How to Find Investment Property for Sale Near Me

One of the biggest challenges that you face as a real estate investor is how to find investment property for sale near you. Many rental income property investors, including your author, primarily focus on their local real estate market. Rental property for sale is all over the map, but real estate deals are what investors need. Finding investment property that makes sense and will offer a good return on investment is not as easy as it may sound. The good news is that Mashvisor was founded specifically to help investors just like you locate an investment property for sale. Here’s a guide to finding great investment property for sale near you.

Finding Investment Property for Sale – Preparation

Before diving into a search for investment property for sale located near you, it is important to define what you want. Start with your budget. Working backward from how much capital you have and how large a loan you can secure will help to define what your budget is. Next, consider your options. Does your budget permit a multi-family property? Will you be limited to a small condo or apartment in a shared community? Are you considering single-family units? Once you have defined roughly what you are looking for, your search for investment property for sale can begin in earnest.

Related: How to Budget for an Investment Property and Cash Flow

Defining Your Local Area

Next, you will need to clearly define what “your local area” is. The seven New England States? Just one neighborhood located in a specific city? Is it a group of towns near your place of residence? Before you begin your investment property search, you need to decide exactly what your search area will be. We suggest being flexible. After using Mashvisor’s search tools to locate an investment property for sale near you, you may see that the options are not to your liking. Consider that helpful information, not a failure. Your research has shown that you need to expand your horizons. Adjust it a bit to find the perfect match between what is available and what you want.

Related: Investment Property Search: A 5-Step Guide

Using Mashvisor’s Property Finder

If you are searching for investment property for sale near you, a tool called the “Property Finder” from Mashvisor will be a big help. It was designed by real estate investors to assist you in your investment property search. The tool uses an algorithm to match your search criteria against available properties. Real estate brokers have done something similar for decades. However, Mashvisor’s Property Finder was designed for real estate investors to do the job faster, with more details, with your specific goals in mind, and without the need to hire a broker to do the job for you.

The Property Finder tool will not just help you to locate every investment property for sale in your area. That would be helpful, but the tool goes further. It will narrow the available choices down to ones that promise the best return on investment (ROI) based on your search criteria.

Related: Rental Property Finder: A Revolutionary Tool for Investing in Real Estate

Here is a quick rundown of how to use this real estate investment tool:

Step One: Input Your Location

The first step to using the Property Finder is to input your location. The tool uses filters every step of the way and the first filter is location. A comparative market analysis is a comparison of various properties located in a small geographical area. With the Property Finder, you can conduct a kind of comparative market analysis by looking at the properties you find and comparing their return on investment.

You can run the Property Finder tool for up to 5 cities or towns, not just one. By comparing the investment property for sale in each location, you will be able to determine in which location it makes the most sense to search more closely. Of course, you can cross borders and boundaries of cities and towns as well. The Property Finder allows you to use distance from your location as the geographical filter.

Step Two: Input Your Specific Criteria

The Property Finder tool will filter the available properties for sale based on what you tell it. Above, we discussed how you would define your budget and also what type of investment properties you would consider. The tool is also going to ask you to choose a rental strategy. Will you be considering only traditional defined period lease renting? Or will you also consider short-term Airbnb rentals as well? Filter according to your plans.

Next, you will input the type of property. Here it makes sense to consider all of the types you want. Don’t just input your single favorite. You may find that the best cash on cash return is not from the type you predicted it would be. Select as many types as you can. Then you can delete lower-performing ones or re-filter the search again. Depending on the geographical scope of your search, the available investment properties for sale may be limited or may be abundant. If the tool shows only a few, broaden your search. If the tool shows you a long list, narrow your search filters to show just the type you really want.

The tool also allows you to select the number of bedrooms and bathrooms. This is a variable that will depend on the type of property. Carefully consider the choices, but if you are not sure, “Any” is an option you can select. You can always narrow the search later when you see what investment properties for sale are found.

Try the Property Finder now for free.

You’ve Done the Search for Investment Property for Sale, Now What?

Once you have completed the search for investment property for sale near you using the Property Finder tool, you can review the results. The results are not just a long list of addresses. Rather, this real estate investment tool is going to reveal the list price and also the estimated market value. The results will also include the cash on cash return estimated as a percentage. If you need a refresher course on what cash on cash return is, check out our related story below. In a nutshell, the cash on cash return is the return on your investment.

Related: Real Estate Investing 101: Cash On Cash Return

By reviewing the investment property for sale near you with Mashvisor’s tools, you can narrow your focus for more research. This top-down look shows you what available property makes sense to look at more closely. You will of course then need to do some legwork to view the income property in person. Following that, you can dig more deeply into the financial aspects of each opportunity through investment property analysis. Mashvisor has all of the tools you need for each step in purchasing a great new rental investment property.

To start looking for and analyzing the best investment properties in your city and neighborhood of choice, click here.