How I Find the Best Rental Property Markets in Under 10 Minutes

How do you find the perfect market every single time without fail?

I get asked this constantly. I've invested heavily in Moses Lake, Washington, in Ephrata, Washington, all over Mason County, Washington, and in Stephenville, Texas. We've made millions of dollars in each of those markets. And people want to know how I keep finding little towns nobody has heard of.

You can do the exact same thing in every state. It takes about ten minutes per state, it's free, and I'm going to walk you through the entire process using Georgia (a state I don't invest in) so you can see me do it cold.

Multifamily Is Supply and Demand. That's It.

Before the tools, understand what you're actually looking for.

Multifamily is supply and demand. That's the whole thing. It's housing for humans, so the only two questions that matter are: how many humans are here, and is that number trending upwards? And: is there enough housing supply to house all of them?

I want population going up. If population is decreasing, my houses are less in demand. If more people are moving in, the housing I control becomes more valuable. So we invest in places where people want to live, because we're providing housing for those people.

That's as simple as this is. Everything else in market research is downstream of that one relationship.

The second filter is size. I look for a population between 30,000 and 100,000 people. That's the sweet spot where I can come in and pretty much dominate the market.

That number isn't arbitrary. Below 30,000 you're in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, where demand is thin and a single employer leaving can change the whole picture. Above 100,000 (think Atlanta) there's a lot of population, but it's really hard to compete. In a 40,000-person town, a serious buyer with a real strategy can own a meaningful share of the good buildings. In a metro of millions, you're one of thousands of bidders.

So: population trending up, and between 30,000 and 100,000 people. Those two filters do most of the work.

Step One: World Population Review

All of this can be found on a site called World Population Review: worldpopulationreview.com. It has demographic statistics from all over the world, and it's the cheat code for this process.

Here's the run-through on Georgia.

Type in Georgia, then look at US cities in Georgia. Instantly you get a ranked list of every city in the state, and the best ones might not be the ones you'd expect.

First thing I do is rule out Atlanta for the reason above. Then I scan for towns in my 30,000 to 100,000 range, and in Georgia there are a lot of them that fit the bill.

The column I really care about is annual change. I want the highest growth cities in the state. I'm looking for 1% or more. Gainesville shows 3.2% and another entry at 2.51%. That's tons of growth.

Then there's Douglasville, which I'd never heard of and couldn't have placed on a map. Easy enough to check: click into it and look at the graph.

Since 1900, the population has only gone up, consistently, over time. People want to live here. That's exactly what I'm looking for.

The city page gives you more than the trend line. You get demographic information and income information. Douglasville looked like a reasonable income area with a fairly low poverty rate, especially for Georgia, so it's an area that seems to be doing well with lots of people moving in quickly. Population: 41,000: well within the size I like to invest in.

You can also sort the list by growth directly, which is the fastest way to build a target list. And the markets I don't want to invest in are anything that shows up red. That's your negative filter, and it takes about one second to apply.

Other Georgia names that jumped out doing this live: Warner Robins, obviously a big area with very high growth, and Newnan, which sits right around 43,000 people. Neither of those would have occurred to me before I opened the list.

Step Two: See What's Actually for Sale

Once I've found a market that's interesting, I want to figure out who has deals there before I even start looking for owners to network with.

So I go to Crexi. Crexi is a listing site much like LoopNet. Type in Douglasville, Georgia, set the property type to multifamily, and you get listings plus a big map.

The map answered a question immediately: Douglasville is close to Atlanta but not in Atlanta. It's the outer reach of that metroplex. That's useful context I didn't have thirty seconds earlier, and it explains the growth curve.

There was a deal available: 24 units at $2.7 million. Not a whole lot of information on the listing itself, but it does have the brokerage name on it. In this case, Reena Patel.

That name is arguably worth more than the listing. This may be exactly the type of person who lists apartments like this one, and that listing might not be the only thing she's aware of. I want to start networking with brokers in the areas I'm most interested in, and a listing page is a free introduction to a broker who's already working the market you just picked.

Do the same thing for Gainesville: the one with the 3.2% growth rate. There was only one multifamily listing there at the time, but now I can also see where Gainesville actually is. It's a little farther outside of Atlanta, almost as far out as Athens, which is a strong market in its own right. And there was a deal there too.

