How can one be successful in multifamily real estate investing? Well, there’s one key determining factor – multifamily data! Savvy real estate investors know that accurate and timely data is key to finding profitable multifamily homes for sale. It’s through property data that you can properly analyze real estate deals and make better investment decisions. Otherwise, you run the risk of purchasing a money pit.
While you can find multifamily data from different sources, not all of them are reliable. The trick is to use sources you can trust. Thankfully, unlike in the past, technological advancement has made it possible for anyone to easily and efficiently find and use property data. You no longer have to be a data wizard or have a lot of experience in real estate to find quality investment data.
Related: Why You Need Big Data for Real Estate Analysis
If you are looking to invest in multifamily real estate, one of the most reliable sources of multifamily data is Mashvisor. Read on to learn about how investors can use our platform to find multifamily data.
Using Mashvisor to Find Reliable Multifamily Data
Mashvisor is a unique real estate investment software that provides investors in the US with up-to-date property data and does a comprehensive analysis for them in a matter of minutes. What makes Mashvisor unique is that it provides property data for both Airbnb and traditional investment properties.
Mashvisor pulls its multifamily data from a number of reliable sources and does a comprehensive analysis for you. If you are analyzing several multifamily homes for sale, using our platform can save a lot of your time and effort. This way, you will be able to make timely investment decisions with confidence and stay on top of the competition. When you sign up to Mashvisor, you’ll be able to access a variety of multifamily data. They include the following:
Related: 6 Tips for Finding High Return Multifamily Real Estate for Sale
1. Listing Price
The first piece of information a real estate investor needs when analyzing multifamily real estate for sale is the listing price. You want to make sure that the property price is within your budget to avoid the possibility of a foreclosure. Moreover, knowing the listing price will give you an understanding of the local housing market trends so that you can decide whether it’s the optimal time to buy an investment property.
On Mashvisor’s search page, you can select your target investment location by entering the city, neighborhood, or ZIP code. You will get a list of investment properties for sale that are publicly listed on the MLS. Each listing will have its listing price and other important property data. You can set your budget to filter out properties that don’t fit your price range.
Multifamily market data regarding listing price is also available and will help you locate investment areas that are within your budget. On Mashvisor’s neighborhood analysis pages, you can see the median listing price in your neighborhood of choice. The median property prices of neighborhoods can easily be compared via Mashvisor’s real estate heatmap. This tool will give you a visual representation of neighborhoods with the highest and lowest listing prices.
Note: The neighborhood data offered on Mashvisor’s platform is not specific to multifamily homes. Rather, it factors in all available property types. However, it is still important to look at when trying to find a location to invest in multifamily real estate so we’ve included it here. Keep reading to learn about the specific multifamily data we can offer you.
2. Property Characteristics
Mashvisor also provides real estate investors with property data about the general characteristics of the property. Knowing property details will help you in selecting investment properties that fit your criteria. Therefore, you won’t waste time browsing through listings you aren’t interested in.
On Mashvisor’s search page, you can customize your property search based on the property details. Since Mashvisor’s real estate database includes many types of property, the first thing you want to do is to set the Multifamily Property search filter (sign up for an Expert Plan to access this). This will narrow down your search to only multifamily properties for sale listed on the platform. These include small multifamily homes like fourplexes, triplexes, and duplexes for sale,
Related: What Is a Duplex? A Complete Guide for Investors
To narrow down your search further, you can filter your search based on characteristics such as:
- Number of bedrooms
- Number of bathrooms
- Year built
- Square feet
- Rental income
- Property Status (for sale, pending, sold, or foreclosure)
Moreover, you can click on an investment property that interests you to get more property data. This data will include additional property details like address, the listing agent, etc.
3. Rental Income (Traditional and Airbnb)
To find an investment location with profitable multifamily properties, you need to conduct a real estate market analysis. The first piece of small multifamily housing market data you need for this analysis is the expected rental income. This is essentially the monthly income you can expect a rental property to generate in the area.
