What investment property information do you need to gather and where can you find it for real estate investing purposes?
If you are considering real estate investing, then you probably know that the first step to any real estate investment is information gathering.
This might seem like a simple task due to the large number of online sources that can provide you with useful insights and investment property information. In reality, this is among the more daunting tasks that you will encounter because not all online sources are reliable, and not all of them provide the same type of info.
In this article, I will explain what the main investment property information is that you will need to gather before making your choice to purchase any residential property for investment purposes. Then, I will show you one of the most reliable and consistent sources of information that you can use to gain all the insights and calculations needed to make wise decisions when investing in real estate.
Investment Property Information That You Need
The investment property information that you need to gather before deciding on the best property to invest your money in can vary between several different types of information.
Some investors choose to focus on the property’s characteristics and traits, while other investors choose to focus on comps and insights related to the financial aspects of the property.
However, in order to make wise and comprehensive investment decisions, it is highly advised to take all aspects into consideration, such as the rental strategy, the property’s design, the different calculations for the ROI metrics, or even the effect of Airbnb reviews on the performance of the property.
Related: 5 Tips on Researching Investment Properties
Investment Property Characteristics, Design, and other Info
When it comes to investing in property for the purpose of renting it out or selling it, it is crucial to learn as much info about the property itself and its characteristics.
This info will help you understand what are the best and worst features about the investment property and will allow you to market your property more efficiently by determining the right type of tenants or buyers that might be interested in the property.
This information includes, but is not limited to:
- Size of the property (square footage)
- Age of the property
- Number of bedrooms/bathrooms
- Parking lot
- Cooling & heating systems
- Property’s design
Other information that you might want to learn involves the current owner of the property as well as its tax history.
Knowing about the current owner of the property and contacting them can help you gain more insights about the property, the type of tenants it usually attracts, or any other information related to the area/neighborhood, the neighbors…etc.
The tax history of the property is another important aspect that can help you know what taxes to expect once you own the property and plan your investment accordingly.
The Financial Aspects of an Investment Property
Another type of info that you will certainly need to know about the investment property is related to its financial aspects.
These aspects include:
- The price of the property
- The rental income it generates
- The expenses that will incur
- The calculations for the different ROI metrics
These are obviously very important pieces of info to gather when it comes to the financial planning of your investment.
Before investing in a property, a wise real estate investor will have a solid idea and projections of the amount of money needed to invest in the property over a select period of time, as well as the revenue that the property is projected to generate.
Also Read: The Use of Predictive Analytics in Real Estate Investing
This is the single most important step of planning your real estate investment, and it will allow you to know whether your investment strategy works or not, or whether it will help you make a profit or lose your money in the process.
Once you’ve gathered all of this info and made your calculations, you will need to rely on a spreadsheet to run the numbers and see what the investment payback balance will look like over the years. This is because the property you’re investing in might generate profits within the first 2 years but might start losing money beyond that point, in which case you will definitely want to know.
Investment Property Comps and Insights
This is perhaps the most difficult investment property information that you will need to gather if you want to succeed as a real estate investor.
In fact, most beginner real estate investors are not aware of this step, and will often skip this step only to find out that their investment property could’ve been significantly more profitable if they had used comps while researching.
Investment property comps are other similar properties that are in the same area or neighborhood. By looking at these comps and comparing your property to them, you can determine whether the property’s performance is above or below the area’s average, or if the property is one of the better or worse investment properties in that area.
However, comps can be hard to get. A real estate investor will need to gather info about all other properties in the area, list them on a spreadsheet, determine the similarity between these properties, as well as the financial aspects related to them.
Related: How to Do Investment Property Analysis
Afterward, the investor will have to compare each property against the average performance to see which ones are doing great and which ones are not, even if they are making a profit.
Together with the insights, the investor will be able to know what the investment opportunity is for the property they are looking at, as well as determine the best investment or rental strategy to use in order to gain the highest return on investment in that market.
