Accurate, reliable, and timely data is vital for effective decision-making for any real estate investor. Without it, you’ll end up making either an inappropriate decision that’ll damage the performance of your investment property or – even worse – no decision at all. Successful investors recognize that the collection and analysis of property data is key to making a lucrative purchase and growing a real estate investment portfolio. You don’t even have to be a statistician or data wiz to use data – thanks to Information Technology, finding and using such data in 2019 is easier than ever before!
Data, however, is only as good as its source(s). Many sources provide real estate data that’s too general, out-of-date, or published too infrequently. This tells you that while property data is everywhere, the trick is knowing which data you should tap into and which real estate websites to trust. If you’re searching for reliable data to leverage in analyzing real estate deals before making an investment decision, one of the top sources you can rely on is Mashvisor. Keep reading to learn about our platform, what kind of data it provides, and what makes it unique for real estate investors.
Why Mashvisor?
Let’s start off by answering the question: what is Mashvisor? Mashvisor is a website that helps real estate investors in the US make informed decisions. It does so by providing them with automated, nationwide real estate assessment data along with the tools they need to 1) find investment properties for sale in any major city and neighborhood in the nation and 2) see their future performance and what kind of ROI they can expect to earn.
For more details about the tools we have to offer and how to use them, read: What Is Mashvisor? What Can It Do for Real Estate Investors?
Mashvisor pulls its data from reliable sources, crunches the numbers, and then presents them to you in a comprehensive analysis. Ultimately, this saves you a lot of time and effort in analyzing multiple properties and gives you the ability to make the right decision with confidence and start making money in real estate. With access to property data that meets their needs, real estate investors can keep pace with the housing market and stay on top of competition using a single platform. Here’s the kind of data you’ll get when you sign up to Mashvisor:
Property Listing Price
When performing an investment property search, the first thing a real estate investor wants to know about properties in the location where they’re thinking of investing is the listing price. After all, you most likely have a budget for real estate investing and, naturally, want to buy a property that fits within that budget. Also, knowing the listing price gives you a better understanding of property values and where the market is heading. In turn, this allows investors to decide if the time is right for selling or buying a property.
Once you enter the city, neighborhood, or ZIP code of your target investment location in the search page, you’ll see a list of properties publically listed on the MLS. You’ll also notice that each listing is provided with a few types of important property data, the first of which is the listing price.
Mashvisor also offers filters that allow real estate investors to customize their property search. So, if you’re looking for investment properties with a certain price range, simply set your budget and Mashvisor will filter out properties that aren’t in that range.
Property Characteristics
While still on Mashvisor’s search page, you also get to personalize your property search using more filters to include property characteristics that matter to you. This gives real estate investors the ability to control the property data results they’re getting to help them avoid wasting time browsing through listings that don’t fit their criteria. You can search for and find investment properties based on property characteristics you want including:
- Number of bedrooms
- Number of bathrooms
- Square feet
- Year built
- Property type (single-family homes, multi-family homes, townhouse, condo/coop, or other)
- Property Status (for sale, pending, sold, foreclosure)
Furthermore, if you find a property that interests you for real estate investing, just click on the listing and you’ll be taken to the Property Analysis page where you’ll get more real estate assessment data. Among this data, you’ll get additional property characteristics including the address, last sale date, last sale price, the price per square feet, original listing source, and the listing agent.
Want to start and end your property search in less than 15 minutes? Click here to find and analyze the best investment properties in your city and neighborhood of choice.
Comparable Rental Income
Any successful real estate investor will conduct a rental market analysis before buying a house to rent out. This is the only way to ensure that rental properties are performing well in the area and that you can get a good rental yield from yours. Buying an investment property without running this analysis beforehand increases your chances of running into unpleasant surprises after closing the deal—and no investor wants that!
Now to run this analysis, the first piece of data you need is the rental rate in the market so you can estimate the rental income the property will generate. Mashvisor makes this part easy! We use comparative and predictive data to calculate the rental rates of different areas based on the rental income to bedroom ratio. When on the Property Analysis page (AKA the Investment Property Calculator), you will be given the comparable rental income based on real estate comps (more about comps below). If you want to know how much a specific US address can earn as an Airbnb rental, you can use Mashvisor’s Airbnb calculator to see the average short term rental income in a neighborhood or city.
This type of property data is basically the monthly income you can expect to receive from renting out the property. Now, you can run a rental market analysis based on reliable, pre-calculated data from Mashvisor instead of having to crunch the numbers yourself.
Monthly Rental Expenses
Owning a rental property naturally comes with several expenses needed to run the real estate investment- all of which affect its profitability. In order to make smart investment decisions, you must take these expenses into account and budget for them so they don’t surpass the monthly rental income. They include one-time startup costs as well as recurring expenses and monthly mortgage payments (if you choose to finance the property with a loan). This is exactly the type of property data that Mashvisor provides.
Mashvisor’s Investment Property Calculator gives you pre-estimated data regarding the rental expenses of the property based on local rates in the investment location. You’ll get a detailed list of the following expenses and how much they cost:
- Inspections costs
- Total repairs or renovation costs
- Furniture and appliances costs
- Closing costs
- Insurance
- Utilities
- Property management
- Property maintenance
- HOA dues
- Real estate property tax
- Rental income tax
You also have the option to “Add Custom Expense” and adjust expenses as you see fit to ensure accuracy.
