How do you learn about a city?

Question

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to do my first deal in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, and, it's a big place. I know that understanding the industry and hiring centers is important, as well as crime rates. But what's a good way to steart learning about those things, and what else is good to know about the city so you can make the best investment decisions? How would you do it?

Charles Carillo · Answer

@Shafi Noss

Check these websites to become familiar with your target market:

• Best Sources For Data:
• BestPlaces.net
• City-Data.com
• Census.gov
• Factfinder.census.gov
• census.gov/programs-surveys/ahs.html
• data.census.gov
• StateLocalGov.net
• SpotCrime.com
• WalkScore.com
• DeptofNumbers.com
• DataUSA.io
• Bea.gov (Bureau of Economic Analysis)
• Bls.gov (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
• Indeed.com (Jobs)
• NewGeography.com
• NeighborhoodScout.com
• CrimeReports.com
• FamilyWatchDog.us
• Geometrx.com
• SocialExplorer.com
• Costar.com
• Colliers.com
• Irem.org
• Zillow.com
• Google Earth / Google Maps / Street View

Tony Lin · Answer

Get in touch with property management companies in the area. They do this everyday and will know the real conditions we’ll.

Daren H. · Answer

Cities have economic development departments, or the like, which publish all sorts of data on demographics, income, housing, schools, population growth, growth, employment,  and a host of other data. They usually publish every year or two. This would be a good start. In regards to crime, most city PDs keeps stats of this type of data. Some have online portals to pull all sorts of data. Or you can do it via public information request. For example, here in Dallas I can pull crime data online for the neighborhood I am about to purchase in. It will give me the incident date and very brief description of what it was about. This helps gives you a good sense of what is going on in that particular neighborhood. I would start with these free sources. Just check online with the city website you are wanting to research.

Greg Dickerson · Answer

Google has all the answers. You can also do street views to see what the property and surrounding areas look like.

John K. · Answer

The one piece of data that I rely on the most, is per capita income, by zip.

If I see a PCI of under 20K, I get really nervous. If I was to ask $900 for rent, I would worry about finding enough qualified tenants, making 32K per year, to qualify at 3x rent.

Megan T. · Answer

What metrics did you use to choose Tampa/St Pete compared to other markets? I would continue to use those metrics to narrow down your search further

To get the best idea of an area I look at schools zoned for, average household income in a 1-, 3- and 5-mile radius (use esri), and closest grocery store (publix is universal in Florida, but if it is close to a Winn Dixie or a Walmart grocery center it is a low-income area, close to a Whole Foods or Fresh Market, generally higher income area) as well as the other retail in the area. These three things will give you a good idea of the tenants in the area, you just have to decide which tenants you want.

I advise this to all new Florida investors, be aware of real estate taxes and insurance. They can be much higher here compared to other markets so just make sure you are calculating your returns accordingly

Danny Randazzo · Answer

@Shafi Noss find local community newspapers and business press releases. You can also use the cia fact book, census.gov and local real estate professionals as other resources to learn about the market.

Tj Hines · Answer

@Shafi Noss inbox me on this

Steve Cheslock · Answer

@Shafi Noss

I recently moved to a new city and decided to drive for Uber. Not only has driving for Uber taken me to all the areas and neighborhoods, but the amount of info I’ve gotten from locals in the back has been amazingly valuable.

Shafi Noss · Answer

Ok, makes sense. Say I gathered the data from the departments and took a look at street view, how would you recommend interpreting that information? Are medium crime rates a deal breaker, even if rent growth is high? What kind of employments are desirable.

I guess I'm not asking for actual answers to those questions, but I am curious how any of you did or would recommend learning how to tackle them.

How do you learn about a city?

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