All Forum Posts by: Yuechen Zhao

Hi Bigger Pockets community! We have STRs in Arizona, Tennessee, and will expand the business to Florida this year. Thus far, all the homes are owned in our name. We are looking to transfer them into LLCs. I talked to an AZ lawyer who said that she can only help us with the AZ property. I was wondering if you had recommendations for who I should talk to to help with all our properties. I'd rather not have to work with 3 attorneys in three states. Thank you for your help!

Hi Ogden, in addition to what @Nicole Heasley Beitenman mentioned, you could also consider which markets look like they have the most potential for property value appreciation / rental income appreciation. Is your market land-constrained (Manhanttan) or is it relatively sprawling (Texas)? Are people moving into or out of the markets you're looking at? Is the economy growing, are people getting paid more over time? How has the real estate market responded to past recessions (e.g. 2008)? Is it recession proof or super recession sensitive? Are rents rising, and how does rent growth compare between markets you're analyzing?

You can find data points to answer the above questions online. US Census has a bunch of awesome data, and reicitydata.com shows you trends over time for common demographic and economic indicators across different cities.

Hope that helps!

In addition to the equity you should be adding to your property with BRRR, when considering which markets to invest in, you should also do some due diligence on the appreciation or growth potential there. Neal Bawa has some good information on what indicators and data points you should be looking for in a market to determine whether you think it will be a high-growth market or low-growth market. Long-term, your appreciation potential is a significant factor in your total investment returns! Track metrics like population growth, income growth, job growth, and median rent growth. You can use demographic & economic data from reicitydata.com, US Census, or other data sources on the internet to help you make those decisions. :) Good luck!

@Derek Andrews Make sure you post to the online marketplaces, as that's where you'll get the most leads, especially Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist. Best of luck! :)

@Nicky Sunde Don't get discouraged!! This too shall pass. :)

@Cameron Norfleet @Kevin Paulk mentioned some examples of the types of numbers you should look at. Would recommend comparing and contrasting the economies, populations, housing markets, and rental incomes and seeing which market you think has the better potential for growth. reicitydata.com, the census, and Google Public Data Explorer all have easy access numbers you can take a look at.

You also should take into account that the whole rental market is much slower than usual, as those tenants whose leases ended put off moving and continue renting their previous place on a month-to-month basis. Your place looks absolutely stunning! Not as familiar with the Minneapolis market, make sure that you're priced competitively, and make sure to post in all the usual places that renters are looking, like Facebook Marketplace, HotPads, Zumper, Craigslist. Make sure you're on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist, those tend to get the most traffic for long-term renters!

Agreed with the above that Dallas - Forth Worth seems to have the most growth potential. Past history cannot predict the future, but there are some good headwinds for DFW. Over the last 10 years, DFW's annual population growth is 3.1% compared to Houston (1.4%) and SA (1.88%). Median household income wise, DFW is also highest at 2.83% annually compared to Houston (2.55%) and SA (1.54%). Based off of these numbers, DFW has the most vibrant economy attracting the most number of people. San Antonio... not so much. reicitydata.com is a good source for looking at data like this, or the Google public data explorer.

I use reicitydata.com to look at demographic and economic data for markets across the country. It's free! Hope it helps.

Hi Tim, I personally use reicitydata.com, there's a lot of good economic and demographic data, along with trends over time.