Real Estate Analytics - Database & Excel

[Dustin Cavalier]

Hey Biggerpockets community,

I am working on some in-depth research on the real estate market in the north Houston / Spring / Woodlands , Texas area, specifically 77379 and surrounding areas. I am an analyst by trade, so I really enjoy looking at the data in mass amounts, exporting to excel and pivoting the data in many different ways. Very interested in Buy and Hold / rental property and flipping homes. My question to you all is, do any of you know of the best resource for extracting raw real estate data and exporting into a spreadsheet so I can analyze the thousands of lines of data for any given town quickly. This will be key to the strategy I am developing on my real estate business. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Thank you all,

Dustin

[Jon Burns]

In my trading days we used a term paralysis by analysis for those traders that looked at so much data they couldn't actually put a trade on.  I caution against importing and massaging the data too much, you can easily spend more time collecting data than looking for a deal.  I am a firm believer in the kiss (keep it simple, stupid) method of analyzing your deals.  Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be.  

Additionally, all the data in the world that points to the perfect rental doesn't do anything for you in regards to how you operate the property.  I have seen the best flips on paper that go sideways once the construction phase begins.  Understanding value and the market is important, don't get me wrong, it is your starting point.  Avoid the paralysis, and manage the process of the deals, and you will do just fine.