All Forum Posts by: Graham Harvey

There are a few ways you could go about this:

1. Call property management companies

In my opinion, this is probably the best way to do it. PM companies in your area should have rental data already, as they'll be tracking it every month. You can ask them about rent trends in the market as well as how they anticipate rents will be affected by current events.

2. Use online resources

This may be what you're already doing. You can get rent information from websites like Apartments.com, Rent.com, and zumper.com. I don't think those sites have an easy way to see historical data, but if you track it over time then you'll be able to see the long-term trends.

3. Conduct your own market survey

This is probably the most time-consuming option. It involves calling individual properties, property managers, or owners, and asking about their current rents. You can also ask how rents have changed over the past few months, but they may not give you that information. You'll have to repeat this over several months to start to see meaningful trends, but of course things may change dramatically over the next few months.

I know that an agent or a broker generally won't have a problem doing a CMA or finding comparable sales for clients, but let's say that as an investor you wanted to quickly find comps online yourself. What tools would you use to do that? The big websites like Zillow and Trulia have recent sales to look at, but I'm finding that those can often be old or seem incorrect (i.e. million dollar home sold on a $150k street).

There are several websites out there that claim to provide accurate sales comps, such as PropStream, REIPro, RealeFlow, REI/kit, and others. Are those tools generally accurate? Which ones are your favorites?

@Mindy Jensen Thank you! I can confirm that this is working for me now as well.

Very nice! So did you flip it and sell, or refinance and hold onto it as a rental?

Definitely some great advice on this thread. For me it's that I don't know how to find solid deals. My area is too expensive so I'm looking out of state, and I just recently purchased my first rental property. Even out of state, though, I can't seem to find many investments that make sense. It's a competitive market and I don't have a big marketing budget, so it's tough to find deals remotely.

Congrats @Joseph Banko on jumping in!

Hi all, I'm trying to set up a keyword alert for a particular city (Indianapolis). When I type in the keyword and click "Save", nothing happens. Is the keyword alert feature only available to Pro members? If not, is anyone else having trouble with this?

I'm pretty close by in Burbank looking mostly at rental properties in the Midwest, but also interested in fix and flips. I'm interested in connecting with other investors in the LA area and learning about their projects and interests, both locally and out of state.

I'm also a new investor, but I just purchased my first rental property out of state, without ever visiting in person. I had the same problem as you--my market is out of my price range, so I decided to invest elsewhere. Overall it has gone pretty well. I was able to find a great agent and a great property manager who both know the market well, and without them I wouldn't have been able to find and buy it.

I'd say that as an investor, the people you work with and your team are one of the most important pieces of the puzzle. I've spoken with my team members many times, and I was able to make decisions because I trust them and their knowledge. They've sent me photos and videos of properties, and have given me advice in addition to helping me work through the process.

Hope this helps.

Thank you! Yes, I've learned so much from the first one and it's been a great experience so far. Already started looking for the next one!

It's interesting that deal finding becomes easier with higher volume. That makes sense to me, but I hadn't heard it before. And it sounds like that strategy is really paying off for you, even internationally!