Rental Property Inspection Form: Fill & Download for Free

Here are our top 5 FAQ to consider when buying a rental property:FAQ #1: Where and how do I find a profitable property?First thing’s first, you need to find the property that suits you and your goals. There are a few ways you can do this. You could go the old fashioned way, looking at published advertisements or by word of mouth. Or, you can browse the Internet to find properties. Some reliable websites include Realtor.com and Trulia, and, of course, Mashvisor.Mashvisor doesn’t just find any kind of property, we find the most profitable ones. You’ll be able to adjust for any features you desire, whether it’s having multiple bathrooms or buying a townhouse. Using Mashvisor, you can scour various kinds of properties from all around the country, state by state, city by city, neighborhood by neighborhood.FAQ #2: How do I determine if the property will be a worthwhile investment?A good general indicator is to figure out the property’s cash flow. Understanding cash flow is vital, especially if you’re buying your first rental property. In its simplest form, it is the rental income minus monthly expenses. A positive cash flow means more income is generated than the expenses being used. A negative cash flow means the opposite. Obviously, you should aim for positive cash flow.Things get chippy when you begin to break down the different expenses, such as mortgage, vacancies, insurance, property taxes, maintenance, etc. This is where investment property calculators come in very handy. Luckily for Mashvisor users, cash flow, along with other important data such as cash-on-cash returns, cap rate, and occupancy rates are all calculated for given properties. Mashvisor also provides an overall investment score for each selected property, evaluating its investment potential.Related: Why an Investment Property Calculator Tells You More Than Just the NumbersFAQ #3: How do I finance the purchase?Before you plan on buying your first rental property, it’s important to make sure your finances are in check. Make sure you have high credit. A high credit means a better chance of receiving a loan and paying lower monthly payments. A market’s definition of high credit will vary place to place, no doubt, but a good starting base is between 640 to 660. If your credit is not fitting, think about delaying the purchase and focus more on improving your credit.Once your credit is suitable, you can start to plan your financing. There are different ways you could finance your purchase when buying your first rental property. What is the best way? It depends, mainly on your goals, time, and investment aspirations. We’ll briefly discuss some of these various ways.Related: Buying Investment Properties with No MoneyThe most common, and perhaps the most reliable, way to finance a property is through bank loans. You will have to be pre-qualified and pre-approved to determine your eligibility. Your credit history, score, and debt-to-income ratio will be assessed. Pre-qualifying is the easier part. But getting pre-approved is the part that will require some work. Once you’re pre-approved, you’ll get an idea of how much you are eligible to receive.You could also purchase the property using just cash, but this can have its drawbacks. If you want to learn more about this and other ways to finance a purchase, in detail, click here.FAQ #4: Do I really need a real estate agent?You don’t need an agent, per se, but it is typically much, much better if you do have one. Buying your first rental property, especially, can be rigorous without an agent. An agent will perform many duties that are important to buying a property. Agents will help you find an attorney, get pre-approved for a loan, evaluate markets, negotiate and offer a deal, close the deal, and deal with inspections and appraisals. That’s a lot for the ‘to-do’ list for agents, which would be very time-consuming and painstaking to you, the buyer, especially if this is your first time buying. To keep it simple, no agent = more paperwork, more stress, and less time.Related: How to Find a Real Estate Agent for Investment PropertiesFAQ #5: Will I be eligible for tax breaks?Yes, yes, and yes! In fact, one of the benefits of rental properties is that many expenses are tax deductible. Among the many expenses that are deductible is interest. You can deduct interest on loans and on credits used to buy resources for the property. You can also deduct repairs. It’s important to emphasize that repairs are not renovations. Expenses that allow the property to be function can be deducted. Expenses used to enhance the property cannot. Homeowner Association and Condo fees are also deductible.There are many other deductible expenses, including insurance, legal fees, employee wages, and depreciation. To read more about them, click here. Buying your first rental property will make you smile for the first time knowing tax season is approaching.FAQ #6: Where can I learn more about real estate?Look no further! Whether you’re buying your first rental property as a traditional or Airbnb, Mashvisor is sure to provide you with invaluable information. Up-to-date data relating to neighborhood performance, property potential, and rental strategy analysis is provided to our users. Aside from the rich and precise data, you can learn more tips about anything relating to real estate in the Mashvisor blogs.Buying your first rental property can be tough, but it doesn’t have to be. Proper planning, efficient financing, and informative data will be your keys to creating a successful rental property. It will take time and commitment, but when all goes well, you’re in for lucrative gains.For more on buying your first rental property, visit us at Mashvisor.

