Do you rent or sell? HotPad heat map will show you the answer
Written on June 19, 2008 by Peter- REBB Founder
Today I want to share with you a cool free resource. Hotpads.com has just released a new tool on their website for housing shoppers.
The tool combines their rent ratio heat map with their new rent vs. buy search and foreclosure heat maps. The goal of that new heat map is to give consumers the necessary tool to make sound financial and housing decisions in today’s market.
Hotpads’ Rent Ratio heat Map allows apartment and housing hunters to visually see the ratio of rentals versus for sale hosing in their area. They go as far as suggest which areas make financial sense for the buyer or renter to either purchase or rent a property in their area.
Red colors on the heat map indicate the areas where it makes more sense to rent while blue areas indicate the best place for buying a house.
Here’s a link to a sample rent vs buy heat map on hotpads.com.
To search rent vs buy in your area, just follow the link below
So, why would you need that information as a real estate investor?
Here’s why…
As a real estate investor, you constantly need to look at what your end buyer or seller is thinking. By looking at the heat map, you can see what sellers and buyers in your area are doing. Is there a lot of houses for sale or are there a lot of rentals?
Personally, I think the heat map is a great research place for all of us. With just a click of a mouse, you can see your entire investing area to help you figure out what your exit strategy or buying strategy need to be.
You can also see what your competition is doing in your area? How much people are trying to rent their houses or apartments for? How much is someone trying to sell their house for?
Now, let me clarify something here. Remember, these heat maps are geared toward retail buyers and seller. Also, just because someone is trying to rent for $1,200/month or trying to sell the house for $189,000 doesn’t mean they are going to get it. They’ll sell or rent their place for what the current market will give them.
So, use this heat map as a research tool. Don’t base your entire decision just on what you see there. You need to be smarter than the average Joe.
And since you are reading this post on Real Estate Black Book Blog, I know that you are 
Leave your comments below. Do you have any resources you would like to share with the rest of our community? if you do, I would love to hear them. Thanks in advance.
To Your Success,
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Nice writing style. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Chris Moran
I appreciate the suggestion and tool. There’s another tool by PropertyMaps that has been a great help at finding hot areas and properties across the US. It’s a Google Maps/MLS mashup.
Thanks Chris and Eddie. I appreciate your comments and the resource.
Peter K.
Peter,
Keep up the great tips. You are a huge resource for my real estate investing career!
Thanks,
Brian
Another great find. You sure find the good ones.
Thanks Angel. I’ll keep ‘em coming.
Peter