been blessed with to try to make the lives of his renters easier and more affordable. This is a blessing for any renter. He is one of the many examples of people in Tennessee who that are actively trying to help the price of rent to decline, even if they know it or not. Their strong Christian background motivates DeVore and many others to be fair and more understanding in their rent prices. DeVore is helping the cause for all renters through lower rental house prices tremendously in Tennessee.
Works Cited
Bryant, Mollie. “As corporate landlords drive up Tennessee rents, tenants say their homeownership dreams are slipping away.” Street Light News, Street Light News, 25 September 2023, https://streetlightnews.org/tennessee-homeownership/#:~:text=Tennessee%20rent%20growth%20outpaces%20incomes,current%20median%20rent%20at%20%241%2C750. Accessed November 2024.
DeVore, Doug. Personal Interview. 10 November, 2024.
“Eviction Filings and Defaults in Hamilton, Tennessee.” Legal Services Corporation, Legal Services Corporation Civil Court Data Initiative, 2024, https://civilcourtdata.lsc.gov/data/eviction/tennessee/hamilton. Accessed November 2024.
“Historical Listing of Maximum Effective Interest Rates (Home Loan Rate).” Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions, Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions, https://www.tn.gov/tdfi/tdfi-how-do-i/info/mortgage-rate-of-interest/max-effective-interest-rate-history.html. Accessed November 2024.
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