By Sean Dempsey
Date: June 03, 2025
If it seems too good to be true, it probably is…
That phrase should be stamped in 100-point bold on the front door of Mid South Turnkey Homes, located at 5865 Ridgeway Center Parkway, Suite 300 Memphis TN 38120.
Because what my wife and I endured with this so-called “real estate investment firm” has been nothing short of a soul-draining, financially devastating, and borderline criminal experience.
The Initial Pitch: A Memphis Turnkey Dream That Turned to Dust
It began with hope. And a promise.
In November 2024, my wife and I invested over $90,000 into the property 2028 Amity Avenue, Memphis, TN, through Mid South Turnkey Homes, an operation that markets itself as a trustworthy turnkey investment company. They assured us that this rehab project would be completed in under five months, polished and rent-ready. After that would come a refinance getting us 100% of our capital returned and a passive income stream netting $650-750/mo in cashflow. Not bad!
However, after more than seven months of waiting…waiting…waiting … what we received instead was not a rental-ready home. We received silence. And deception. And stress that chewed into our mental, emotional, and financial health.
Vanishing Promises, Endless Excuses
Five months passed. The rehab dragged on.
Six months passed. No clarity. The scope of work was unclear, deadlines kept moving, and we received not so much as a single photo.
Now, seven full months later, the home at 2028 Amity is still not completed, and what’s worse, we’ve entered what I can only describe as the Twilight Zone of property investment: where calls go unanswered, texts vanish into the void, and emails never get replies.
Let me be clear: we have placed hundreds of calls, voicemails, and messages to Mid South Turnkey Homes. We practically begged for updates. We pleaded for basic communication.
We got crickets.
Kenny Shaw: The Disappearing Act
Let’s talk about Kenny Shaw, the supposed owner of Mid South Turnkey Homes.
This man has become the human embodiment of “I’ll get back to you.” In the rare cases where he answers, it’s with a canned line like, “Let me look into that and I’ll circle back.”
But guess what? He never circles back. He ghosts.
He vanishes like vapor on a summer road. He leaves you with nothing … no answers, no accountability, and certainly no action.
It has become increasingly difficult to avoid the terrifying question: Is this a Ponzi scheme?
The Team That Abandoned Ship
When our rehab journey began, a few team members at Mid South Turnkey Homes made the initial attempt at “professionalism.” A WhatsApp chat was set up by Ashley Smith, Kimberly Smith, and Sammy Hoover.
For a fleeting moment, it looked like this company might act like a real business.
Then, poof – that line of communication died without warning. No notice. No explanation. Just another digital tombstone added to a growing graveyard of empty promises.
We continued to send dozens… then hundreds of messages. All ignored.
Not a single team member has had the decency to respond, update us, or even acknowledge our continued outreach. The abandonment is surreal – and enraging.
Red Flags and Rotten Boards
Here’s what you start to notice when the sheen of professionalism peels away:
- The company over-promises and under-delivers – drastically.
- There is zero transparency on project timelines, budgets, or accountability.
- The “team” avoids confrontation like a plague and refuses to communicate once they’ve taken your money.
If this sounds like fraud, that’s because it increasingly feels like fraud.
At this point, we’re not talking about delays. We’re talking about systemic neglect and potentially criminal deception.
The Emotional and Financial Toll
Investing should be empowering. But our experience with Mid South Turnkey Homes has been traumatizing.
We’ve lost:
- Time we can never get back.
- Money that we entrusted to people who seem determined to ghost us.
- Trust in the Memphis real estate investment space.
We’ve endured stressful nights, fought over decisions that we thought were sound, and spent months trying to salvage any semblance of order or logic from the chaos.
This isn’t just about a bad investment. This is about predatory behavior disguised as real estate entrepreneurship.
False Security, Empty Offices
Let’s be absolutely clear: Mid South Turnkey Homes wants your money and doesn’t give a damn about you after that.
Their website is full of slick marketing. Their sales pitch is polished. But behind the curtain lies an operation that appears disorganized at best and malicious at worst.
The “office” at 5865 Ridgeway Center Parkway might as well be a decoy. It’s not a hub of customer service; it’s a black hole for investor dollars.
Is This a Scam?
We can’t say definitively… yet.
But when:
- A company takes $90,000+ and fails to finish a very simple rehab project after 7+ months…
- Ignores weeks of outreach across all forms of communication…
- Has leadership that ducks accountability…
- And staff that ghosts clients mid-project…
…then yes, you are left to conclude that this company is either dangerously incompetent or something far more sinister.
Either way, they should not be in business.
Here’s another warning sign that I didn’t notice until later in my financial dealings with Mid South Turnkey Homes. Kenny uses multiple LLCs to receive and send wire transfers and make payments. Why is this a concern? Well, this is a common tactic for those involved in “shell games” and/or maintaining Ponzi (like) operations. Con artists often will receive money from investors using one or a couple different LLCs and then distribute payments using an entirely different set of LLCs. See the attached wire transfers where two separate companies are employed: “Cash End Buyers LLC” and “International Immobiliare LLC.” This is concerning; although, to be fair, this may not necessarily (in and of itself) prove criminal behavior. Time will tell…
A Warning to Every Investor
If you are even thinking about investing with Mid South Turnkey Homes:
DON’T.
Don’t believe the website.
Don’t trust the “testimonials.”
Don’t assume the rehab timelines are real.
Don’t expect phone calls to be returned.
You may be lured by promises of easy returns, fast rehabs, and passive income. But what you’ll actually get is anxiety, financial exposure, and a 3AM urge to scream into a pillow.
Mid South Turnkey Homes is not a business. It is a ticking time bomb.
STAY AWAY!!
Let me leave you with this:
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice… and I’m a Mid South Turnkey Homes client.”
If this post spares even one family from being duped the way mine was, it will have been worth it.
Do not invest with Mid South Turnkey Homes. Do not trust Kenny Shaw. Do not believe the phony professionalism, the brochures, the website, the alluring “act now before it’s too late” emails containing promising pro formas (sent bi-weekly by Ashley Smith—despite her being unable to respond to simple project update requests).
Run — don’t walk — from investing with Mid South Turnkey Homes, 5865 Ridgeway Center Parkway, Suite 300 Memphis TN 38120.
You’ve been warned…
