How to “learn your real estate market”

[Josh Thompson]

I hear all the time that to invest in real estate you have to know your market. I understand that means knowing property values, vacancy rates as well as many other variables. What steps do you guys take to learn if a market is suitable for REI? I ask because as I’m working up the money and courage to buy a multifamily, I struggle to understand my market. I don’t know if I will have a 5% vacancy rate or 50%. I don’t know if I’m buying a good deal because properties vary so much in my town.

[Ryan E.]

Josh Thompson read this blogpost by Brandon Hall (he was on today’s podcast):

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2015/05/10/invest-out-of-state-how-to-analyze-a-city/

You can look up a city’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) just by googling it. The blog post tells you what to specifically look for in the CAFR. This helps you to get a solid picture on who the big employers are, population growth, unemployment, the areas where the city will be investing etc