On Mashvisor’s neighborhood analysis page, you will be able to see the rental income (both Airbnb and traditional) for the area you have selected. The estimate is based on the rental comps in the area. When you use the heatmap feature, you can get a visual representation of the rental income data for the different neighborhoods.
With our investment property calculator (on the Property Analysis page), you can know the expected Airbnb rental income and traditional rental income for multifamily properties in the US housing market. This comparable rental data makes it easier for you to determine the optimal rental strategy for a multifamily home based on expected rental income.
4. Monthly Rental Expenses
The monthly expenses associated with your rental property will have a great impact on its profitability. Before buying an investment property, you should take into account all rental expenses (one-time start-up costs and recurring expenses) and budget for them. You don’t want them to be more than the monthly rental income. Remember, if you are financing your investment property with a mortgage, you should also include mortgage payments.
Mashvisor’s Investment Property Calculator provides you with pre-estimated multifamily data regarding common rental expenses. This data is based on local rates. You can also add custom expenses to be more accurate.
5. Cash Flow (Traditional and Airbnb)
As a real estate investor, the way to actually make money is to invest in cash flow properties. Apart from estimating rental income and rental expenses, Mashvisor’s calculator can also calculate the monthly cash flow for a multifamily home for sale. This comprises of cash flow estimates for both Airbnb and traditional rental strategies.
6. Cash on Cash Return (Traditional and Airbnb)
Cash on cash return is the measure of the annual pre-tax cash flow of a rental property as a percentage of the total cash investment. It is the most commonly used ROI metric by real estate investors. This is because the method of financing is taken into account.
The manual calculation of this metric can be a time-consuming process. However, you can get this multifamily data automatically using Mashvisor’s calculator. You simply need to key in the mortgage details. Additionally, you can use the heatmap tool to find neighborhoods that offer the best cash on cash return.
7. Cap Rate (Traditional and Airbnb)
Cap rate is another important ROI metric to consider in multifamily real estate investment analysis. The difference between the cap rate and cash on cash return is that the cap rate doesn’t take the financing method into consideration. It is a measure of the net operating income of a rental property as a percentage of its price.
Again, Mashvisor provides you with readily-calculated multifamily cap rates for rental properties in the US housing market.
8. Traditional and Airbnb Occupancy Rate
Your rate of return will be greatly influenced by the occupancy rate. As such, you should also know how to get occupancy rate data for multifamily properties.
If you are looking to buy an Airbnb investment property, you can easily analyze Airbnb occupancy rates for multifamily markets and properties using Mashvisor’s tools.
9. Real Estate and Rental Comps Data
Knowing the fair market value of your target investment property can prevent you from overpaying for it. To find the market value of the property, you need to look at comparable properties that were recently sold in the neighborhood (real estate comps). Rental comps are also needed so you can get an idea of how much to charge for rent. With Mashvisor’s calculator, you can access multifamily rental comps as well as sales comps with the click of a button.
10. Off Market Property Data
Some of the best real estate deals won’t be found on popular listing sites. However, finding multifamily homes for sale that are “off market” is not an easy task. So, how do you solve this problem? Use Mashvisor!
Using the Mashvisor Property Marketplace is the easiest way to find off market multifamily properties like short sales, foreclosures, bank owned homes, and auctioned homes along with their data. With Mashvisor’s calculator, you can also conduct an investment property analysis on the properties to determine their profitably.
If you prefer to look for multifamily property owners on your own, you will be able to access property owner data and contact them directly using Mashboard.
The Bottom Line
Finding reliable multifamily data for your real estate investment is key to making sound investment decisions. However, doing it manually can be tiresome, time-consuming, and sometimes inaccurate. That’s why you need to use reliable and interactive software like Mashvisor instead of trying to crunch the numbers yourself.
To start your 7-day free trial with Mashvisor and subscribe to our services with a 20% discount after, click here.