Learning A New Market

[RG Mulcihy]

Hi all! I'm a new investor in the Columbus, Ohio area. I moved here last August after 23 years in Austin, Texas. My question is what are all the factors one needs to look for when evaluating a new market to learn desirable neighborhoods for investment. I know every market is different, but for someone looking to start out there are things to evaluate such as: 

• Neighborhood income/median rents
• Employment in the area
• Crime statistics

Besides the actual property itself, what are the other, more human factors, I need to take into account when learning a new market/new neighborhood? Thanks for the help! I'm really enjoying the wealth of knowledge BP has to offer!

[Chinmay J.]

@RG Mulcihy - So if you want to do house hacking, one of the conditions is that its something you should be OK living in. Lets start there. Only you know answer to that question. You might want to walk the area, get a feel for the neighborhood. What you have stated is a pretty good start. I would add quality of schools in that list. If you are going to house hack, you can get an FHA loan with 3.5% down for properties up to 4 units. It doesn't have to be investor loan of 20-25% down. So you might want to talk to a lender about it. Good luck.