Ultimate Harrison County Real Estate Investing Guide for 2024

The acronym BRRRR is an illustration of a long-term investment strategy — Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat. BRRRR is a system for repeated growth. This method hinges on your capability to take cash out when you refinance.

When you are done with refurbishing the investment property, its market value must be more than your total acquisition and renovation costs. The asset is refinanced using the ARV and the balance, or equity, comes to you in cash. You utilize that cash to buy an additional property and the operation starts anew. You acquire more and more rental homes and repeatedly expand your lease income.

Once you’ve accumulated a significant portfolio of income generating real estate, you might choose to allow someone else to manage all rental business while you collect mailbox income. Locate Harrison County investment property management companies when you look through our directory of professionals.

Factors to Consider

Population Growth

The growth or decline of the population can signal if that region is appealing to landlords. If you discover vibrant population expansion, you can be sure that the market is attracting potential tenants to the location. The community is appealing to companies and workers to locate, find a job, and grow families. This means dependable tenants, more lease revenue, and more possible homebuyers when you intend to liquidate your property.

Property Taxes

Real estate taxes, just like insurance and upkeep spendings, may differ from place to market and should be considered carefully when predicting possible profits. Unreasonable property tax rates will negatively impact a property investor’s profits. Areas with excessive property tax rates are not a reliable setting for short- and long-term investment and should be bypassed.

Price to Rent Ratio

The price to rent ratio (p/r) is a clue to how high of a rent can be demanded compared to the cost of the property. The price you can demand in a market will impact the sum you are willing to pay depending on the time it will take to repay those funds. A higher p/r informs you that you can charge less rent in that location, a small ratio shows that you can charge more.

Median Gross Rents

Median gross rents are a true benchmark of the acceptance of a lease market under discussion. You are trying to find a market with repeating median rent expansion. You will not be able to reach your investment predictions in a location where median gross rents are declining.

Median Population Age

Median population age should be close to the age of a usual worker if a location has a consistent stream of tenants. If people are migrating into the community, the median age will have no problem staying at the level of the employment base. If working-age people are not venturing into the area to replace retiring workers, the median age will go higher. A vibrant investing environment can’t be supported by retired individuals.

Employment Base Diversity

A diversified employment base is what a wise long-term rental property owner will search for. When the locality’s workpeople, who are your renters, are employed by a diversified number of companies, you can’t lose all of them at once (and your property’s value), if a significant company in town goes out of business.

Unemployment Rate

High unemployment equals smaller amount of tenants and an unsafe housing market. People who don’t have a job won’t be able to purchase goods or services. Workers who still have workplaces may discover their hours and salaries decreased. Even tenants who have jobs will find it hard to keep up with their rent.

Income Rates

Median household and per capita income will let you know if the tenants that you require are living in the city. Rising incomes also show you that rental rates can be hiked over your ownership of the asset.

Number of New Jobs Created

The more jobs are regularly being produced in a market, the more dependable your tenant source will be. A market that adds jobs also adds more people who participate in the real estate market. This allows you to buy more lease properties and backfill existing empty units.

School Ratings

Community schools can have a strong influence on the real estate market in their area. Well-rated schools are a necessity for business owners that are thinking about relocating. Reliable tenants are a by-product of a strong job market. Real estate prices gain with new employees who are buying houses. For long-term investing, search for highly graded schools in a prospective investment market.

Property Appreciation Rates

Real estate appreciation rates are an important portion of your long-term investment strategy. Investing in real estate that you aim to maintain without being positive that they will rise in market worth is a formula for disaster. You don’t want to allot any time examining areas with low property appreciation rates.

Residential properties where renters live in furnished accommodations for less than four weeks are referred to as short-term rentals. Short-term rentals charge a higher rate each night than in long-term rental properties. With tenants fast turnaround, short-term rental units have to be maintained and cleaned on a continual basis.

Usual short-term tenants are people on vacation, home sellers who are relocating, and people traveling for business who need something better than a hotel room. Ordinary property owners can rent their houses or condominiums on a short-term basis through portals such as AirBnB and VRBO. A convenient technique to enter real estate investing is to rent a residential property you already own for short terms.

The short-term rental strategy requires dealing with renters more frequently in comparison with yearly lease properties. This determines that property owners face disputes more frequently. Consider controlling your exposure with the help of one of the good real estate lawyers in Harrison County WV.