A few years ago, my city sent workers around to inspect single family homes for safety hazards in the form of building code violations. The city said this was only fair, since multi-family rental properties had to endure inspections. Every homeowner was ordered to let them in.The inspectors literally had no experience in engineering, architecture or the building trades. They were given a two day course and a checklist. They would cite a house for missing smoke detectors, torn carpet, a missing cover from an electric outlet, peeling paint, or a hole in a wall, floor or ceiling, holes in screens, or cracked windows. Homeowners were given 30 days to correct the violation to avoid fines. If someone had a contractor scheduled to gut and remodel a room in 2 months, they still were supposed to fix the issue within 1 month.It was not all bad, but it seemed intrusive and petty. They only spotted things that were on their checklist and visible to the naked eye. They did not notice things a skilled home inspector would find, like overloaded electrical systems, low water pressure, clogged drains in floors, load bearing walls that had been removed, clogged gutters and downspouts, cracked heat exchangers in furnaces, mold, deteriorated and leaking roofs, rotten joists, insect or rodent activity, or flaking asbestos.Citizens called it intrusive, overbearing, and a makework project for unemployed adult children of city workers. The city heeded the uproar and cancelled the program.

Gone are the days of hiring real estate agents to find you an investing bargain; the age of Mashvisor’s rental property calculator is here instead.Mashvisor’s rental property calculator gives actual and interested real estate investors the ability to search for rental properties with a click of a button. And the best part comes in calculating and predicting financial outcomes from a potential investment based on the costs provided by the calculator or input by the user.Using accumulated data from various rental properties from different neighborhoods in cities around the US, Mashvisor’s rental property calculator gives investors an opportunity to take their investment boundaries to an unlimited zone! The investment property calculator does not only give the returns based on what is entered, but also provides insights by using predictive and comparative data and algorithms.Key Calculations of the Investment Property Calculator Include:Cash on Cash Return: The cash on cash return equals the net operating income (NOI) over the total cash investment, which means that you can differentiate between whether you paid for your investment property all in cash or with a loan. Experts recommend going for investments with cash on cash return of at least 8% to assure good profitability.Capitalization Rate: The cap rate is the ratio of the net operating income over the real estate property asset value. For example, if the NOI is $10,000, and the property value is $100,000, the cap rate would be 10%. If the cap rate is below 10%, it is advised to not invest in that income property.Positive/Negative Cash Flow: Cash flow is basically the difference between the monthly rental income and the monthly expenses of a rental property. Having negative cash flow means that the real estate investment is a bad one, because the expenses exceed the revenues. Mashvisor’s rental property calculator gives potential and existing real estate investors cash flow details after all the numbers have been added.Unique Features of Mashvisor’s Rental Property CalculatorWhat differentiates Mashvisor’s rental property calculator is the work put into it through data collection to not only calculate the finances of your investment in the form of cap rate, rental income, and cash on cash return. It offers way more than this – Mashvisor gives you a detailed neighborhood analysis is the city of your choosing, and gives a complete property analysis after you have selected the neighborhood.1. Neighborhood AnalysisMashvisor’s search map makes it easy for real estate investors to find investment properties in any area they want to invest in. The search gives you an overall map view of a certain city with names of neighborhoods and a general overview of the best ones. Using the rental property calculator filter allows the user to have a view on which neighborhood is a better investment choice based on different categories. The data that can be used to compare neighborhoods in general includes the listing property price, the Airbnb and traditional cash on cash return, the Airbnb and traditional cap rate, the Airbnb and traditional rental income, and the Airbnb occupancy rate. Selecting any one of them would give each neighborhood a color, which refers to a scale meter on the bottom of the screen.The neighborhood insight option allows you to get more insight about the optimal property type, the optimal bedroom number, and the optimal rental strategy to use (Airbnb vs. traditional). Mashvisor also provides investment property buyers with the Mashmeter, which works in a percentage form to give each neighborhood a score that can be comparable to other neighborhoods in the same or different city.2. Investment Property AnalysisMashvior’s rental property calculator goes into more details when analyzing a property that you have selected. It gives you the chance to make the calculator more interactive and to start being creative with the numbers according to how you think you’ll be able to finance the investment, cash flow expectation, and expenses.The analysis will initially provide real estate investors with rental strategy comparisons for both Airbnb and traditional rentals. The comparison criteria include rental income (which can be edited), monthly expenses, cash flow, CoC return, cap rate, and occupancy rate. This comparison makes it easier for real estate investors to understand why and how a certain strategy is better for that investment property by showing the numbers.Secondly, you look at the financing/mortgage section of the rental property calculator. That section allows the user to choose the financing method for that property: either mortgage or cash. Selecting the mortgage option allows the real estate investor to adjust the down payment, the loan amount, the loan type, and the interest rate, which gives investors a better understanding of the future cash flow depending on the mortgage details.Thirdly, Maashvisor’s rental property calculator deals with the expenses related to the rental property. The expenses are divided into two parts: one time costs and recurring costs, both of which can be edited easily. The one time costs include inspections, repairs, furnishing, and any other first time cost the real estate investor wants to add to the list. Recurring costs are those that are most common in all rental properties, such as insurance, utilities, property management, property tax, and any customized expense that the user wants to add.Related: How to Use Mashvisor’s Rental Property CalculatorWith Mashvisor’s investment property calculator, you will have your own personal guide on what to expect from your real estate investments. Head over to Mashvisor to make use of the best rental property calculator and find investment properties within minutes!