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Early research for my primary residence/ occasional rental
The first property I bought is the home I am living right now. And I researched the heck out of my neighborhood before I bought.
Walk Around
I did the come around at different times of the day thing, but I did a little more. I had a map. I had figured out which neighborhood fit my needs of what I could afford, what my transportation/commute needs were, and where I felt comfortable walking alone at night by myself in the rain coming home from work. So taking my map for a neighborhood that is roughly 1 square mile, I marked off streets that had a good/ not so great/ avoid vibe.
This is an urban area with crime issues. 10 years later it still has crime, but not as bad. Anyway, I observed people. Were there people hanging out on street corners? In front of houses? On their porches/stoops? Were people walking? Any joggers? Dog walkers? What kinds of cars are parked? What kind of trash is around? Do I see rats/mice evidence of such? Are their blind spots along the path I'd travel home from the subway? What's the vibe? When I walked down the street where I currently live, the vibe was cute, still is. I noted that on my map.
Trends Research
I read a book, well a couple of social studies regarding urban housing. I have 2 graduate degrees, one where I read a lot of academic social history. The neighborhood I was looking at bordered a popular gay neighborhood that was becoming very unaffordable, according to the studies when that happens people start looking at nearby neighborhoods, provided there is no impediment (big road, large non-residential building/campus, or public housing).
At the time I had moved into an insanely cheap basement apartment in the neighborhood I focused on for one year. I attended neighborhood meetings, learning about development that wasn't big enough to make it to the Metro section of the Washington Post. I was able to observe changes on a day to day, if not week to week basis happening around the border area near the hot neighborhood. So I was observing trends on the ground.
I also paid attention to the announcements of houses sold, in the paper. Sorry, the city wasn't up with the internets then so the best source was the dead tree version. There were some real estate websites, but they weren't particularly good, as compared to what is on the web now. The sold price gave me an awareness that I'd be buying a fixer-upper or living farther away from the cool neighborhood.
I had all that research in a binder and it helped when I finally bought my fixer-later house. It served me well. I rented out the extra room to people passing through. For a while the rent for the extra room covered the amount of my mortgage.
Later I will say how this applies to my research regarding looking for investment property.
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