Summary
A single-family rental (SFR) investor with properties in various mid-sized markets all over the country, our client needed help identifying which markets should be the next targets for expansion.
HouseCanary solved this challenge by providing neighborhood and market statistics and data that helped our client pinpoint potential markets for expansion quickly and with full confidence.
The Challenge
With a solid foothold in several markets already, our client was ready to expand its business, but had not yet identified the best market for the next expansion step. Before HouseCanary, the client used consumer real estate portals to attempt to identify these markets, but the lack of detailed information about properties, neighborhoods, and markets, in addition to unreliable real estate data, meant the client was spending a lot of time on these portals with little to show for the effort.
The Solution
HouseCanary was able to help the client identify several markets with acceptable rental returns and low risk through market analyses that revealed markets with relatively high median income levels, historical price growth, and high demand for rental homes. We also pinpointed the specific ZIP codes where opportunities for growth were highest, and where the types of homes that the client was already accustomed to managing were standard. Using our data, the client found the best new market for expansion and began researching homes for sale on the MLS, establishing a foothold in a brand-new market.
The Results
HouseCanary’s robust and curated dataset was more objective and contained more information about individual properties, ZIP codes, and entire markets. HouseCanary’s data enabled faster decision-making using a single platform. Our forecasting tools andmarket-health information gave the client deeper insights into areas of opportunity and growth, saving employees’ time on research and maximizing the clients’ profitability in its expansion market.
Market Expansion
Our client already had established SFR portfolios in several major markets across the country, butwith a recent infusion of new investment money, it had to decide whether to buy more homes in those existing markets, improve its existing SFR properties, or expand to a new market and start purchasing SFR homes there. Ultimately the client decided to expand to a new market — then the question emerged: where to expand?
The client needed to identify markets where there was high demand for rental properties, where households were growing and household income was stable, and where the opportunity for rental yield was robust. And the client also needed to find the neighborhoods or ZIP codes within those markets that presented the most advantages to use as a jumping-off point and begin looking at individual houses in those neighborhoods.
- Historical neighborhood affordability
- Neighborhood affordability forecast
- Market grade (A-F)
- Crime and hazard details
- School ratings
- Rental yield
- Rental price forecast
