Best Real Estate Resources & Tools For Investors
Our Real Estate Resources & Tools
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Being equipped with the right tools is essential for anyone who wants to become a successful real estate investor. Luckily, there are plenty of great real estate resources & tools available online nowadays. Whether you’re a complete beginner or a seasoned investor, we’ve got you covered!
We have listed on this page what we believe to be the best real estate resources & tools for investors. From property research & analysis to property management, it’s all in there! We’ve also added our favorite books, blogs and podcasts about real estate investing and personal finance.
Disclosure: All of the tools & resources presented on this page have been selected based upon merit and expected usefulness. A few of the products below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, we may earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase.
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Property Research & Acquisition
Find your next real estate investment online with these leading real estate market places
Property search & Listing
Zillow is probably the leading real estate market place where you can search millions on for-sale and rental listings. The website provides rent estimates directly in the property description, which can be very useful for investors. Zillow also provides “Zestimates” which are basically house values computed using an inhouse valuation model. These estimates can be useful although their reliability is sometime highly debatable so you should always cross-check your data with other sources
Trulia is owned by Zillow Group and is another leading real estate market place where you will find most real estate properties posted online. The website also offers multiple mapping tools that provide useful data around your property (recent sales, crime rates, local schools, transportation, etc.)
Redfin is similar to Zillow and Trulia and can help you find properties and agents in your area of interest. Note that, unlike Zillow and Trulia that show you agents from other brokers, Redfin is a real estate brokerage firm itself. So if you use RedFin, you will be working with one of their agents directly
Craiglist is yet another free resource for potential real estate deals. Although the website is mostly known as a general classified advertisement website, it includes a real estate section that enables sellers, buyers, renters and landlords to connect directly
The multiple listing service, or MLS, is a database established by cooperating real estate brokers to provide data about properties for sale. Most deals that appear on the MLS usually also end up on public market places such as Zillow, Trulia or RedFin. Not available publicly, you should connect with a listing agent to get access to the Database
Rent Estimate
Properly estimating rent is a fundamental aspect of real estate investing and one that all investors should carefully consider. A few online tools can help you speed up this process. But be careful, rent estimates provided by these tools are just that: estimates. You should always cross check data with other sources, as well as discuss with local real estate agents active in your area
Zillow offers a free tool called “Rent Zestimate” to help landlords price their rentals. When estimating rent, this tool will look at the home’s physical attribues and amenities, comparable rental properties and market rental rates in the area as well as any owner-updated home facts
RentOMeter is another great way to estimate your potential rent based on your address and the number of bedrooms and bathrooms. Estimates provided by the website have always been pretty accurate for us. The tool is free to use although limited in the number of properties you can review. Pro memberships are available and allow you to get unlimited QuickViews and multiple Pro Reports every month
BiggerPockets offers a useful rent estimating tool for Pro Members that includes property details, rent history, related properties in your neighborhood and other data-driven content
Real Estate Investment calculator
In Real Estate, money is made when you buy not when you sell so do the math before you close the deal. Fortunately, you don’t have to start for scratch and can use one of the following real estate investment calculators to run the numbers for you
Real Estate Spreadsheets offers free yet powerful pre-built spreadsheets for real estate investors. Our Rental Property Analysis Spreadsheet will help you review rental properties and buy & hold investments like a pro. Our House Flipping Spreadsheet is an all-in-one solution for analyzing house flipping deals, estimating rehab costs, tracking expenses, managing deadlines and more
BiggerPockets provides multiple online real estate investment calculators, including rental calculators (rental property, BRRRR, mortgage payment) and flipping calculators. Although appropriate for beginners, these online calculators quickly show their limits to more seasoned investors looking for more advanced capabilities
Calculator.net offers numerous online calculators, including for real estate investors. Similar to BiggerPockets’ calculators, they are easy and quick to use but are clearly lacking key essential features that only spreadsheets can provide
Property Management Software
Closing on the right property at the right price is not enough. For a successful buy and hold investment strategy, you also need to carefully screen and select tenants that will take care of your property and pay rent on time. Multiple solutions of property management software can assist you with tenant screening, credit checks, rent collection, property management, etc.
