What’s Happening to Our Traffic?

According to Google Trends traffic looks to be at a 10 year low.

Traffic/pickups can turn into drama fast.Tenants underestimate this.

It's really just a matter of time before their greed drives enough traffic and hosts to another avenue, so I'm encouraged to hear others say they see an uptick in direct bookings. 

I regularly touch up with a brush every 3 months, especially on high-traffic areas like the stairs and baseboards.

Your listing isn’t everywhere your tenants actually lookYou're on most majors, but in my experience managing volume in Memphis and other C-class/B-class areas, the platforms that drive the most applications are:Facebook Marketplace (but you must repost every 2–3 days)Zillow (make sure photos are bright + cover photo is strong)Apartments.comRentRedi or Avail (for syndication)Local Facebook rental groups (huge for blue-collar tenants)If you’re not posting in the local Facebook groups, you’re missing half the traffic.3.

Buyer traffic and current sales improved, and future sales expectations stayed above 50 for the second straight month.Why this matters: Builders are early-cycle indicators.

I will sometimes put a sign with an arrow at the entrance of the street the house is on too (especially if the street where the house is doesn't get a lot of traffic). 

Houston is a large city and the traffic can be terrible(especially during rush hours).If you do decide to house-hack, I would try to get a house near where you will be working(if possible).Saving 30 minutes or 1 hour everyday is huge.Houston does have a lot of multi-family homes but I find it that the ones that will cash flow are in the undesirable areas.The ones near Montrose or Hermann Park are harder to cash-flow.

I’ve been working on a simple underwriting tool for small investors who don’t want to spend an hour in Excel every time they look at a property.Here’s how it works:Drop in the basics (price, rent, expenses, loan terms)In 30 seconds, it spits out NOI, Cap Rate, DSCR, Cash-on-Cash, and a simple traffic-light recommendation (Green / Yellow / Red)You get a clean one-page summary you can actually use to make a quick “go/no-go” callI’m testing it out with real investors now.