Factors to Consider

Short-Term Rental Income

You should decide how much rental income has to be created to make your effort lucrative. A quick look at a region’s up-to-date average short-term rental rates will show you if that is a good city for your project.

Median Property Prices

When purchasing investment housing for short-term rentals, you must calculate how much you can allot. To see if a region has potential for investment, study the median property prices. You can narrow your location survey by studying the median market worth in specific sub-markets.

Price Per Square Foot

Price per sq ft can be impacted even by the style and layout of residential units. When the styles of prospective homes are very contrasting, the price per square foot might not give a definitive comparison. Price per sq ft may be a quick method to compare multiple communities or buildings.

Short-Term Rental Occupancy Rate

A quick check on the area’s short-term rental occupancy levels will show you if there is demand in the district for additional short-term rentals. A high occupancy rate shows that a fresh supply of short-term rentals is required. If investors in the area are having issues renting their current units, you will have difficulty filling yours.

Short-Term Rental Cash-on-Cash Return

Cash-on-cash return is a means to assess the value of an investment venture. You can calculate the cash-on-cash return by taking your Net Operating Income (NOI) and dividing it by your cash being invested. The answer comes as a percentage. High cash-on-cash return demonstrates that you will get back your funds quicker and the purchase will have a higher return. Mortgage-based investment ventures can reap better cash-on-cash returns as you’re using less of your own resources.

Average Short-Term Rental Capitalization (Cap) Rates

One measurement illustrates the value of an investment property as a cash flow asset — average short-term rental capitalization (cap) rate. A rental unit that has a high cap rate as well as charges market rental rates has a strong value. Low cap rates show more expensive real estate. The cap rate is determined by dividing the Net Operating Income (NOI) by the asking price or market worth. The answer is the annual return in a percentage.

Local Attractions

Major public events and entertainment attractions will entice visitors who want short-term rental houses. If an area has sites that periodically hold sought-after events, such as sports arenas, universities or colleges, entertainment venues, and theme parks, it can attract visitors from out of town on a recurring basis. Natural tourist sites such as mountains, waterways, beaches, and state and national nature reserves can also draw potential tenants.

When an investor purchases a property below market worth, repairs it and makes it more attractive and pricier, and then disposes of the home for revenue, they are referred to as a fix and flip investor. To be successful, the property rehabber has to pay below market price for the property and calculate what it will cost to renovate the home.

You also need to know the real estate market where the house is located. The average number of Days On Market (DOM) for homes sold in the community is important. Liquidating real estate immediately will keep your costs low and maximize your profitability.

In order that real property owners who need to sell their home can conveniently find you, highlight your availability by using our catalogue of the best cash home buyers in Harrison County WV along with the best real estate investment firms in Harrison County WV.

Additionally, hunt for top bird dogs for real estate investors in Harrison County WV. These specialists concentrate on skillfully discovering profitable investment ventures before they are listed on the marketplace.

Factors to Consider

Median Home Price

The area’s median home price should help you spot a good community for flipping houses. If values are high, there may not be a good reserve of fixer-upper houses in the area. This is a necessary ingredient of a fix and flip market.

When market data shows a sudden decline in real property market values, this can point to the availability of possible short sale houses. Real estate investors who team with short sale processors in Harrison County WV get regular notices concerning potential investment real estate. You will uncover more data about short sales in our article ⁠— What Is the Process of Buying a Short Sale House?.

Property Appreciation Rate

Are home prices in the region on the way up, or moving down? You are looking for a steady increase of the city’s home market rates. Real estate market worth in the area should be increasing constantly, not suddenly. You may wind up purchasing high and liquidating low in an hectic market.

Average Renovation Costs

A thorough review of the area’s renovation costs will make a huge influence on your market selection. The manner in which the municipality goes about approving your plans will have an effect on your venture as well. If you are required to show a stamped suite of plans, you will have to incorporate architect’s charges in your budget.

Population Growth

Population growth is a good gauge of the reliability or weakness of the community’s housing market. If there are buyers for your renovated properties, it will show a strong population growth.

Median Population Age

The median population age is an indicator that you may not have taken into consideration. The median age in the region needs to equal the age of the typical worker. A high number of such citizens shows a significant pool of homebuyers. People who are about to leave the workforce or are retired have very restrictive residency needs.

