All Forum Posts by: Franky Aikens

The renter seems very dishonest which is not a characteristic of someone you want living in your investment property. If you can hold out for another better-qualified tenant to show up, you should.

@Aaron T. . Thanks for replying Aaron. How did you find this property and are you working with a real estate professional down there? I figured that transactions down there don't move as fast as they do on the mainland. Is this property you have under contract intended to be for STR?

@Aaron Seelbinder I'll be beginning my search for PR investment opps soon as well. I would love to be able to reach out to you when the time is right.

@Pat Marco What wonderful useful information. Can you expand on why the DP requirement is now 40%? Also, do you think the window of opportunity to invest there will be open much longer?

I know the island has a myriad of economic issues they may not be resolved any time soon but is it possible that those same issues are opening up investment opportunities? At least in certain areas? Price points are low. It's a US territory so it might not be considered speculative to anticipate a rebound in the future. Wouldn't it be a good time to take a carefully vetted position?

Interested to know if anyone is invested there or at least considering it.

@Cory Iannacone This is amazing!  Thanks spelling it out so succinctly. Wondering if you ran into any issues with purchasing, renovating or renting these properties. 

Population migration trends. How many are moving in versus moving out?

@Sean McDonnell

Sure thing, Sean! Hope you can get some value out of those sites.

And you have a very smart strategy, Sean! Anything that involves Chic-fil-a has to be a good thing! Ha!

@Will Barnard

Thanks for sharing! And, I’d bump your 4th bullet up to #1.

Without honesty, the perception of the wholesaling industry will definitely be poor. And those who fly straight in the business will be unfairly affected.

What are the first three rules of real estate (all together now) 1. LOCATION 2. LOCATION 3. LOCATION.

There are a host of subset variables to consider as well like, population growth and migration rates, job growth, the economic base, median income, rent rates etc. What tools do you use to research these kinds of variables to find markets that align with the criteria for you investment strategy? 

Here are some resources that I've come by where you can research markets on a micro and macro level. Let me know if you've used these before or if there are others that would fit on this list.

Richblockpoorblock.com: Has an interactive heat-map interface that tracks income, population changes, poverty levels, real estate taxes, owner occupancy rates and more. I like this site because its simple and visual. Measurements are scaled across a colored gradient that are plotted out on the map. You can get these measures down to the block, hence the name of the site. Its a paid service but you get 18 free clicks before you have to sign up. (Data Source: 2012-16 American Community Survey). 

City-data.com: Also has a heat map feature.The data set variables are super granular. They measure down to the quality of air and weather patterns! I'm not joking!  Be certain of what you're looking for before you dig into this site or you can find yourself in a black hole of data!  There's just so much to see. City-Data.com analyzes data from a variety of government and private sources. They are able to create detailed, informative profiles for every city in the United States. By all appearances, this seems to be a FREE site.

: This site gets into the fabric of the communities/markets. Its more of humanistic perspective based on things that would be considered when researching the quality of living in a particular area e.i. the school systems, community life and activities, crime and safety and jobs. All are measured on an A to D scale. Probably one of the most valuable elements of this site is the review/comments section where you can get a lot of insight on your target market from people who have or currently live in those areas. Commentary of first hand experiences is something you don't get on other sites. You can also find data on metrics like median home value, median income, Owner vs Renter mix and rent medians as well. This is a FREE site.

: This is a great tool to research migration rates/patterns across the nation. State to stat and county to county. With out being on the ground to survey, this can give you a 30,000 foot view into where population growth opportunities are and where population declines are as well. Measure Outbound migration or inbound migration and net migration between two states/counties. There are 8 data sets of 4 year intervals starting with 2006 up to 20117. This is a FREE site.