Ep. 183: Predicting the Best Real Estate Markets Following the Coronavirus with Neal Bawa

podcast April 17, 2020

Finding the best places for real estate and multifamily investing has always been at the core of Target Market Insights. While the market research focuses on key variables such as population growth, job growth and other factors, the coronavirus (COVID-19) will leave an undeniable impact and alter the future of these markets. To gain a glimpse into which markets will thrive in a post-COVID-19 world, we tapped Neal Bawa, The Mad Scientist of Multifamily.

Neal is a data guru, process freak and outsourcing expert. He views his $250MM multifamily portfolio as an ongoing experiment in efficiency and optimization. Neal was a guest back on Episode 99, where he discussed the Top Multifamily Markets, so it was appropriate to tap Neal to share how the coronavirus will impact his view going forward. In this episode, we talk about the key criteria he uses to identify markets, how COVID-19 may impact top markets, which markets and submarkets he expects to thrive and tips to navigate current market dynamics.

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Key Insights

How the power and major tax benefits of real estate investing opened his eyes to the opportunities.
How he built a data metrics system Location Magic to find best cities and best neighborhoods based on metrics.
The best markets in 2019: Utah (Salt Lake City, Provo), Florida – I4 corridor, Tampa.
How the top markets have changed in the last 2 months.
How to find growing markets based on 5 principals: Growth in population, income, home price, employment and crime reduction.
Coronavirus is a true Black Swan Event. It threatens to totally upset the numbers apple cart, but it should only last 6 – 12 months.
The new important factors affecting real estate markets today.
Ways to study markets during the Coronavirus and find the advantages. (example: TX is a great market but now is hit with the biggest oil collapse of all time).
Red states vs. Blue states during the Coronavirus and how that affects real estate markets.
Pay attention to how the federal government is handling the $2T dollar bill to understand who is being bailed out and translate that into the states that benefit from those bailouts.
Top Markets to pay attention to coming out of COVID-19 and understanding the underlying drivers that will influence growth and success.
The opportunities you will see in Q3: Neal’s advice – DON’T FREEZE, stay in the game!
Sellers are selling now for important reasons and how to take advantage of it.
Rumors of a recession, how does Neal feel about that?
Be prudent, but never use the worst-case scenario to make your business decisions.