So you wanna get started investing in Fort Walton Beach and you’re checking things out, right?
Good for you. Wise choice of investment. Just always do your homework and you won’t get schooled. You know what I mean..LOL
Here are some great tools that we’ve found and we use as well from time to time. They are a great real estate investing resource in Fort Walton Beach for investors here locally to check into for quick research on your investment deals.
The best thing about this is most of the sites below are completely free! Yes, free!
Here are a few sites you should get to know to get started:
1. Zillow
Zillow is the biggest, baddest real estate website on the block. They are building data on real estate wealth like a few other sites that you would encounter.
The CEO of Zillow, Spencer Rascoff, said their company’s best asset was their “living database of all homes”. Which is really true. There is no doubt about it.
The Zestimate tool is off, as a lot of folks have noted. It’s fun to see what the computer calculates, but you still gotta know how to analyze the comps and evaluate the market for yourself.
Spend a lot of time on Zillow and get to know everything you can like the the intimate details of each property sold in your target Fort Walton Beach neighborhoods. It’s good to also try to identify the psychology of the prices, and seek to understand why the seller and buyer picked that point to settle.
Remember, each sale is like a tiny piece of a moving puzzle that makes up the whole market. There is always something you would learn from every sale.
Zillow is an awesome tool for investors to get to know their markets.
2. Craiglist
Craigslist is an awesome site. There are huge deals there if you spend the time on the site checking it. People write terrible ads for great properties. Happens every hour of every day across FL. Sometimes the best properties only get one terrible ad. So you’ve got to look deeper to score!
3. LoopNet
LoopNet is the granddaddy of commercial real estate investing.
You wanna sell a gigantic freakin building to institutional investors, this is the site you want to list it on.
Sometimes there are great deals on LoopNet, but you’re competing with every other hungry investor to find them. If you are a Grade-A investor working with a top broker, you’ve got a chance to win the bid and seal the deal. This is not the site for rookies.
LoopNet is a great place to learn about the market in Fort Walton Beach and see how the major money is moving and the ins and outs. You’ll be surprised by what you can learn, so start searching through the properties for sale and watching where they close. You’ll need all those juicy knowledge!
4. Auction.com
Just like its name suggests, Auction.com is a big clearinghouse of auctions, — foreclosures, REOs, short sales, distressed properties, land, new construction — you name it, they probably sell it.
You should definitely check out their auction calendar, and make a trip to visit some Fort Walton Beach auctions. You never know who you might meet at an auction – maybe your future business partner? So, explore, learn, and connect!
5. Realtor.com
The largest place to search the MLS (multiple listing service), Realtor.com is sometimes confusing and often doesn’t seem consistent with what data it displays. So be sure to double-check.
But it’s got some neat search alerts and other tools that help you get alerted when a broker in your neighborhood has added a listing. If you’re serious about investing, you probably want to form a good relationship with an excellent Realtor, rather than just the website.
6. Walkscore
Most investors overlook Walkscore.com – a big mistake.
Walkscore tells you a ton about any given address. It tells you how a potential renter or buyer will evaluate it – what’s nearby and how long it takes to access.
It’s also a fantastic tool to target areas that are underpriced for their amenities. If an area has a really high walk score and low prices, chances are good that prices will rise in the next few years. There are big exceptions – but walkability is a really the key factor in Fort Walton Beach investment.
Those tools will help you to understand the Fort Walton Beach area market, if you take the time to use them. Do your homework, and understand the market before you start dumping your hard-earned money into a property.
You can always give us a call 850-696-7981 – we love to partner up with investors, and we’ve got great terms.
If you’re looking to access to local Fort Walton Beach investment properties, great!