Getting details to analyze a property

[Cheryl Branche]

Hi!

Following a podcast, I went about finding a property on Realtor.com to analyze. I found that the information on the website about the property not provide enough details to complete filling in the blanks on the analysis calculator. When I contacted an agent, I found the agent did not seem to understand what I was trying to do and wanted to know my budget, and anticipated date of purchase.

How can I obtain the details required?

Cheryl

[John Leavelle]

Howdy @Cheryl Branche

You will need to insert some assumptions into your initial pro forma analysis. As you are learning the Seller almost never provides all the data you need to complete a thorough analysis. You will need to build your own general assumptions that can apply to any property in your target market. They will be based on the monthly NOI. Such as Property Management 10%, CapEx 10%, Maintenance/Repairs 5%, Vacancy 5%, Taxes and Insurance 10%, etc.

Contact the Listing Agent and ask for any missing data.  You may get it or you may not.  If there is no rental income information.  Contact  local Property Managers to find out what their fees are and the average rent rates for the area.  You can also search the internet for rental rates.  Craig's list and rentometer.com are good to get an idea.  Call the local utility companies to find out the average bill for the property.  Call an insurance agent to get a quote on the property.  Call the country tax office to find out the taxes.

If you have the rental income information you can, as an alternative to going through all that trouble, initially just use the 50% rule for the expenses.  If the property meets your Cash Flow criteria at that point you can conduct a more thorough analysis.

Anything more would need to be collected during due diligence. That's when you find the real data.

Hope this helps.