Today’s REI Classroom Lesson
Today, Jason Lucchesi explains how to use Zillow to search properties that recently sold near the property you’re looking at. By doing this, you’re able to get accurate comps.
REI Classroom Summary
Accurate comps allow you to accurate determine what makes sense to offer on a deal. By using this search in Zillow, you don’t need MLS access in order to get the numbers you need.
Listen to this REI Classroom Lesson
Real Estate Investing Classroom Show Transcripts:
Mike: Welcome back to the flipnerd.com REI classroom, where experts from across the real estate investing industry teach you quick lessons to take your business to the next level. And now, let’s meet today’s expert host.
Jason: Hey there, everyone. It’s Jason Lucchesi with jasonlucchesi.com. I am your host today for the REI Classroom and today, we are going to be going over and covering how to analyze deals using Zillow, using Zillow sold data.
Mike: This show was sponsored by passiverental.com.
Jason: Now, I will tell you this, a lot of individuals that I work with aren’t agents. So it’s really hard for individuals to properly comp out their properties. So if you get somebody, say, for instance, something came in from a motivated seller that was through a direct mailer, obviously, don’t want that money to go to waste that you put in on that direct mailer. So instead of contacting an agent, having to wait maybe an hour, four hours, maybe a day, you could go on to Zillow and this is very simple, make sure you have a pen and paper out. I’m going to give you the exact steps to do this.
So first of all, when you go on there you’re obviously going to search for your particular county. And you’re going to be able to go into your county, it’s going to pull up everything, so like for Indianapolis. It’s going to pull up probably 30,000 properties or whatever is for sale right now. The cool thing is you could go into Zillow, you go under their criteria of what you want to see. So what I do is I uncheck everything except for the criteria that says sold data. So you could go on there, you could take a look at properties that have recently sold. You could target it into properties that have sold last week so it’s really cool. It gives you access to information that you normally wouldn’t have unless you were an agent.
Now, I’m not saying anything’s wrong with being an agent. I’m just letting you know where you have access to if you aren’t already an agent. So you go on to here and there’s going to be a ton of properties. So you want to obviously comp your property out the right way. You don’t want properties that are 10 miles away from the subject property. You want to really target it in on properties that are probably within a mile radius of the subject property. You want them to be exact. If your property is a three bedroom, one bath you want to find properties that are three bedroom, one bath.
So the cool thing is you could put in all your criteria. You can even put it in from a square footage and really get it targeted to where you have your numbers that make sense. So, for example, it gives you a map. And this map is, I believe they are probably using Google’s API. So they are using Google. So you could go in and if your property is on, let’s just say 30th and 28th Street, you can target it in on that particular area, just like you would on the MLS and you could find all of the sold properties within that area.
I personally like to see stuff that is sold within a few blocks, depending on the area, okay. If they’re you know closer properties, they’re more like your rehabs or your, you know properties there, your cash flow properties. I like to keep them a little bit tight. I like to really zone in so I have proper numbers that I could give to the seller like, “Hey, this is what I think the property is worth. This is what I’m willing to pay.” So it gives you that accurate data and it also will allow you to print that off.
So you could have a good, complete package when you’re presenting it to the seller. So you could get really good, concrete numbers instead of guessing with Zillow’s Zestimate. So it also gives you the assessments of the property too from the tax assessor website. So you can look at that information as well. I would not say Zestimate is very accurate at all, I would say it’s off. Typically, it’s off in either direction, probably by about 20, 25%, which is a pretty big number for us to be off on, especially when we’re making an offer to a seller or if we’re trying to sell the property to a buyer.
But that’s what I wanted to deliver to you guys today. If you would like to receive more information on this, let me know. My website is jasonlucchesi.com, tons of great information there. But again, thanks for your time, hope you enjoyed it. Talk to you soon. Bye now.
Mike: Passiverental.com is your source for turnkey done-for-you rental properties. If you’d like to be an investor and not a landlord, please visit passiverental.com to learn how to purchase cash flowing, professionally managed rental properties in the hottest rental markets across the country. We can also help connect you with financing for your next property. Invest the easy way today and get started by visiting passiverental.com.
Please note, the views and the opinions expressed by the individuals in this program do not necessarily reflect those of flipnerd.com or any of its partners, advertisers or affiliates. Please consult professionals before making any investment or tax decisions, as real estate investing can be risky.
Are you a member yet of flipnerd.com, the hottest real estate investing social community online? If not, you can join for free in less than 30 seconds and get access to hundreds of off-market deals, vendors in your market to help you in your business, and you can start networking with thousands of other investors just like you. Get your free account now at flipnerd.com.
