Strategy Change Rental Price

[Juan Rosado]

I want to do house hack in the DFW area, buying a multifamily and then living in one of the units, but so far I do not like the properties I've seen. I was thinking on changing my strategy to buying a single family, via FHA loan, living in it 1 year and then renting it, since I figured this market is big in single families. Now here is my problem, the MLS only shows the asking price in the properties and not what they rent for. What I'm doing now is taking the MLS street address and input Zillow to see how much the properties close by rents for. I make a range from the lowest to the highest it could rent for and then take the middle price. Is this accurate or do you think there is a better way of getting this info? Also, I am trying to train a virtual assistant, via upwork, on doing this task. Do you think this is wise, or should I do it by myself in this early stage.

[Nate Burgher]

Hey @Juan Rosado, I recommend using Hotpads.com for rental prices. Hotpads aggregates data from multiple rental sites. 

As for how to price things out, it really depends on relative location to a property you're looking at, as well as condition and amenities. So if you have a 1Bed/1Bath single family home, you can't use an apartment complex with a pool and a gym as a direct comp. You can still use it as a comp, but you have to consider a certain amount of valuation for those amenities. 

Hopefully this helps!