How To Find Properties In Other Markets (Without Actually Going There)

One of the best parts of real estate investing is the ability to invest anywhere, from anywhere else… you’re not restricted to the geographic boundaries of your neighborhood.

That’s great news for investors: you can be sitting in your ocean-front condo in Vancouver BC or your lakeside cottage in Muskoka ON or even your luxurious room in a Caribbean resort… Regardless of where you are, you can invest somewhere else if you know how to do it.

In this blog post, we’re obviously not going to cover the many ins and outs of investing somewhere else (we cover a lot of those details in our popular ACRE events). But you will read about in this blog is a few solid strategies to help you invest in other markets.

Choose a few markets. Many brand new investors default to thinking about investing in their own market because they are already familiar with it – there’s an inherent expertise that comes with living there. But if you want to invest beyond those boundaries, you need to gain a familiarity with a different market. So select a few other markets to consider. For example, if you become develop some knowledge about 3-5 markets, you’ll be able to watch the trends as they rise and fall, and you’ll know when it’s the perfect time to invest in one of your chosen markets.

Become familiar with your markets. Start by reviewing the city’s or town’s website about those markets, which may show information like tax rates, crime stats, income levels, etc. Watch the news for your markets to find out what’s going on there – what companies are moving there or leaving, what kind of jobs are there, who lives and works there, etc. Even watching the weather for that particular market can give you a hint about what challenges you may face as an investor (such as a lot of snow in the winter or a lot of humidity or even flooding in the spring).

“Drive” the streets. Driving up and down the streets of your market is a great way to learn about it. But if you can’t easily get to your chosen markets because they’re too far away and too costly to fly, you can do the next best thing: Take a spin using Google Street View and click up and down the streets. It’s not perfect, and it might even be a couple years old, but you’ll get a sense of the market.

Talk to investors who invest there. Of course there is no substitute for live boots-on-the-ground knowledge so be sure to connect with other investors are actively investing in the area. Connect with them at an investing club meeting or at myreinspace.com.

There was a time when investing outside of your immediate neighborhood was challenging because of the lack of information. But today, thanks to the internet, there are many ways we can tap into the wealth of knowledge on a particular market.

Pick a few markets, study them for 5-10 minutes a day for a month, and you’ll gain a vast amount of knowledge about the market very quickly to help you make better investing decisions.

{{cta(‘ed62010d-8126-47b5-9682-706be28ee8ce’)}}