Use Heat Maps As Part Of Your Real Estate Due Diligence
I ended my last column on Travel Nurse Housing by mentioning how utilizing a heat map tool can help you better analyze the desirability of your investment property location. That desirability also impacts how much rent you can charge your travel nurse and other tenants.
Just What Is A Heat Map Analysis Tool?
Let me turn to Mashvisor.com for a good explanation.
A heat map is an investment tool that allows investors (like us) to quickly analyze the neighborhood data of multiple areas in a real estate market.
Like heat maps used by weather forecasters, a real estate heat map displays data in a color-coded form. A heat map analysis tool uses a variety of real estate data sources and puts it all in one place for us to view. As a result, users can more easily find the best places to invest in real estate at a specific point in time in any selected market.
Not All Heat Maps Are Created Equal
Like most everything else in life, there is no one best heat map that is your cure-all for telling you when and where to buy an investment property.
Each heat map provider has its own set of filters that are utilized to make predictive analytics and indicate real estate trends.
For example, Mashvisor’s heat map tool provides 4 main property filters.
Listing price
Rental income
Return on investment
Airbnb occupancy rate
Propstream has a heat map analytics tool inside its paid platform. This tool will provide you with a color-coded map based on one of four filters or categories.
Estimated values
MLS statistics
Price growth
Rental values
More Tools
I use three other online tools to supplement and support my heat map data.
Rentometer.com. If you want fast access to key rent metrics, Rentometer’s paid platform is a good place to start. Intuitive and easy to use.
Niche.com. Interested in looking at compiled data for your local area for free? The price is right. Look no further than Niche. Ranked data is available not just for places to live, but actual reviews of the area or zip code by current and former residents are displayed too.
AreaVibes.com. I turn to this free tool when I want to learn more about livability for a neighborhood, city, zip, or state. AreaVibes gives all nearby areas a livability score that I have always found helpful when looking where to invest in a particular city or zip code.
Wrapping Up
The tools are out there to help you determine where to buy and invest. I personally never depend on any one analysis tool. But I can say with every note deal and investment home purchase I’ve ever made, I have always used heat maps coupled with the three tools mentioned above.
Happy investing!
Until next time.