Whether you’re a prospective tenant or a real estate investor, finding a rental property can be a challenge for you.
But since times have changed, you no longer have to drive around looking for “For Rent” signs in order to locate homes for rent near you. A large number of real estate house rental websites have emerged on the web, providing people with a medium that can be used for finding a rental property and any information related to it from the comfort of their own home.
Finding a Rental Property Using Real Estate House Rental Websites
One of the major aspects, and perhaps the most important one, of real estate investing is the process of finding an investment property. As a real estate investor, if your goal is finding a rental property, then you will find several online sources that can help you find house rentals.
One of the most popular sources that real estate investors use for finding rental homes is by searching houses for rent through Zillow. While Zillow might be amongst the most popular online sources for finding rental homes, there are a number of other house rental websites that provide similar services, with some providing additional and more unique services that can be of great value to any real estate investor.
How I Use Mashvisor for Finding Homes for Rent Near Me
Some websites specialize in long-term rental homes, while others specialize in short-term home rentals, such as Airbnb.
My personal favorite, however, is Mashvisor, as it can be used for finding a rental property of both types.
Using Mashvisor, I can easily find homes for rent near me, such as townhomes for rent, or condos for rent nearby, and I can do it all through a very effective and easy-to-use tool which allows me to search for places for rent near me and gives me the results on the map.
Additionally, using Mashvisor, I am able to filter out rental properties that do not meet my search criteria, such as focusing on 3-bedroom houses for rent, for example, or single family homes for rent if I’m looking for a broader search criterion.
In addition to using Mashvisor for finding a rental property, I can also use the platform to obtain insights and analytics about the homes for rent that are near me, or in any other neighborhood, city, or state across the entirety of the US. This allows me to not only find house rentals but to also find investment opportunities in the market that I’m interested in.
Related: Finding an Investment Property: Traditional vs. Mashvisor
The insights and analytics provided by the platform are mostly related to the rental property’s projected profitability and viability for real estate investing, which includes a large set of data such as the property’s rental income, cap rate, cash on cash return, or its occupancy rate.
How to Determine the Best Homes for Rent Near Me When Finding a Rental Property
As a prospective tenant trying to find rental homes, using websites such as Airbnb or Zillow will allow you to determine the quality of the rental home from the perspective of other tenants who would rate the properties that they’ve stayed in, giving you information about the quality of the home and whether or not it is a suitable rental home for you to live in.
If you are, however, looking for investment opportunities in house rentals, then not all house rental websites can be used to acquire the information that you will need to determine the quality of the house as an investment property. Real estate investors can easily analyze and determine the quality of a house rental and its viability as an investment property using Mashvisor.
Related: Finding and Understanding Rental Comps Made Easy
Not only will you be able to gain useful insights about the city or neighborhood that you’re interested in with data comps and area averages related to the cap rate, cash on cash return, median prices, and Airbnb occupancy rates in the area, but you will also be able to check out each rental property’s historical data, the expenses related to investing in that property, and the property’s expected cash flow as a rental home.
You can filter your search even further by singling out 3-bedroom houses for rent, for example, and comparing similar rental properties that are nearby or in the same area in order to determine which of these options is most suitable for your investment strategy.
Although at the time that this blog is published the platform does not include multi-family homes yet, most types of properties that are usually used as house rentals can be found using the platform, such as finding condos for rent nearby, giving you access to hundreds of thousands of rental and investment properties across the US.
What to Do After Finding a Rental Property
Once you’ve found a suitable home for rent near you or in the area that you’re interested in, you can easily calculate the property’s return on investment based on your financing method and rental strategy, giving you a clearer picture of how the rental property will perform in the rental market. If you’d like to share the insights with a friend or an agent to get a second opinion, you can easily export the investment property’s report and share it with them in an easy-to-read PDF format.
Additionally, since each house rental typically has different expenses related to it, you can easily customize and modify the values of the expenses that apply to the rental home, as well as add or take out any expenses as you please.
Related: The 12 Best Places to Buy for Rental Income in the US This Year
All that’s left at this point is for you to start processing the deal and purchase the property. Whether it is a house for rent by owner or through an agency, you will be able to go to the negotiation table armed with data and analytics that can help you close the deal.
Bottom Line
Finding a rental property can be a daunting and time-consuming task for any real estate investor looking for places for rent, and especially those looking for homes for rent as an investment opportunity.
I personally choose to use Mashvisor for finding a rental property of any type. Whether I’m looking for townhomes for rent, condos for rent, or single family homes for rent, Mashvisor provides the data and the insights to help me find what I’m looking for.