What are the tools and platforms that are available to real estate investors that can help them search for investment properties?
One of the biggest aspects of investing in real estate is the process of finding investment properties to purchase.
However, when you search for investment properties the traditional way (driving around and looking for sale signs, or checking out newspapers and billboards), the process can be very time-consuming and daunting.
For this reason, there are several online tools and platforms that any real estate investor can use in today’s market to search for investment properties for sale.
In this article, I will be talking about the best tools to use when you search for investment properties and how they can make your life as a real estate investor much easier.
Search for Investment Properties: The Traditional Way
Traditionally, when you want to search for investment properties, you had a number of options:
- Drive around neighborhoods looking for “For Sale” signs
- Read the newspapers’ listings for sale section
- Check out billboards
- Go to real estate gatherings and locations where real estate information is being exchanged
- Ask other real estate investors and agents for help
As you can see, most of these methods will generally require you to move around and visit the locations that you intend on investing in.
In today’s market, real estate investors are investing in the most profitable markets. These markets can sometimes be very far away from where they live, and they might not be familiar at all with them. This means that if you want to use the traditional methods for finding investment properties in these markets, you would have to travel to them and get familiarized with the area and the market there.
Related: 5 Tips on Researching Investment Properties
However, in today’s industry, most real estate investors can search for and find investment properties without leaving the comfort of their own home or office, and they can do so at a much higher speed and efficiency.
To start looking for and analyzing the best investment properties in your city and neighborhood of choice, click here.
Search for Investment Properties: Search Platforms
Nowadays, a real estate investor has access to several search platforms that they can choose from.
When using an online platform to search for investment properties, you will find that most of these platforms will provide you with a number of filters that you can use to narrow down your search and find properties that match your search criteria with ease.
Instead of having to check out each and every property to see if it fits your criteria in terms of price, rental income, size, number of rooms, age, or any other aspect, you can now use filters to limit the search results to properties that match these criteria.
Additionally, and depending on the platform you’re using, some platforms will provide you with details about properties that can be very difficult to obtain otherwise.
Mashvisor’s platform, for example, includes a search feature that allows you to search for investment properties based on the common criteria and filters. However, since Mashvisor is a real estate analytics platform, the data that the platform has allows the user to search for properties based on their investment outcomes.
For example, if you’re looking to invest in short-term rentals based on their projected return on investment, you can use the filters that Mashvisor has to search for properties based on their Airbnb cap rates or cash on cash returns.
Search for Investment Properties: Using a Heat Map Tool
A heat map is a tool that is used on search platforms to help real estate investors search for investment properties using visual cues and indicators.
The heat map functionality of Mashvisor’s platform can be used to analyze areas on the map and get an idea of their average performance based on the metrics that you have chosen.
For example, you can use the traditional rental income filter to place a colored layer on the map which shows you which areas or neighborhoods have the highest or lowest rental income for traditional rental properties.
Other filters that are included in Mashvisor’s heat map tool are:
- Listing Price
- Airbnb Cash on Cash Return
- Traditional Cash on Cash Return
- Airbnb Rental Income
- Traditional Rental Income
- Airbnb Occupancy Rate
Read: Finding Income Properties Using a Heatmap
Search for Investment Properties: A Property Finder
The property finder is a new tool that was developed by Mashvisor to allow beginner real estate investors to find the perfect rental property to invest in in the least amount of time.
Using machine-learning algorithms and combining it with Mashvisor’s predictive analytics, this tool is basically an AI that can look at each investor’s social, financial, and behavioral patterns, and it will come up with the most suitable results for that investor when it comes to investing in real estate.
The investment properties that the property finder suggests are properties that match the investor’s search criteria in terms of their budget, rental strategy, desired ROI…etc. Also, these results will always be properties that are profitable and that will generate the desired rental income for the investor.
Read: Property Finder Tool – Finding Real Estate Investment Properties in 2018
The user can then check out each property’s analytics page to see if the numbers make sense and what the best features are about each property, and they can also save the properties that they like or remove the ones that they don’t like from the search results.
This tool is perfect for beginner investors because it uses a minimal number of filters. The user will only have to set their budget and up to 5 markets that they are interested in, and they can further modify the results based on the rental strategy and number of rooms in the property.
To start your 14-day free trial with Mashvisor and subscribe to our services with a 20% discount after, click here.
Bottom Line
Using new technologies and online platforms to search for investment properties can save you a lot of time and effort when investing in real estate.
Beginner real estate investors, in particular, should always consider using these tools to help them compete with the more experienced investors in the industry.
If you’re a real estate investor, then I highly recommend you check out Mashvisor’s platform and see how it can make your life easier, turning three months’ worth of research into 15 minutes, and help you make wise investment decisions and become a professional-grade investor in the least amount of time.
