The Real Estate market

[brockovich]

How do you know a good deal if you do not even know your local market? Contrary to popular belief on this site there are good honest hardworking realtors in the business. I would not do without one on my team. Beyond realtors you have to evaluate a lot of properties on your own. Additionally, study the property transactions in your local newspaper and then check the corresponding sales data on your local auditors site. This should be a good start.

[justin0419]

Supreme,
I've been investing in RE for 4.5 yrs.  I agree w/ Brockovich.  I like our Realtors and have used them many times.  I'm not opposed to doing deals without them if something comes up, but I have used them on most of our deals so far.
If you're looking at commercial properties, I would drive around town and see how many business/office spaces are for rent.  In my town, I wouldn't buy a commercial property now unless I could get a huge discount on it because it would be sitting for awhile.  There are several vacant commercial properties here.

[Bay Area Brian]

Supreme92

If you were talking about commercial real estate it would have been nice to know that from day one. So on the same theme, talk to commercial property brokers in the area your interested in, they like a free lunch.

Some Associations have a group specializing in commercial and you may be able to be a guest at a monthly meeting if allowed, sometimes weekly. It's also not hard to drive by commercial properties and make notes, talk to owners of vacant for lease or sale properties, your not breaking any laws or ethics if they are listed because your not licensed.

Property for lease but still rented, talk to owner of business, they are often familiar with similar properties and the market. If you want the knowledge you indicate you will have to gather it yourself, or make friends with someone who has it and will give it to you for free.

What good is a report to you, they are mostly general totals and may give a clue to the current trend but like anything else they give what has happened not what is going to happen, and may not give detail for specific areas but a general overall look, otherwords limited info.

[asmayameen]

yes only the people living in the locality knows better than the other living in far lands. that's why  i only recommend those people to work with me who is in same region!

[tatertot]

If you go on-line and pull up Realty Times, you can get local assessments of the market by local real estate agents.

Not enough info to buy, but at least it is a place to start.

[lasvegaswinner]

the website "Trulia" is a real goldmine of info

[asmayameen]

no doubt your website attract many potential customer but you frequently need a local survey  of the market, not all good deals are listed online.

[d1beard]

Aren't there moderators on this site.  Why does garbage from spammers, such as the immediately proceeding comment make it through?

[Mdhaas]

Aren't there moderators on this site.  Why does garbage from spammers, such as the immediately proceeding comment make it through?

d1beard,

Since the post that you reference did not violate any of the Forum rules, it is allowed to be posted.  You may wish to research more before calling an item "SPAM", as this does not qualify as such.

[d1beard]

OK, fair enough Mr. Moderator, but this particular user came on the site and posted numerous garbage entries (some $1/hr person from some foreign country, no doubt, trying to build SEO for a website by typing in crap that is obviously just that... crap) and this happens all the time here.  I do not see this occurring on other sites. 

[kdhastedt]

If we removed the posts of everyone that other users arbitrarily and capriciously deemed to be "spam" because they didn't like the wording, syntax, grammar, or any other reason, we wouldn't have a whole lot of content...

We received your complaint, gave it its due heed, and Mdhaas provided you with accurate feedback.   Poster "asmayameen" provided input to the site that he thought meaningful and might help others.  As Mdhaas noted, it violated no Forum Rules. 

Not every post here may be to your or my liking or be of interest to you or me.  My recommendation:  get over it and move on to the next topic.  Please do not refer to the postings of others as 'crap'...

Have a great and profitable day!

Keith
Moderator

[ethomson]

Supreme, as a Realtor and an investor, I would say Realtors definitely would be worth it for you. Specifically if you could get one that is an investor themselves or knows about investing.

What do you mean by Realtors having been "overpricing home sales"? How does one do that? Either way, an agent will be able to tell you what properties are selling for, what they are leasing for, how long they are sitting vacant, etc. All for free... What else are you looking for? And I wouldn't just talk to one agent. I bet their figures will come in pretty close to each other and maybe that will renew your confidence.