You are about to purchase another  real estate investment unit. You have the funds and everything else in place and are about to hit the road. It’s time to read our list of four factors.

Location: As we all know, location of the  real estate investment is of paramount importance with any real estate purchase, this is never more the case when you are searching for a rental property. The reason being is tenants are more transient by their very nature and so will want to be as close to the neighborhood activities as possible. It is also niche market specific for example if your going for college students then the nearer you buy to campus the more popular your rental will be.

Price: When considering a rental real estate investment always try and get the most income for your money. Sounds obvious I know but if you saw two similar sized houses and one was $10,000 more than the other, the chances are that these rentals would almost certainly rent for the same amount and so with the higher priced one you are trying to find extra income to service it.

Size: This may well be governed by your budget but in general terms you need to understand what the preferred size is for the area you are looking at, for example; in a Minnesota real estate investment downtown development it is reasonable to assume a studio or one bed room flat under 800 sq ft. will be a popular rental choice whereas out in the suburbs you may opt for a three bed house with 1800 sq.ft of living space.

Its not for you!: Always keep this in the back of your mind when your looking for the  real estate investment property. Unless you are buying it in advance so that you can downsize to it in the future then the property your buying doesn’t need to be the quality that you will live in as we have discussed each area has ceilings that people expect to pay for rent and if you look at property with your own occupation in mind then you may well be paying over this threshold for your rental.

Like any list of this nature it isn’t designed to be a comprehensive guide of how to find a rental investment property but rather a tool to help you think about your specific situation and adapt and apply some of these criteria to your needs. Please get in touch if we can help in anyway with your purchase.

According to an update from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), a slow but steady recovery is predicted for the U.S. real estate market, despite the ongoing challenges.

Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist of the NAR spoke to the 2010 Realtors conference, and said he expects a continuing improvement of underlying fundamentals of the current market in the following years. Mr. Yun pointed out that “a slow recovery is currently taking place, and that the pace of job growth will determine the strength of the housing market recovery going forward.”

One key factor, according to several experts, is to re-establish sensible underwriting standards for mortgages, as well as down payment requirements, as these will both help creating a more stable market with less booms and busts.

Margaret Kelly, CEO of RE/MAX said that overall, agents are now cautiously optimistic about the future state of the industry and added that “despite some challenges there are plenty of opportunities in the housing market with low mortgage interest rates, abundant inventory and stable prices attracting buyers to the market.

According to another expert, one of the key challenges to achieve a full recovery is to work thru the foreclosure issue, which is dragging down home sales and prices, consumer confidence and the health of the market and economy as a whole.