market research????????????????

Matt,

You need to study the area(s) you are investing in. You can get most if not all of the info you need from your local realtor. You need to know what the market is doing where you live. Is it a HOT market? are homes selling like hotcakes? If so, what are they selling for in different neighborhoods? How long does it take for homes to sell there? (Average Days on Market) What does the average 1Bdr, 2Bdr., 3Bdr., or 4Bdr. home/apartment rent for in your city? WHERE do people like to live & buy in your city? (Desirable Neighborhoods) These are some questions you should be asking your re agent & they'll help you get to know your city pretty well, like the back 'o your hand.

Doing a market research in a area your investing in consist of a couple things you need to look for. 1. check the unemployment rate in this area 2. check the job growth in the area. 3. Check for any new developments in the area. You can easily find this information on Google. Another market research you can do to find where are the hot spots (where all investors are active) by asking your agent to get you the last 90 days of cash sold list, this would help you narrow down where are all the investors buying their deals and you can start looking for deals in the same areas to wholesale to them same investors. And you will get in contact with these investors by looking up the address of the property that sold for cash on the towns/city tax assessors website and find the address where the taxes are being billed to. Then you would send a letter to the buyer saying your pitch.

Hope this helps you

-Area population
-Area Demographics (age ranges of population, % of those renters vs home owners, average house hold income, etc.)
-UnEmployment Rates
-Rental Rates
-Top Sales Areas (by zip code) sold in last 30-60 days
-Identify bottom of market. (from the top sales areas, pull the foreclosures sold in those specific areas.) will give you your bottom of the market. (to wholesale focus on getting UNDER your foreclosure comps aka bottom
-what are your typical 3bd/2bth median income properties selling for
-what are the typical property taxes for that same property

Few Resources:

-Google search ("unemployment rate + your city, state")
-www (dot) city-data (dot) com
-MLS (solds last 60 days to give you an indication if what's going on) find top 3 sales areas (zip codes)
-www (dot) trulia (dot) com (rental comps, rental area targeting)
-Craigslist can give you an IDEA of rental basis
-City Building & Planning Commission (online/website can view meeting minutes, get heads up of up and comings)
-City Council website (same as Bldg. and Planning commission above)
-Chamber of Commerce (website)
-County Tax Assessors website / Revenue Commissioner

just a few things to get you started and to begin to give you an idea of what to look for. As you dig in, explore!
Remember people may speculate (ex agent have opinions, etc. just ask them to prove it what they are saying with a quick "So how did you arrive to that conclusion?" What is it you used to form that opinion, etc.?" There is a tactful way to say just about anything - lol ) -- the data / numbers don't lie.

Your buyers give you direction, the data gives you focus.

Hope it helps,

Jen

Matt, you can access free heat maps for US cities/counties by Googling "heat map + your city/county". EX: "heat map, Phoenix". You'll get a link to Trulia.com heat maps, and it will open to the city/county you entered.

The heat map will give you the average listing price, aver sales price, median sales price, aver price/SF, and popularity of the market you're researching. You can view the map by neighborhood and by zip, and re-sort your data output by column.

Best of luck!

Liz Eastlake

Thanks everyone for you input i will have to sit down and go through this information tonight that you all again for taking the time to help me out i realy appreciate it. I will make sure to update.

Matt