Analyzing Deals Tips

[Heston Vaughan]

I've recently gotten a great interest in real estate. I want to start analyzing several deals a day so that I can start getting used to the numbers and be able to see what looks like a decent deal right off. What methods do you all have?

I have an app that finds comps and such, but I'm not certain how accurate it is. Thanks everyone for the help.

[Bradley Sriro]

Hey @Heston Vaughan, Bigger Pockets has one of the best rental property calculators out there under the tools tab. I would suggest using it for your deal analysis. 

With regards to comps, be very careful using an app or website to automatically pull them for you as they are often way off. You can use apps like zillow or the county property appraiser's website to pull comps but you want to make sure that you are pulling true comps. In general, you want comps that have closed within the last 6 months, within a 1 mile radius of the subject property that are +/- 10% of the square footage, with similar size lots and similar finishes. Make adjustments to account for any differences. Also, if you are analyzing deals outside of the market that you are familiar with, you have to be very careful. Values can vary greatly from one neighborhood and/or street to the next in some areas. If you aren't aware of this, you can end up with bad comps that can greatly skew your results.