Unemployment Rate

You want to have a low unemployment level in your target region. The unemployment rate in a future investment area should be less than the national average. If it is also less than the state average, that’s even more preferable. Unemployed individuals cannot acquire your property.

Income Rates

Median household and per capita income rates explain to you whether you will obtain qualified buyers in that place for your homes. The majority of people who buy a home need a mortgage loan. Home purchasers’ eligibility to get issued financing depends on the size of their income. Median income can help you analyze if the typical homebuyer can buy the property you intend to list. Look for cities where the income is growing. Construction expenses and home prices increase from time to time, and you want to be certain that your target purchasers’ wages will also get higher.

Number of New Jobs Created

The number of jobs appearing every year is useful information as you think about investing in a specific market. Residential units are more effortlessly sold in a region that has a vibrant job market. Fresh jobs also lure wage earners coming to the city from another district, which also strengthens the local market.

Hard Money Loan Rates

Investors who sell upgraded residential units regularly employ hard money financing instead of traditional funding. Hard money loans enable these buyers to take advantage of pressing investment opportunities immediately. Look up the best Harrison County private money lenders and contrast financiers’ charges.

If you are unfamiliar with this loan product, learn more by using our guide — What Is Hard Money?.

In real estate wholesaling, you search for a house that real estate investors may think is a lucrative opportunity and sign a purchase contract to buy the property. A real estate investor then ”purchases” the purchase contract from you. The owner sells the home to the real estate investor not the real estate wholesaler. You are selling the rights to the contract, not the property itself.

The wholesaling form of investing includes the engagement of a title insurance firm that understands wholesale deals and is knowledgeable about and engaged in double close transactions. Search for title services for wholesale investors in Harrison County WV in our directory.

Read more about how wholesaling works from our complete guide — Real Estate Wholesaling 101. When using this investment tactic, list your business in our directory of the best house wholesalers in Harrison County WV. This will help your future investor clients locate and reach you.

Factors to Consider

Median Home Prices

Median home values in the region will inform you if your preferred purchase price point is possible in that location. A city that has a substantial supply of the reduced-value residential properties that your customers want will display a low median home purchase price.

Rapid deterioration in real estate market worth could lead to a number of real estate with no equity that appeal to short sale investors. This investment strategy frequently delivers several particular advantages. Nonetheless, be cognizant of the legal challenges. Learn more regarding wholesaling short sale properties from our comprehensive instructions. If you want to give it a go, make certain you employ one of short sale attorneys in Harrison County WV and property foreclosure attorneys in Harrison County WV to confer with.

Property Appreciation Rate

Property appreciation rate boosts the median price data. Real estate investors who plan to maintain investment properties will have to find that home values are regularly going up. Shrinking market values show an equivalently poor leasing and home-selling market and will scare away investors.

Population Growth

Population growth figures are essential for your potential contract buyers. If they realize the community is multiplying, they will conclude that new residential units are needed. There are many individuals who rent and more than enough customers who purchase homes. When a place is losing people, it doesn’t require more residential units and investors will not look there.

Median Population Age

Investors have to work in a reliable real estate market where there is a substantial pool of tenants, newbie homeowners, and upwardly mobile residents purchasing better homes. This needs a vibrant, consistent employee pool of citizens who feel confident to move up in the housing market. A market with these features will have a median population age that mirrors the working person’s age.

Income Rates

The median household and per capita income in a robust real estate investment market should be increasing. Income hike demonstrates a location that can absorb lease rate and home listing price increases. Investors need this in order to reach their estimated returns.

Unemployment Rate

The region’s unemployment stats are a crucial point to consider for any prospective contract buyer. Renters in high unemployment cities have a difficult time making timely rent payments and some of them will miss rent payments completely. Long-term investors who depend on steady rental payments will lose revenue in these areas. High unemployment creates uncertainty that will prevent people from purchasing a home. Short-term investors will not risk getting pinned down with a unit they cannot resell quickly.

Number of New Jobs Created

The amount of jobs created per annum is an important part of the residential real estate framework. More jobs produced result in an abundance of workers who require properties to rent and buy. Whether your buyer base is comprised of long-term or short-term investors, they will be drawn to a city with constant job opening production.

Average Renovation Costs

Rehab spendings will matter to many real estate investors, as they usually buy inexpensive rundown homes to repair. The cost of acquisition, plus the costs of repairs, must total to lower than the After Repair Value (ARV) of the home to allow for profit. Give preference to lower average renovation costs.

