How do you find your target area?

[Shannon X.]

As the title says.. How do you find your area(s) that you want to buy in and what are you looking for in those areas?

[Chris Feltus]

As a wholesaler, in the process of establishing my business, I wanted to market to my “back yard”, in my case: Arlington, sections of Fort Worth & Mansfield. These areas are in close enough proximity to minimize drive time, which is an important factor for me at this time until I decide to expand.

From there you need to establish what variables fit your criteria for where you want to buy. Items such as: Months of supply housing inventory, square footage, rent rates, tax assessed values, school districts, crime, DOM, year built etc. are all variables that can all assist you in finding your target market area. In my case, looking to wholesale high equity houses, you want to find the median house value in your market area, and play at or below that level. For example a 3/2/2 brick house with an after repair value of $120,000. Emphasis on the aforementioned variables can change greatly depending on what your exit strategy is as well. For instance, your target market area will change if your exit strategy is owner finance versus a retail flip.

Once I established the big picture of my target markets, I began to break it down even further by zip code and subdivision utilizing various software and database programs. This helped to pinpoint exact subdivisions within my target market area.

For Example: This is a map I produced as a byproduct of database queries and software that shows specific subdivisions within Arlington. The map color codes the subdivisions by median tax assessed value.