A general rule in real estate investing is that the less money you pay up-front for an investment property, the greater your ROI is. However, you can find many stories online of investors telling you that this is not always true. While cheap investment properties are attractive (especially in housing markets where prices are going up), price alone is not enough for earning high returns. The investment location and rental yield are also key factors to keep in mind for successful real estate investing. This leads us to our main question: How can you find the cheapest real estate in the US housing market that also has money-making potential in 2019?
Some will tell you to check real estate auctions or public records for expired listings, foreclosures, short-sales, and HUD homes. You might have a chance of finding cheap houses for sale with these typical routes but, more often than not, they won’t make for profitable rental properties. Moreover, you’ll have to go through a whole process of scouring listings to identify the one with the highest ROI. By that time, other real estate investors might have already placed their bids and you’ll end up in a bidding war.
At Mashvisor, we say forget about the old ways and turn to the best real estate investment tools for finding and analyzing investment properties! Today, savvy real estate investors take advantage of online resources that give them the best chances of finding exactly what they’re looking for. So, if you’re looking for the cheapest real estate in the US with high returns, these are the tools you’ll need to save time, make money, and beat your competitors.
#1 Heatmap: Find Where the Cheapest Real Estate in the US Is
By now, you must already know the importance of location for real estate investing. We’re not going to go into details here, but it should be mentioned that investors shouldn’t get caught trying to find cheap investment properties for sale in bad locations. This is why the first step to finding properties with a high ROI is to analyze the city/neighborhood where you plan to invest. Mashvisor’s Heatmap Tool can help you out with getting this step done in no time!
Check out Where to Look for the Best Real Estate Investments in 2019.
The Heatmap is an investment tool that gives you a visual analysis of the housing market using colors that represent whether or not it’s a good location to invest in real estate. It comes with different filters that you can apply to set your criteria: listing price, cash on cash return, rental income, and occupancy rate. Using these filters will help you pinpoint neighborhoods that have the cheapest real estate in the US with the potential to be profitable rental properties.
How Does It Work Exactly?
First, you need to decide on the city where you want to invest in a rental property and then set the “Listing Price” filter. This lets you see which neighborhoods in your city of choice have expensive/cheap investment properties compared to the city’s median property price. Neighborhoods marked in green are the ones with expensive properties, while neighborhoods marked in red are where you’ll find the most affordable properties in that city.
After finding a neighborhood with cheap investment opportunities, you’ll need to find which property has the most potential for a good return on investment. This can be done using some of Mashvisor’s other search filters. You can set your budget (anywhere from $50K to $5M), as well as the cap rate and/or cash on cash return you’re aiming for. Then, on the side of the Heatmap, you’ll only see cheap properties that fall within your budget along with a quick preview of their expected cap rate and cash on cash return!
As you can see, Mashvisor’s Heatmap and other property search filters eliminate hours of work. They help real estate investors find the best locations for the cheapest real estate in the US. Want to try it out for yourself? Just click here.
#2 Property Finder: Quickly Find Cheap Properties for Sale
Want a real estate investment tool to find cheap investment properties even faster? The Property Finder is the tool for you. As the name suggests, this tool allows real estate investors to search for and find houses for sale anywhere in the US housing market. Just like the Heatmap Tool, the Property Finder enables you to refine your rental property search using filters to customize your personal criteria. What’s different about it, though, is that it:
- Lets you search for investment properties in up to 5 different cities simultaneously
- Only shows properties within your budget and with the highest ROI potential
Therefore, the result is a list of the best real estate properties which not only match your search criteria but are also profitable as rental properties. This makes the Property Finder a must-have investment tool for real estate investors searching for the cheapest real estate in the US, especially if they don’t know where to invest yet. Besides the budget, other filters include the rental strategy, type of property, and the number of bedrooms and bathrooms.
We’ve prepared a detailed article on how to use this tool. Give it a read to learn more about it: Rental Property Finder: A Revolutionary Tool for Investing in Real Estate
Or start using it right now with a free Mashvisor account!
#3 Investment Calculator: Analyze the ROI of Cheap Properties
If you still doubt the profitability of a rental property for sale that you’ve found using the Property Finder, then we’ve got another tool for you. That is the Real Estate Investment Calculator. After finding an affordable property for sale, just click on it to access the property analysis page and the calculator. To activate this tool, the real estate investor needs to enter numbers related to buying the rental property. These include financing details, startup costs, and ongoing expenses.
The tool will then calculate different real estate metrics and provide you with an accurate estimation of the property’s profitability. The metrics that the Real Estate Investment Calculator will provide include the comparable rental income, cap rate, cash on cash return, and cash flow. Therefore, this tool eliminates the need for spreadsheets or for calculating these numbers by hand and getting false results.
Furthermore, Mashvisor uses traditional and predictive analytics to provide readily calculated ROI data for the cheapest real estate in the US. This gives you the ability to analyze investment properties and make smarter and faster investment decisions. Not only that, but this tool also gives you an overview of the rental strategy. It compares the traditional and Airbnb rental strategy for the selected rental property. As a result, this helps you determine the optimal rental strategy for the property to make the highest ROI.
For more details, read: The Best Investment Property Calculator in 2019
Ready to Start Your Property Search?
Finding the cheapest real estate in the US might have been impossible in the past but today, it’s as easy as a click of a button. Together, these three investment tools are the ultimate kit for a real estate investor in the 21st century. Whether you’re searching for the most profitable houses for sale or want to analyze the return on a rental property, Mashvisor’s got your back.
To get access to all of these tools, start out your 14-day free trial with Mashvisor now!