Analyzing your market and submarket

[Corey Woodruff]

my question is how much time and effort do I put into analyzing a market for a buy-and-hold rental. I know analyzing your Market before buying a house is important but should that be a deciding factor and if so why? I know this may be a simple question to some but I'm new

thank you

Corey

[Mimi H.]

One of the things that I did NOT do well in the beginning was look at things like tenant and rent control laws. This varies greatly from one area to the next and it can really kill what may look "great" on paper. Also, like anything else, there is a range of rental properties. What you'd like to buy in on depends highly on your own personality. Some people do great with rentals in a more upscale area, others in rentals in a more working class area, and there are still others who excel at the much lower cost area. How many units can you reasonably manage or have someone manage? Are you prepared to do evictions? How much capital do you have to work with? Do you have a partner that can share responsibilities? I've never found buy and hold to be very cut and dry. It's worth the research only if you want to make money.