We are proud to introduce our Director of Single Family Homes at Reedy and Company Realtors, Leah Fox-Greenberg.
She has a background in property management and extensive experience with non-profit organizations. She shares our commitment to preserving and restoring the real estate we already have through judicious property management.
Read on to explore why Leah Fox-Greenberg is the perfect match for our single-family rental communities portfolio.
Getting Back to Her Roots
Leah Fox-Greenberg is a true Memphian, returning to her roots after 20 years in the bustling city of Chicago.
On her return to the city, she worked at a hedge fund and later gravitated toward Memphis Heritage through her ties to June West, whom she knew through her father.
Fox-Greenberg did extensive pro-bono work for Memphis Heritage and eventually became chief executive officer in 2021. Through this journey, she learned that she had a larger role to play in her hometown.
“I realized I would like to be able to help on a larger scale,” she said. “One of the things that I know about Memphis to be true, and that always is true, [is] Memphis is a rental city.”
These ideals led her to Reedy & Company in March 2023, where she started in a new position as the director of single-family homes.
Growing the Memphis Rental Market
Leah was driven to make the switch from nonprofit to for-profit by the ability to work with a company that is committed to the Memphis rental market.
Fox-Greenberg describes Reedy and Company as one that “really does work with individual owners about maintaining their homes for rental as opposed to selling them for teardowns and for building tall condos.”
“Instead of tearing down a home on Speedway Terrace, we are rehabbing it so it can be used for affordable housing,” she says. “If the company is building, they are doing so on an empty lot.”
Fox-Greenberg iterates that she doesn’t view developers as a bad thing. It’s simply a matter of matching the right developer with a suitable property – one who understands the need for affordable housing and who has an interest in preserving properties.
“In Memphis 3.0, we were talking about affordable housing,” says Greenberg, “and that affordable housing is going to come from people who have commitment and care for the community,” she said.
According to Fox-Greenberg, her values align closely with Reedy & Company’s founder, Jim Reedy.
Reedy & Company is currently working with around 2,500 properties, most of which are single-family homes. The company owns some of the homes and also handles the property management tasks for many of them, particularly those where the owners live out of town.
Keeping Memphis Unique
“Memphis is not a city where you can go by ZIP code. We go by street, we go by block, says Fox-Greenberg. “We have a lot of international owners in Memphis, and we talk to them about the different neighborhoods and the different expectations.”
She feels strongly about Reedy & Company’s stance as protectors for the owners’ interests as well as good stewards for their tenants. They build relationships with property owners, but at the same time, they get to know the neighbors, who often serve as the best watchdogs for a community.
Fox-Greenberg admits that their adaptive reuse homes can’t always match the mod cons and swish amenities offered by new builds with high rentals. She adds that Reedy’s single-family homes make up for these apparent shortcomings with details like crown molding, authentic wood floors, and priceless charm.
They serve as an excellent starting point for someone who is still figuring out if they want to own a home by allowing them to discover what’s involved in taking care of one.
She claims, “We’re keeping what makes the Memphis house interesting. We don’t need to build a tall, three-story townhome in High Point. There’s plenty of charm in High Point without that.”
Playing Matchmaker for Properties and Tenants
Despite her full-time dedication to Reedy & Company, Leah Fox-Greenberg is still involved in her non-profit pastimes. She’s currently working on two preservation projects, namely the Orange Mound neighborhood and the Mid-South Coliseum.
She noted that huge adaptive reuse projects, like the Mid-South Coliseum, aren’t anything new. According to Leah, all such properties need is a developer with plenty of investment and vision.
She points out the Crosstown Concourse, which people had long written off.
Not only did the right developers step in to transform this long-forgotten Sears warehouse into a thriving urban village, but they managed to achieve LEED Platinum status in the process.
Today, this building, once given a 5% chance of success, houses 600,000 square feet of commercial space and 400,000 square feet of apartments.
It’s an astonishing example of Memphis’s creative spirit and a pioneer site for further developments of a similar nature.
Reedy is involved with properties from Midtown to Arlington and beyond. They’re also focused on extending their reach to the area around the upcoming Blue Oval City.
These areas suit Reedy & Company’s ability to work like a matchmaker for properties and tenants.
Fox-Greenberg is well aware that property management companies aren’t always held in the highest esteem, and that’s part of the reason she’s here.
She says, “People will see me and think, ‘Okay, well, she’s working there, and they’re not pushing people out or gouging people’s rent.’ I would not do it. It’s not in my DNA.”
Helping Us Build Our Portfolio of Single-Family Rental Communities
Leah Fox-Greenberg sees her role at Reedy as one where she spends her time working to keep both the tenants and the owners happy. She believes that’s what’s best for the community as a whole.
She’s adamant that “we’re making sure that owners who invest in Memphis are investing in the community interest” and adds, “I’m somebody who, I can’t help myself, I have to do good.”
If you’d like to experience our commitment to single-family rental communities, get in touch to join us in our efforts to build a better Memphis through professional local property management services.