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How Much Real Estate Market Research Do You Do?

Jason Hanson
2 min read
How Much Real Estate Market Research Do You Do?

I’m not talking about the type of market research you think I am. You probably think I’m talking about knowing your zip codes, and the types of properties in your area, etc. Yes, that’s important but I want to share with you something just as important.

I’m talking about researching your competition. Knowing everything they do and “stealing” their best ideas and incorporating them into your own business.

How do you do this?

Well, the #1 way is to network and get on everyone’s email lists. If you don’t get 5-10 emails a day from investors who are selling properties, then you’re not doing enough networking and meeting people. (And I do mean investors, I don’t mean gurus pitching products, because that’s the easy way to get flooded with 50-100 emails a day).

When you get these emails from investors you should study them. What are they offering? Is it a good deal? Does this investor know how to price a wholesale property? Is this investor getting a ton of wholesale deals in an area of town which you haven’t checked out yet?

For example…

There is one investor in my area who is savvy and closes a ton of wholesale deals. If all of the sudden I see a flurry of deals coming from a certain section of town I know that I want to start marketing there. (I do my due diligence first). Plus, I know my marketing is better than this person’s, so I’ll most likely get more calls off my marketing pieces than he does off of his.

On the flip side, there’s another investor who doesn’t know this business at all and thinks offering a $100,000 property for $90,000 is a good deal. However, I like the format of the emails they send out and how they structure their wholesale offer. So even though their emails aren’t sharing any real deals, I can still learn from this person about how they make offers.

In this business if you want to stay on top you should always be studying your competition.

A lot of times they won’t be doing things that work, but if you just get one idea from them, it could be worth hundreds and thousands of dollars over the life of your real estate investing career.

In fact, just the other day I called a bandit sign in my area just to see how they answered the phone and to listen to their pitch to me. (It went to a voice message and wasn’t anything exciting).

So… start to love all of the emails you get even if you have no desire to buy a wholesale and do a rehab. You never know what brilliant idea you’re going to get from a fellow real estate investor.

DieselDemon / CC BY 2.0

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.