Please check out the FlipNerd family of real estate investing shows, where you can access hundreds of expert interviews, quick tips and lessons from leaders across the real estate investing industry. They’re available at flipnerd.com/shows or simple search for FlipNerd in the iTunes store.
Jason: Hey there, everyone. It’s Jason Lucchesi with jasonlucchesi.com. I am your host today for the REI Classroom and today, we are going to be going over and covering how to analyze deals using Zillow, using Zillow sold data.
Mike: This show was sponsored by passiverental.com.
Jason: Now, I will tell you this, a lot of individuals that I work with aren’t agents. So it’s really hard for individuals to properly comp out their properties. So if you get somebody, say, for instance, something came in from a motivated seller that was through a direct mailer, obviously, don’t want that money to go to waste that you put in on that direct mailer. So instead of contacting an agent, having to wait maybe an hour, four hours, maybe a day, you could go on to Zillow and this is very simple, make sure you have a pen and paper out. I’m going to give you the exact steps to do this.
So first of all, when you go on there you’re obviously going to search for your particular county. And you’re going to be able to go into your county, it’s going to pull up everything, so like for Indianapolis. It’s going to pull up probably 30,000 properties or whatever is for sale right now. The cool thing is you could go into Zillow, you go under their criteria of what you want to see. So what I do is I uncheck everything except for the criteria that says sold data. So you could go on there, you could take a look at properties that have recently sold. You could target it into properties that have sold last week so it’s really cool. It gives you access to information that you normally wouldn’t have unless you were an agent.
Now, I’m not saying anything’s wrong with being an agent. I’m just letting you know where you have access to if you aren’t already an agent. So you go on to here and there’s going to be a ton of properties. So you want to obviously comp your property out the right way. You don’t want properties that are 10 miles away from the subject property. You want to really target it in on properties that are probably within a mile radius of the subject property. You want them to be exact. If your property is a three bedroom, one bath you want to find properties that are three bedroom, one bath.
So the cool thing is you could put in all your criteria. You can even put it in from a square footage and really get it targeted to where you have your numbers that make sense. So, for example, it gives you a map. And this map is, I believe they are probably using Google’s API. So they are using Google. So you could go in and if your property is on, let’s just say 30th and 28th Street, you can target it in on that particular area, just like you would on the MLS and you could find all of the sold properties within that area.
I personally like to see stuff that is sold within a few blocks, depending on the area, okay. If they’re you know closer properties, they’re more like your rehabs or your, you know properties there, your cash flow properties. I like to keep them a little bit tight. I like to really zone in so I have proper numbers that I could give to the seller like, “Hey, this is what I think the property is worth. This is what I’m willing to pay.” So it gives you that accurate data and it also will allow you to print that off.
So you could have a good, complete package when you’re presenting it to the seller. So you could get really good, concrete numbers instead of guessing with Zillow’s Zestimate. So it also gives you the assessments of the property too from the tax assessor website. So you can look at that information as well. I would not say Zestimate is very accurate at all, I would say it’s off. Typically, it’s off in either direction, probably by about 20, 25%, which is a pretty big number for us to be off on, especially when we’re making an offer to a seller or if we’re trying to sell the property to a buyer.
But that’s what I wanted to deliver to you guys today. If you would like to receive more information on this, let me know. My website is jasonlucchesi.com, tons of great information there. But again, thanks for your time, hope you enjoyed it. Talk to you soon. Bye now.
Mike: Passiverental.com is your source for turnkey done-for-you rental properties. If you’d like to be an investor and not a landlord, please visit passiverental.com to learn how to purchase cash flowing, professionally managed rental properties in the hottest rental markets across the country. We can also help connect you with financing for your next property. Invest the easy way today and get started by visiting passiverental.com.
Please note, the views and the opinions expressed by the individuals in this program do not necessarily reflect those of flipnerd.com or any of its partners, advertisers or affiliates. Please consult professionals before making any investment or tax decisions, as real estate investing can be risky.
Are you a member yet of flipnerd.com, the hottest real estate investing social community online? If not, you can join for free in less than 30 seconds and get access to hundreds of off-market deals, vendors in your market to help you in your business, and you can start networking with thousands of other investors just like you. Get your free account now at flipnerd.com.
Please check out the FlipNerd family of real estate investing shows, where you can access hundreds of expert interviews, quick tips and lessons from leaders across the real estate investing industry. They’re available at flipnerd.com/shows or simple search for FlipNerd in the iTunes store.
