Rental Property Investor · Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2017 · 43 posts · 3 votes
While this may be an extremely broad question.... I've been trying to find a source which combines data from various cities/states into one platform. I invest in multi-unit property without having a local presence, so essentially, I use data/numbers to made buying decisions for my rental portfolio.
I've been using city-data.com, but I'm curious as to whether anyone can suggest a better platform to understand job growth, population growth trends, demographic data, landlord-oriented legistlation, median rents etc. per city or per state?
Some of the websites I use, other than CoStar, Colliers and Yardi reports to source this information include:
- Best Places (Demographics, crime etc)
- Truilia (Crime)
- Bureau of Labour statistics (Unemployment and working population growth)
- Census - American Fact Finder
- Wikipedia is also a great resource
- Rent Cafe and rent-o-meter (landlord friendly states and median rents)
At the end of the day the stats from each site will probably be different, but I just try to cross reference to get a picture of what is going on in the area.
I would suggest to create yourself a google map and start plotting this information to paint yourself a visual picture. This is what I am doing and it works perfect! @Omar Khan is a big advocate for this and wrote an article about the success of underwriting with google maps on his BiggerPockets blog https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/10776/79833-un...
I would reach out to a commercial multifamily broker either in the area you want to invest or local to you and see if they can provide CoStar or Yardi reports on those areas. Tools that have pretty awesome data but aren’t meant for the little guy to consume (price wise anyway).
@Charles Soper thank you and I agree with this assessment. Costar reports are fantastic, and they provide exceptional metrics-even down to a map showing building permit requests/construction etc.
Finding someone with a costar account who’s willing to pull these reports seems a bit of a challenge (especially someone who’s willing to do it across multiple regions).
Build those broker relationships! Bring value to them and they will give back in spades!
Send them referrals
Maybe the occasional coffee or lunch
See a building that might fit their criteria but you have no interest in? Pick up the phone.
I’m still working on these myself so just make sure you are added value to them and not just taking - beat way is to buy a property through them, get to be known as the guy who closes and they’ll give you anything you want within reason
Some of the websites I use, other than CoStar, Colliers and Yardi reports to source this information include:
- Best Places (Demographics, crime etc)
- Truilia (Crime)
- Bureau of Labour statistics (Unemployment and working population growth)
- Census - American Fact Finder
- Wikipedia is also a great resource
- Rent Cafe and rent-o-meter (landlord friendly states and median rents)
At the end of the day the stats from each site will probably be different, but I just try to cross reference to get a picture of what is going on in the area.
I would suggest to create yourself a google map and start plotting this information to paint yourself a visual picture. This is what I am doing and it works perfect! @Omar Khan is a big advocate for this and wrote an article about the success of underwriting with google maps on his BiggerPockets blog https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/10776/79833-un...
@Navroze Pirza Great suggestions here. You should spare yourself the hassle and just develop good relationships with brokers and other property owners. That will help you get real-time data as opposed to market averages.
As @Josh Oaten mentioned, I would suggest building maps to really drill down on your target market.