Within a few minutes I'd found two listed properties in two high-growth areas, in a state I don't invest in, knowing nothing about either town when I started.

Then I ran Athens, Georgia, to see the range. There are $10 million properties and there are $300,000 properties. That tells me quickly what's out there and lets me start making connections in any single market anywhere in the country.

Related reading: The Hub Strategy: How to Find Rental Deals in Any U.S. Market

Why This Works

None of this is underwriting. I'm not doing a deep dive on any of these deals, and that's the point. This step is about building a list.

It doesn't take that long to go through the high-growth markets in a state, filter to 1% or more annual growth, keep the 30,000 to 100,000 population range, discard anything red, and then jump into Crexi city by city and property by property.

At the end of that you have two things you didn't have before: a short list of towns where demand is provably increasing, and the names of the brokers who list apartments in them. The deals come from the relationships you build with those brokers and with owners in those markets. The research just tells you where to point.

This is how I'm finding cities all over the country that most people have never heard of. And it works because at the end of the day, it's housing for humans. It's supply and demand. Go where the people are going.

Key Takeaways

• Multifamily is supply and demand. Ask how many humans are in a market, whether that number is rising, and whether the supply exists to house them.
• Target populations between 30,000 and 100,000. Small enough to dominate, big enough to have real demand, and skip the Atlantas, where competition is brutal.
• Use worldpopulationreview.com to list every city in a state, sort by annual change, and look for 1% or better. Anything showing red is out.
• Click into the city page. A population graph that has only gone up since 1900, plus decent income data and a low poverty rate, is a market worth a closer look.
• Use Crexi (or LoopNet) to see what's listed in that town. The map also shows you where the town actually sits relative to the nearest metro.
• The broker name on a listing is the real prize. The person who listed one apartment building in that market probably knows about others.

Watch the full video to see me do all of this live, screen by screen, in a state I've never invested in. If you want the rest of the framework, there's a free course on getting started in multifamily investing, and a free Skool community that comes with a deal calculator. For the deeper version of this work, you can learn about my mentorship through the link in original episode description.