Tenant Screening & Rent Collection
Cozy is one of the leading web-based property management software. Ideal when you have a small number of units (20 and below), Cozy offers multiple services such as credit checks and background checks, automatic rent collection, renters insurance management, listings and expense tracking. Core services for landlords are free to use, while certain services paid directly by renters. Highly recommended for real estate new investors
Buildium is another big player in the property management software category. It offers more features than Cozy but is more expensive so we recommend it to investors with a larger portfolio. Buildium offers services such as property accounting, company financials, online payment, retail cash payments and 1099 efiling. Pricing starts at $50/month for the Essential plan which includes all core features
AppFolio offers numerous features to efficiently manage your property, including maintenance management, marketing services, rental applications, tenant screening, insurance, task management, accounting, online payment and many more. However, with a minimum monthly fee of $250, Appfolio is intended for seasoned investors with large portfolios.
Rentec Direct is yet another property management software starting at $35/month which makes it a good starting point for beginner investors. The tool offers property & tenant accounting, tenant screening, online rent payments, a mobile app for your tenants as well as an income & expense tracking feature
TenantCloud is a web-based application that can help you receive payments online, advertise your properties and screen potential tenants. The company also offers accounting services (storing receipts, getting financial and rental reports, etc.). A free version is available for up to 75 units, while the standard membership starts at $9/month
Avail enables you to publish a listing to find tenants, screen them via rental applications, credit reports and background checks as well as manage day-to-day tasks with digital leasing, automatic rent deposits and maintenance tracking. The website also offers additional tools such as a rent price analysis and a rent property calculator. Avail’s core features are free to use while an unlimited plan with premium features is available starting at $5/unit per month
NestEgg offers services including property maintenance, rent collection, upkeep services and tenant finder. It is free for rental property owners and tenants under the Rent Simple plan. Additional premium features are available starting $5/month
Market Research
Keeping up with real estate cycles and analyzing local & regional market trends are key activities that will make you a better investor. The following resources will help you stay informed about your market
Zillow Research aims to be the most open, authoritative source for timely and accurate housing data and unbiased insight. The website provides valuable information about the real estate market in many forms, including market reports, visuals and hard data that you can freely download to run your own analysis
RedFin Data Center is another great source of market data where you can view and download the latest housing data including home prices, sales, inventory, housing demand and many more data points.
Best Books for Real Estate Investors
Today, countless books about real estate investing have been published so we tried to select a few of our favorites. By no mean is this list exhaustive. The following books have been picked because they are easy to read, full of valuable information and are great real estate resources for both beginner and seasoned investors
Real Estate Investing
Best Real Estate Blogs
Blogs are one of the best real estate resources out there and they’re are free so why miss out? We personally love blogs so here’s a short selection of the best real estate blogs and websites that we enjoy reading
Real Estate Investing Blogs
General Real Estate
General Investing
Best Real Estate Podcasts
We love podcasts because they are an entertaining way to learn and stay inform about any subject anytime and anywhere. So plug your headphones in and listen to our selection of the best real estate podcasts
Real Estate Investing
General Investing & Personal Finance
Real Estate Communities
Online communities are a great way to discuss and meet with other passionate investors.
Real Estate Forums
Real Estate Facebook Groups
General Investing Forums
General Productivity
The following tools are not specifically real estate resources but we use them daily to stay organize and to keep track of our favorite blogs, websites, and podcasts. If you don’t use them yet, we highly recommend them all!
Feedly is a robust feed reader that aggregates information from all your favorite websites and blogs into one convenient place. It makes it easy for you to keep track of new articles and posts, whether they come from the news, blogs, social media posts, RSS feeds, or other sources
CastBox is our favorite mobile app to listen to millions of podcasts on so many topics, including real estate. The interface is clean and user-friendly and the app contains multiple features that make it easy to listen to our favorite real estate podcasts anywhere
Evernote is probably one of the most famous note taking app out there, available both on mobile, computer or online. This note taking tool will help you capture and prioritize ideas, projects and to-do lists, so you can stay organized
Microsoft 365 regroups under one convenient subscription all the essential Office apps (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote, Outlook, etc.) as well as 1TB of cloud storage (via OneDrive), which can be synchronized on all devices, for a starting price of $69.99 per year. A must have for any serious real estate investor!
Trello is a collaboration tool that organizes your projects and to-do into boards. In one glance, Trello tells you what’s being worked on, who’s working on what, and where something is in a process. Imagine a white board, filled with lists of sticky notes, with each note as a task for you and your team, that’s Trello
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