Best Practices for Real Estate Investing: Location, Location, Location.

Real estate investors who want to be poised for long-term growth, and reap the highest

returns for the duration of their property ownership, know location is paramount. You can rely on a few best practices to sharpen your skills for finding a great locale. To help you uncover the best investment properties, look for:

• Best emerging markets with strong and sustainable economics.
• A path of progress indicating investing in the direction of the cities growth. 
• The sweet spot. 

The sweet spot to invest in real estate is within an emerging market and also on the path of progress within that emerging market. To find the sweet spot within that prescribed area, identify the neighborhoods with homes that have a price point representing a price that the majority of people can afford to purchase. Also look for a neighborhood that has the ability to charge rent sufficient to give you decent returns. 

Neighborhood Checklist
In order to keep good tenants who will renew their leases and also to have a property that you can sell easily, seek properties that are in highly sought-after areas. Each market and each tenant demographic may be different. 

• Easy Access. What is the parcel's access to roadways, rail services, and area amenities?  Identify where there is growth within a city by watching where the Department of Transportation is building highways, widening interstates and building on and off ramps. 
• School district. A school district’s performance impacts housing prices, regardless of whether you have children.
• Shopping and restaurants. 
• Parks and recreation.
• Crime. Safety is important. Get information and crime statistics from the local police department.

A great way to determine if the area is an optimum real estate investment is to walk it yourself. Park your car and walk during different points of the day on different days.
If you don’t live in the area, do you have business associates, friends or family who do? Call them and ask about the neighborhood and pricing. Use online tools like google maps street view to take a tour of the streets around the property. Look at the neighborhood’s walkability ratings on WalkScore. Compare the property to other properties in the neighborhood using online property listings.

Block Real Estate Services, LLC, (BRES) is experienced in securing development opportunities that hold significant potential for return on investment. One such development is CityPlace, a mixed-use development in the heart of an award-winning city, Overland Park, Kansas

For more information about CityPlace, visit www.cityplacekc.com or watch our video here. To keep up-to-date with CityPlace, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.