How to pick a market

[Jackie Comitino]

How do you narrow down a market when you have such a broad range of options? Im on Long Island, NY and I want to start researching markets that would be around a 3-4 hours drive from here. Parts of Connecticut, upstate NY, PA are ones I’m considering that are all within those parameters (distance wise and price range wise) but I’m not sure how exactly to narrow down a state much less a town within that.

This would eventually be a house hack and I’d want to be close enough to drive back home for friends and family but I’m just not sure how to figure out how to narrow down a location to start focusing on.

[Joe Villeneuve]

You analyze markets by finding the common properties, based on size only, and find the groups of them where they reflect the same $$$$, for three monetary events:
1 - Entrance - Cost to buy
2 - Exit - a)  Sold Comps; b) Rental comps
3 - Spreads between 1 and 2a (cash flow), and between 1 and 2b (profit) 

Here's what I mean:

1 - Pick any area
2 - Record all the properties 4Sale on the map of that area (yes, plot them on the map)
      a)  Size (the ranges are defined by/where the mean of every range no more than 10% away from the highest and lowest sq ftg defining that range).
      b)  Asking Price
      c)  Days on Market 
3 - Record all the properties that have been Sold on that map, grouped using the ranges as defined in Section 2a above for:
     a)  Size (see above)
     b)  Sold Price
     c)  Days on Market (which isn't the same as DOM for a property 4Sale)
4 - Record all the properties for Rent on that map, group them together using the same renges as defined in Section 2a above for:
     a)  Size
     b)  Rent
     c)  Expenses