Finding a list of Apartments that have sold to determine value?

Question

Hello BPer's!

I am a Real Estate Agent who would like to start brokering the Buying & Selling of Multi-Family homes (2+ units) as well as one day buy them for my self as an investment. Before I would even think about brokering these deals (or investing) I would like to determine what Multi-Family homes are currently selling for.

My goal is to get a list of Sold (& Currently Listed) Multi-Family Homes in my area so I can start seeing what prices are currently like in my market and serve as a starting point to really understand the value of Multi-Family homes by analyzing deals. As of today (6/9/2016) my MLS shows a total of 47 listings. This is for a county that has over 800k people!  I feel that much of the activity is probably happening off the MLS.

Question:

• How do you find properties listed outside of the MLS?
• How do you find a list of properties sold outside of the MLS?

David Gonzalez · Answer

I appreciate both both of your thoughts on the matter. Besides cap rate and price per unit what is another good metric I should be looking at?

Any other sources that would inform me what has just sold?

Joel Florek · Answer

@David Gonzalez go around town and write down addresses for all the properties you want to know information on. Then go to the MLS to see what information you can dig up. If nothing then go to your county records, usually a website, and pay for the information on each property. In my area is $2 a piece.

One thing I always like to look at is what is the price per unit things are selling for. There are obviously a lot that goes into that including condition, type of unit, what utilities are covered by the landlord. But this is a very helpful metric that I always like to look at.

Brad M. · Answer

@David Gonzalez you can try LoopNet to see if there are some on there that are not on MLS, although there will probably be a lot of overlap.

For sales, go to your counties GIS or tax record site.