Evaluating Potential Long-Distance Markets in Person.

[Mike Sanford]

When you visit a potential long-distance rental market in person, what are you looking for?  What do you do?

My wife and I will be driving from Phoenix to New Orleans and back to Tucson for her work.  We have time to poke around some cities on the way and think about them as places to invest.  We have all of our funds tied up in our most ambitious flip yet for at least a year, so this is going to be a scouting trip and not a buying trip.

I've been interested in Lubbock TX, for a while, and that's the place I know the most about.  College Station is on my list, and we'll be spending time in San Antonio and Lafayette LA for other reasons, so I'll probably poke around there.  

If you had a day or two in these places, what would you want to see?  Who, if anyone, would you want to meet?  I think its probably too early in our process to ask realtors and property managers to spend time with us, since we're not in a position to purchase.

Thanks,

Mike

[Arn Cenedella]

Mike:

No reason to reinvent the wheel, stick with San Antonio up I35 to Austin.

Research values before you go. Identify close in neighborhoods that are affordable. Look for solid middle income neighborhoods. Good schools.

Drive these neighborhoods. You can tell a lot just by looking. Houses maintained? Yards kept?

Then talk to people - not real estate people or people who want to sell you something. Walk the neighborhoods talk to people in the coffee shop at dinner out walking their dogs at the park?

How long have your lived here?
Do you like the neighborhood?
Just make conversation, these folks have no dog in the fight they will tell you the truth. Do you own or rent? How much? Most people are happy to talk especially if they like their neighborhood.

It's amazing what you can find out just waking and talking to people.

Identify a few neighborhoods, subscribe to local newspapers and social media sites. Search RE online - get a sense for sale and rental values on your own. Track the market. "Like" neighborhood groups and businesses. You can get a great sense of the vibe in an area via social media.

I was a lifelong San Francisco Peninsula resident and did all of the above when investing in Austin. Very happy with what I bought.

Did the same when we moved to Greenville South Carolina. Very happy here.

Use the internet. Drive or walk the neighborhoods. Talk to people. Be a detective investigating and have some fun while you are doing it.

Arn