0:00 How do you find the perfect market every
0:02 single time without fail? I've invested
0:05 heavily in Moses Lake, Washington, in
0:07 Fredo, Washington, in Mason County,
0:09 Washington, all over that county, in
0:12 Stevenville, Texas, and we've made
0:14 millions of dollars in each of these
0:15 markets. How do you find these little
0:17 towns? I get this all the time. How are
0:19 you finding these cities, these small
0:21 towns that I've never heard of, and
0:22 you're making all this money? Well, you
0:24 can do the same thing in every state,
0:25 but first, you have to understand is all
0:26 about supply and demand. All we're
0:28 looking for for the perfect market is
0:31 population is consistently going up and
0:32 it's not a tiny tiny tiny town in the
0:34 middle of nowhere. So I look for
0:36 population between 30 and 100,000 people
0:39 is the sweet spot for me where I can
0:40 come in and usually pretty much dominate
0:43 the market. All we're looking for at the
0:45 population growth is here's what multif
0:48 family is. It's supply and its demand.
0:52 That's it.
0:54 If demand is going up, it's housing for
0:56 humans. So, how many humans are here?
0:58 And is that trending upwards?
1:02 Is there enough housing supply to house
1:04 all of them? I want population going up
1:06 because if it's decreasing now, my
1:08 houses are less in demand. If more
1:10 people are moving in, the housing that I
1:12 control is more valuable. So, we want to
1:14 invest in places where people want to
1:16 live since you're providing housing for
1:18 those people. That's as simple as this
1:19 is. This can be found on something
1:21 called World Population Reviewed.
1:25 So, here it is. here. Worldpopreview.com
1:27 has statistics of uh demographics from
1:30 all over the world. There's a cheat code
1:32 here
1:33 town that or a state that I don't invest
1:35 in. Georgia.
1:38 So, let's type Georgia.
1:40 If we look at US cities in Georgia, I
1:44 can instantly find all of the best
1:46 cities. And they might not be all the
1:47 ones that you would think. So, the first
1:49 thing I'm doing, I don't want to invest
1:51 in Atlanta. Lot of population, really
1:54 hard to compete. I'm looking for again
1:57 30 to 100,000 people. There's a lot of
1:59 towns that fit this bill. The other
2:01 thing I'm looking at annual change. I
2:03 want to see some of the highest growth
2:05 cities. Gainesville 3.2.51.
2:08 Now, I've never heard of a Douglasville.
2:10 I don't actually know where this is
2:11 located, but
2:13 pretty easy to snag here. So,
2:14 Douglasville. We'll go ahead and click
2:15 on it. What does the graph look like? Oh
2:18 my goodness. People want to live here.
2:21 This is perfect. This is absolutely
2:23 perfect. So since the n since 1900
2:27 population has only gone up consistently
2:31 over time I would not be surprised if
2:33 this is relatively close to Atlanta. You
2:34 have demographic information you have
2:36 income information on people which
2:38 reasonable income area that's considered
2:41 a fairly low poverty rate especially for
2:43 Georgia. So this is an area that is
2:46 seems to be doing really well. Lots of
2:48 people move in really quickly. I've
2:51 found a market that's interesting.
2:52 41,000 people. that's well within the
2:54 size that I like to invest in. Let's
2:56 learn a little bit more about it. If I'm
2:57 looking for listings, the next thing I
2:59 want to do is I want to start figuring
3:00 out who has deals here before I even
3:02 start looking for the owners to network
3:03 with them. Let's see what's for sale in
3:06 the area. Go somewhere like Kraxy. Now,
3:08 Kraxy is a listing site much like
3:10 Loopnet. You type in Douglasville,
3:12 Georgia, and look at that. There's a
3:14 multif family building on the market and
3:16 a big old map. Douglasville. It is close
3:18 to Atlanta. It's not in Atlanta, but
3:20 this is just outside of Atlanta.
3:23 Interesting. So, it's looks like it's
3:25 the outer reach of this metroplex. There
3:27 is a deal available here. Let's take a
3:29 quick look.
3:31 24 units, $2.7 million. Not a whole lot
3:36 of information here on it. I do have
3:39 brokerage name, Reena Patel.
3:41 This may be the type of person, we don't
3:43 know yet, who lists apartments exactly
3:47 like this. This might not be the only
3:48 thing that she's aware of. I want to
3:50 start networking with brokers in the
3:52 areas that we're most interested in. We
3:53 can do the same thing in Gainesville.
3:54 Gainesville, Georgia. That was the other
3:56 like 3.2% growth rate. Tons of growth. I
3:59 don't know where Gainesville is. We'll
4:01 switch our property type back to multif
4:03 family. Only currently one listing there
4:06 listed on multif family. But now I can
4:08 look at Okay. Well, where is a
4:09 Gainesville? Is this an area I'm
4:10 interested in? This is a little farther
4:13 outside of Atlanta. almost as far as
4:15 Athens, which by the way, strong market.
4:19 There's a deal here.
4:21 Right now, we just found two listed
4:23 properties in two high growth areas
4:25 immediately, very quickly. Now, I don't
4:28 know all that much about these. We're
4:30 not This isn't all about underwriting
4:31 and getting a deep dive on all these
4:33 different deals, but I can do the same
4:35 thing for any other town. Athens,
4:36 Georgia. Let's take a look.
4:40 What do we have for multif family out in
4:42 Athens?
4:44 and it can go through. Okay, there's $10
4:47 million properties,
4:49 there's $300,000 properties. I can
4:52 quickly see what is out there and start
4:54 making connections in any single market
4:56 anywhere in the country. It doesn't take
4:58 that long to just go through the high
4:59 growth markets and I'm really looking
5:01 for 1% or more. You can go through that
5:03 list and again that is on Krexy. You hop
5:06 right in and you can go through property
5:09 by property,
5:11 city by city. Which one's interesting?
5:14 Warner Robbins.
5:16 Obviously quite a big area, very high
5:19 growth. Would be interested in checking
5:21 that out. The city of Newman,
5:25 check it out. 43 population. You can
5:28 sort by growth as well.
5:31 This is a fantastic way to put together
5:32 your list. And the areas I don't want to
5:34 invest in are anything that shows up
5:36 red.
5:37 It's that easy. Clean, simple, super
5:40 fast way. Find your cities. This is how
5:42 I'm finding cities all over the country
5:43 that people may not have even heard of.
5:45 And we make millions and millions of
5:46 dollars cuz we understand at the end of
5:49 the day, it's housing for humans. It's
5:51 supply and demand. Let's go with people.