Your Source for Investment Property Information
Now that you know all the different types of investment property information that you need to gather before making your investment decisions, you might be wondering: where can I find all of this info? And is it possible to gather all of it from one place?
The answer is: yes!
Mashvisor is a real estate analytics platform that specializes in providing beginner real estate investors with all of this info in an easy-to-read and easy-to-understand format to help them become better and more successful investors who can make wise investment decisions based on accurate and reliable data.
By using Mashvisor, you can go to each investment property’s page to see all of this info in one place, including all the calculations and comps that you need to make your investment decision.
Investment Property Information Page
Property Characteristics, Owner Info, and Tax History
Additionally, in this section, you will be able to start a virtual tour of the property if there is one available. This can be a great way to get a feel of what the property is like from the inside and the outside, and will help you learn more about its design as well as its best and worst features.
To learn more about Mashvisor and how to use it, click here to book a time for a free demo of the platform!
Financial Plan, Expenses, and ROI Calculations
In the next section of this page, you will be able to see all the different financial aspects of the investment property and how the numbers are calculated to give you the projected ROI using metrics such as the cap rate, cash on cash return, and cash flow.
This section is customizable, and you will be able to modify the values or set the type of mortgage you want to use for purchasing the property.
The investment property calculator will automatically reflect any changes you make to the financing method and the expenses, and will factor in the occupancy rate of the property for both rental strategies (short-term vs long-term) to give you clear calculations of what the cap rate, the cash on cash return, and the cash flow of the property will be based on these numbers.
To learn more about Mashvisor and how to use it, click here to book a time for a free demo of the platform!
Below that, you will be able to see what the investment payback balance will look like based on the calculations made above.
This can be switched between a table view and a graph view, and it will tell you how much money the property will generate/lose over the months or over the years for up to 10 years in the future. By looking at this section, you will know how long it will take for the property to break even and to start generating actual profits after paying off for all of its costs and expenses.
Investment Property Comps, Recent Sales, and Insights
On the second tab of the investment property analytics page, you will find a number of useful insights and information that can be used for the advanced planning of your investment.
The comparable rental listings shows you similar properties in the area, some details about them, and the amount of rental income that they generate. This section can be switched between traditional or Airbnb properties depending on your preferred rental strategy.
You can also download this table as an Excel sheet that you can share or use to compare more info about these properties and decide on the best one to invest your money in.
To learn more about Mashvisor and how to use it, click here to book a time for a free demo of the platform!
The recent sales section will show you properties that were recently sold in that area, the sale price, the sale date, days on the market, size, and price per square foot.
Similar to the rental comps, this table can also be downloaded in an Excel sheet format.
This information is especially useful if you want to know what sale price you should expect to purchase the property at, and it will help you negotiate the price more effectively based on this knowledge.
Lastly, the insights section will give you a bunch of other useful information such as the general rating of the property as an investment property, the availability or Airbnb and traditional rentals in the area, as well as the Airbnb reviews of the property and how they are affecting its occupancy rate.
To learn more about Mashvisor and how to use it, click here to book a time for a free demo of the platform!
Comprehensive Investment Property Information Report
Finally, by using Mashvisor you will be able to download an easy-to-read PDF report for each property that you like or share it with your friends, family, or real estate agent to get a second opinion on it.
This report will include all the different elements that you see on the property page, and it will reflect any changes that you’ve made to the numbers or calculations.
To start your 7-day free trial with Mashvisor and subscribe to our services with a 15% discount after, click here.
Bottom Line
While gathering investment property information and making sense of it in order to make wise investment decisions can be a daunting and time-consuming process for beginner investors, Mashvisor has created a solution by providing real estate investors with all the data and info they need in one place.
Related: 6 Must-Have Real Estate Investment Tools
The tools and features that Mashvisor has allow real estate investors to easily and quickly find, analyze, and compare a large number of investment properties in most major markets in the U.S, which can help them become better and more successful real estate investors in a much shorter amount of time.