Purchasing mortgage notes (loans) pays off when the mortgage note can be bought for a lower amount than the remaining balance. When this occurs, the investor takes the place of the debtor’s mortgage lender.

Loans that are being paid as agreed are considered performing loans. They give you long-term passive income. Non-performing notes can be restructured or you can acquire the collateral at a discount by conducting foreclosure.

One day, you could have a lot of mortgage notes and need more time to manage them on your own. In this event, you could hire one of loan portfolio servicing companies in Harrison County WV that will essentially turn your investment into passive cash flow.

If you find that this model is best for you, put your company in our directory of Harrison County top mortgage note buyers. Showing up on our list sets you in front of lenders who make profitable investment opportunities accessible to note investors such as yourself.

Factors to consider

Foreclosure Rates

Low foreclosure rates are an indication that the market has opportunities for performing note investors. Non-performing note investors can carefully take advantage of places that have high foreclosure rates too. The neighborhood needs to be robust enough so that mortgage note investors can foreclose and resell properties if needed.

Foreclosure Laws

Experienced mortgage note investors are fully well-versed in their state’s laws concerning foreclosure. Are you working with a Deed of Trust or a mortgage? Lenders may need to get the court’s approval to foreclose on a property. Investors don’t need the judge’s approval with a Deed of Trust.

Mortgage Interest Rates

Acquired mortgage loan notes have a negotiated interest rate. This is a big factor in the investment returns that you earn. Mortgage interest rates are important to both performing and non-performing mortgage note investors.

Conventional lenders price dissimilar mortgage interest rates in various parts of the US. Private loan rates can be moderately more than conventional mortgage rates due to the larger risk dealt with by private mortgage lenders.

Profitable investors continuously search the interest rates in their region set by private and traditional mortgage lenders.

Demographics

An area’s demographics stats allow note investors to focus their work and effectively distribute their assets. The area’s population increase, unemployment rate, employment market increase, income standards, and even its median age contain pertinent information for note investors.
Performing note investors look for clients who will pay on time, generating a stable income source of loan payments.

Non-performing note buyers are looking at similar elements for various reasons. When foreclosure is necessary, the foreclosed property is more easily liquidated in a good real estate market.

Property Values

Lenders want to find as much equity in the collateral property as possible. When you have to foreclose on a loan with lacking equity, the foreclosure auction might not even cover the balance owed. The combined effect of loan payments that lessen the mortgage loan balance and annual property value growth expands home equity.

Property Taxes

Escrows for property taxes are typically paid to the mortgage lender simultaneously with the loan payment. By the time the property taxes are payable, there needs to be adequate funds being held to pay them. If the borrower stops paying, unless the note holder takes care of the taxes, they will not be paid on time. If a tax lien is put in place, it takes a primary position over the lender’s note.

If a community has a history of rising property tax rates, the combined home payments in that community are steadily growing. This makes it tough for financially challenged borrowers to stay current, so the mortgage loan could become delinquent.

Real Estate Market Strength

A vibrant real estate market having good value growth is beneficial for all kinds of note investors. The investors can be confident that, when required, a defaulted collateral can be liquidated at a price that is profitable.

Mortgage note investors also have a chance to originate mortgage notes directly to borrowers in consistent real estate markets. This is a strong source of revenue for successful investors.

A REIT, or Real Estate Investment Trust, is a firm that makes investments in income-generating properties. Before REITs existed, investing in properties was too costly for many people. REIT shares are not too costly for the majority of people.

Shareholders’ investment in a REIT classifies as passive investment. Investment exposure is spread across a portfolio of investment properties. Participants have the ability to sell their shares at any time. Shareholders in a REIT aren’t allowed to recommend or select assets for investment. You are restricted to the REIT’s collection of assets for investment.

Real estate investment funds are essentially mutual funds that focus on real estate firms, including REITs. The fund doesn’t hold properties — it owns shares in real estate businesses. These funds make it doable for a wider variety of people to invest in real estate properties. Real estate investment funds aren’t required to pay dividends unlike a REIT. The benefit to you is created by appreciation in the worth of the stock.

You can select a fund that focuses on a particular category of real estate company, such as commercial, but you can’t propose the fund’s investment assets or locations. You must count on the fund’s directors to determine which locations and assets are selected for investment.