A decade ago, real estate investors on the hunt for income properties would take months to find the right one. Today, 15 minutes is all the time you need to start and end your property search. How is that even possible? Well, it’s all thanks to a number of real estate market research tools.
A market research is something all property investors (and real estate agents) need to perform to ensure that buying a property in a certain location is a smart investment decision. One of the reasons many investors are not millionaires is that they’re not performing this research in a proficient manner and, thus, they fall into the mistake of buying in the wrong location. Real estate market research tools are designed to help you, as a real estate investor or agent, dodge this mistake for a successful career in the real estate business.
There are a number of websites that provide such tools for property investors. Since you’re already here, let’s introduce you to 3 real estate market research tools that Mashvisor has to offer. When you sign up for our services, you’ll be able to use the following:
Note: To learn about your options for signing up for our services, click here.
1) The Property Finder Tool
As the name suggests, this is a digital tool that allows real estate investors to search for and find properties. What’s special about Mashvisor’s property finder tool is that it utilizes the latest machine-learning algorithms and AI technologies to list the best properties to buy for investment purposes that are guaranteed to make profits. What also makes this one of the best real estate market research tools is how heavily customizable it is, allowing you to specify your own criteria of how you want your investment property to look like.
Related: Finding an Investment Property: Traditional vs. Mashvisor
Using different filters, property investors decide the city/cities they’re interested in, their budget, rental strategy (traditional vs Airbnb), type of investment property they’re looking for (single-family, multi-family, condo) and the number of bedrooms and bathrooms. In turn, investors will be given a list of rental properties that best match their criteria AND the cash on cash return for each one.
To come up with these results, Mashvisor takes a number of aspects into consideration like the property’s listing price, rental income, occupancy rate, walk score, and neighborhood score. With a click of a button, you can now compare these different investment properties and get a sense of their performance to identify the one that matches your preferences and real estate investment goals.
Do you have a free Mashvisor account? Click here to use our Property Finder Tool and find properties in a matter of minutes!
2) The Investment Property Calculator
A proficient real estate research requires real estate investors (as well as agents) to analyze how rental properties are performing in different housing markets. We can only imagine the amount of time, energy, and money spent on analyzing properties upon properties and markets upon markets! Among the real estate market research tools that will relieve you from this daunting task is the Airbnb calculator.
This tool calculates two very important metrics to estimate the return on investment – the cash on cash return and the capitalization (cap) rate. These metrics allow property investors to determine the value of a rental property and its expected return based on its rental income, price, and expenses while also taking into consideration the type of property, size, age, and other aspects related to it.
To find out if you really need this tool, read: Are You Smarter Than an Investment Property Calculator?
This makes it one of the ultimate real estate market research tools as it allows you to perform both an investment property analysis AND a neighborhood analysis. Basically, a real estate investor can find the profitability of his/her target rental property as well as other similar properties in the area and compare between them. This means you can find out how a certain property, as well as the neighborhood in which it’s located, is performing.
To start analyzing investment properties in your city and neighborhood of choice, click here.
3) The Heat Map Tool
The last in our real estate market research tools offered by Mashvisor is the heat map. This is a great tool for property investors trying to narrow down their property search and focus on a smaller real estate market within a large one. What’s special about the heat map is that it uses visual indicators, so you get to see the big picture for a better understanding of where the best income properties are located based on certain metrics.
Mashvisor’s heat map tool allows a real estate investor to find which areas are performing especially well in terms of their cap rate, cash on cash return, and occupancy rate. Furthermore, these can all be further narrowed down based on the rental strategy as it includes filters for short-term rental properties (Airbnb rentals) as well as long-term rental properties (traditional rentals).
Real Estate Market Research Tools – Conclusion
In today’s competitive real estate investing business, performing a thorough market research has become a necessity to succeed. Instead of taking months to do so, make use of real estate market research tools that technology has created to benefit property investors. Hand-in-hand, the 3 above-mentioned tools are what any real estate investor (and agent too) needs to make smart investment decisions – all of which are a click of a button away.
Sign up for Mashvisor and find income properties in the city and neighborhood of your choice in 15 minutes! To start your 14-day free trial with Mashvisor and subscribe to our services with a 20% discount after, click here.
Do you have questions about Mashvisor? Click here to read our FAQs and learn about our tools.