Investing in a small town. Will it rent?

[Marc Hemmes]

Newbie here. I live in Colorado but I'm priced-out of the Front Range, so I've been looking at properties in my hometown in Iowa. There are nice looking single family houses for reasonable prices. The cash flow works out, but... if I start investing in a small town, how do I know if a property will actually rent?

It's a nice small town of 10,000 with a prospering private college. The town has been slowly but steadily growing over the past several decades. I'm not seeing any new multifamily housing being built to house the newcomers. When I search online, there are some rentals available, but I can't tell if the market is stagnant or not. My parents still live in the area but they don't really keep track of what's going on in town.

Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Jim Sakalis]

Marc,

At the end of the day its all about supply and demand.  You can test the water buy posting a dummy ad on craigslist that has some similar amenities the house you are looking to purchase.  If someone calls you tell them the property has been spoken for.

If you know how to put together a good ad you should get your answer that qualifies moving forward or not. 

Jim Sakalis