How to evaluate a market

[Mohammad Khan]

Hello everyone,

I just moved to a new city (LA) and I am thinking about buying investment properties in the area. I am seeking your guidance on how I go about researching the market? Some of the houses I have looked at through my realtor have decent cash flow, but when I checked out the zip code of the properties on USA.com I see a negative growth rate in those zip codes. Also, the real estate agent I am working with thinks that those properties are in upcoming neighborhoods. my concern is that how can I validate that a property is indeed in an upcoming neighborhood when USA.com shows a negative growth rate? Also, How do I identify an upcoming neighborhood. I have searched this question on the internet and I found that if there is a renovation or new construction going on in the neighborhood is a one of sign. I am curious to know how you go about searching for an upcoming neighborhood?  Also, I am wondering how many of you rely on USA.com and how accurate you think it is? I have used USA.com for my prior investment properties purchases and It was very helpful in the past. 

[Justin Windham]

@Mohammad Khan

Welcome to Bigger Pockets!

You’ll find plenty of friendly, knowledgeable people willing to help respond to your questions.

If you are looking to connect with other members near you, want to learn from people in a specific area you’d like to invest in, or have a desire to find people interested in certain topics, you could use the search feature here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/search/users

I really like the alerts feature that can quickly guide you to current topics that may be of interest: http://www.biggerpockets.com/alerts