Monthly Cash Flow
The cash flow is a simple real estate analysis metric that basically calculates the total profits leftover after paying off rental expenses (rental income – rental expenses). Real estate investors want to see that their investments are generating positive cash flow as it means that it’s actually making money. No cash flow means you break even on the property and, even worse, negative cash flow means you’re spending more than the investment property is making (i.e. you’re losing money). Because Mashvisor can calculate a property’s rental income and expenses, it can calculate the property’s monthly cash flow as well. By adjusting property data regarding income and expenses, Mashvisor’s interactive calculator also shows how this affects your cash flow.
Read more about our tool here: The Best Investment Property Calculator in 2019
Capitalization (Cap) Rate
The cap rate measures the ROI on a property based on its total value. Meaning, it doesn’t take financing into consideration – instead, it assumes that you paid for the property with 100% cash. Real estate investors use the cap rate as a metric to analyze and compare similar rental properties to determine which one has the best potential for returns. To calculate the cap rate, you divide the investment property’s net operating income by its listing price. But why calculate it and be subject to errors when you can get solid, readily calculated and reliable cap rate data for any property in any city or housing market in the US via Mashvisor’s AI algorithms?
Cash on Cash Return
This is another metric that investors use to estimate the rate of return on a rental property. However, it’s not exactly a simple one. As the name suggests, the cash on cash return is the profits you’ll get on the cash which you’ve put into the investment. It’s mostly used by real estate investors who choose to finance an investment property with a mortgage. To calculate the CoC return, you need to take into account any cash you’ve invested including the down payment, closing costs, any repairs made on the property, furniture, etc. Then, you’ll need to calculate your annual pre-tax cash flow and divide it by the total cash investment.
Instead of calculating the CoC return manually, activate the Mortgage/Financing Calculator on the Property Analysis page to automatically get this property data. This calculator takes the listing price and allows you to select your down payment, loan type, and interest rate. Mashvisor then takes the amount of borrowed money out of the equation and only calculates your ROI based on the down payment and first-time startup costs. The end result is the expected cash on cash return from the investment property.
Airbnb Occupancy Rate
Airbnb real estate investing has become a favorable strategy for investors in the US housing market and worldwide. Many choose short-term over traditional rentals because they bring more profit. However, the ROI you can expect to get from Airbnb depends on a number of factors, mainly the Airbnb occupancy rate. This is the number of days (or percentage of time) in a year that the Airbnb rental property will be occupied by a guest. The only way to get this property data is by using analytics. Mashvisor’s real estate assessment data displays the Airbnb occupancy rate of an area based on the number of bookings that took place in the past 12 months. From there, we project Airbnb occupancy rate data of a rental property based on its rental rate and the property type.
Optimal Rental Strategy
Many websites provide property data to investors of traditional (long-term) rentals and others only offer Airbnb rental data. What sets Mashvisor apart from its competitors is the fact that it allows you to obtain both real estate analytics in one place! Say you’re interested in an investment property and you want to know which rental strategy yields more profits. If you’re using Mashvisor to analyze this real estate deal, you’ll get all the above real estate assessment data for both traditional and Airbnb rentals in your location. On the Property Analysis page, you’ll also get to see how the investment property itself will perform as a traditional vs Airbnb rental. With this data, you can confidently determine which rental strategy is more lucrative for your target property.
Take a look at how Mashvisor delivers all this data in a comprehensive analysis:
Rental Comps Data
It’s important for investors to find and analyze real estate comps (or comparable properties) when running a market analysis. These are properties that are similar to the one you’re eyeing for real estate investing and were recently sold in the area. Without analytics, finding comps will consume a lot of time and effort and, in real estate investing, time is money. But thanks to real estate websites like Mashvisor, gone are the days of wasting your time looking for real estate comps data! By clicking on the Valuation Analysis page, you’ll easily view and understand rental comps (both traditional and Airbnb) and see how similar they are to your investment property as seen in the image below:
Off Market Property Data
Savvy real estate investors realize that off market properties (i.e. those that aren’t listed on popular MLS sites for homes for sale) are the best deals for investment. The only problem is that you can’t always find data for these properties online. Mashvisor’s Property Marketplace, however, solves this issue! Here, you can search for and find thousands of non-MLS properties along with their data. These include short sales, bank-owned, auctioned homes, and foreclosure data. What’s more, is that you can also use the Investment Property Calculator and comparable property data to analyze off market properties. This allows you to be certain you’re investing in profitable real estate property.
Visit the Mashvisor Property Marketplace today and find the off market property you’ve been searching for!
Property Owner Data
One way for real estate investors to buy off market properties is by targeting homeowners and making an offer before they list their properties for sale. Alternatively, some investors follow the “driving for dollars” strategy where they drive around a neighborhood looking for abandoned properties and then search for the owners to make an offer. Either way, you’ll need owner data – which you’ll find on Mashboard. Using our wide property database, you’ll easily be able to identify and contact property owners for off market opportunities with access to their names, accurate emails, and valid phone numbers! Furthermore, you can use the Mashboard to directly connect with owners through the integrated email system.
Learn more: How to Find Out Who Owns a Property for Off Market Deals
The Bottom Line
You can’t afford to be in this competitive field without real estate assessment data. With multiple data feeds, we make your property data search efficient as we deliver everything real estate investors need to make sound decisions. Want to give Mashvisor’s tools a try? Click here to start out your 14-day free trial and subscribe to our services with a 20% discount after!