Are you planning on investing in a new rental property that’s out of the area?

The good news is that there are a wide variety of ways to evaluate a real estate market so that you can have confidence that it’s the right place for you to invest in before you spend your hard-earned money there.

Tips For Evaluating A Real Estate Market

Thanks to the internet, there are a wide variety of ways to review or analyze a real estate market before you decide to purchase a rental property in that market. Here are our tips for things that you should investigate when considering an investment in a new rental market:

Review The “Data” For That City

One of the first things that we recommend every investor do before purchasing a new rental property that’s out of their area is to review the city data for that rental market. This can be done by using your favorite search engine and typing in the name of the city followed by keywords like demographics, crime, statistics, real estate market, or weather.

Using the internet will enable you to get a good “bird’s eye view” of a particular city and provide you with a snapshot of what it’s like actually living there.

A word of caution though, when reviewing city data, you should always verify how old the data is because, some websites including Zillow have been known to publish city data that’s at least two years old so it’s best to make sure that you’re making your decision to invest in a new area based upon current data for that city instead of outdated information.

Investigate The School Districts

Yes, city data is definitely important but, you should also take the time to thoroughly investigate the school districts in the city as well. This is an important thing to do because many renters are going to have school-age children who will want to send their children to good quality school districts.

Using the internet, you can easily research school districts online, just make sure that you are reading information written by people who actually live in the community and are sending children to those school districts.

Buying an investment property that’s in a great school district will also help the resale value of your investment property as well should you decide to sell that investment property in the near future.

What Does the Area Have to Offer?

Once you have a good idea about what the city is like including the crime statistics, weather, jobs or employment opportunities that the area has to offer, you should also take the time to learn more about what the area has to offer renters.

This means researching what’s nearby including shops, stores, restaurants and things to do because the average renter is going to want to live in an area that’s convenient where they can access all of the stores and things that they like to do on a regular basis.

Analyze The City Infrastructure

Another important thing to do when considering a rental property in a new market is to review the infrastructure for that city. This means verifying if the rental property is close to the bus line or highway and is within 30 minutes of most major employers in the area.

Access The Website For The Local County Seat

Last of all, but most important, another thing that you should do when investigating a rental property in a new area is to review the local county seat website for that area. This is a smart thing to do because access to the county seat website will also enable you to do a deep dive into what’s really happening in the community and in some cases, you may even be able to pull tax records and other important data that you will not be able to find elsewhere.

Hire A Portland Oregon Property Manager

Are you planning on investing in a Portland-area rental property? If so, contact Rent Portland Homes Professionals by calling us at (503) 447-7735  or click here to connect with us online