"Market Triangulation" – involves examining a market from multiple perspectives to confirm trends, identify opportunities, and mitigate risk.
Here's how you can apply this method effectively:
Data-Driven Analysis:
1.) Gather local real estate listings (both for sale and pending) for your asset class and sales records/parcel maps from the local tax assessor (within the last 24-36 months, we dive deeper and pull 10+ years of info).
Parcel and zoning maps will often provide the community organizations or historical societies that govern these areas.
How have property values changed over years?
How have building types changed?
What are the zoning classifications, how do they differ?
Where are the historic districts, who governs them?
Some sub-markets change faster than others- many underlying factors to account for here.
Look at geographies and the concentration of buildings in each area.
How do densities differ between neighborhoods?
Which areas appear to be more walkable than others?
What type of terrain will you be dealing with?
These numbers are important but need to overlayed with many other factors to have substance.
2.) Source economic indicators (market-based vacancy, historical rent trends, employment numbers, etc.) from census data, brokerages, neighborhood publications, etc.
How have rental rates changed over time?
What areas have higher vacancy rates than others?
Where are the employment centers?
Have legislative policies affected these real estate markets?
What’s the prevailing industry or industries in this location?
How has economic growth changed over the years?
3.) Dig into demographics.
Where are the affluent areas?
What areas are working class?
What populations are moving in or out of certain areas?
How do incomes differ?
How do crime statistics differ across locations?
4.) Local expertise and community engagement:
On-the-ground insights provide invaluable information about neighborhood dynamics and emerging trends.
More importantly, they’ll allow you to check your work while cultivating necessary relationships.
Every long-time resident of an area will have their insights on it.
We need to source as many of those as we can.
Talk to brokers, property managers, local construction companies, etc.
It’s as important (if not more) to talk to the people who are operating the city- the bartenders, the servers, the coffee shop employees, barbers, etc.
That beautiful 10 unit apartment complex you thought you liked?
A local might say, “Oh, that’s in the X corridor, they’ve been trying to attract people there for years. My favorite store went out business on the same street and the owners haven’t been able to fill that vacancy in 3 years.”
-You learned that there’s no foot traffic here (even if the property looked centrally located on a parcel map)
-Anytime you need to attract people to a location, it raises questions.
With more reps, you’ll be able to check off certain areas from your list and slowly refine your understanding of the market.
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