How to Use Mashvisor to Find and Analyze Short-Term Rental Properties

Mashvisor is a valuable tool that can help you find and analyze short-term rental properties. With its precise rental data and user-friendly interface, it offers an alternative to services like AirDNA and Roofstock. Let’s take a closer look at how you can make the most of Mashvisor’s features to inform your investment decisions.

Here’s how to use Mashvisor:

1. Start with Mashvisor’s Property Finder

On Mashvisor’s homepage, you’ll find multiple selections under product overview. The two you’ll use are property analysis and property finder. But, once you play around with both, you’ll see that they are identical options with the same results.

You can search in multiple ways.

One way is a Mashvisor’s map search. Click here to go to Mashvisor’s property search by map. It allows you to filter properties based on various criteria to find the best investment opportunities that align with your goals. Clicking each filter within the heap map overlays a heat map in your market. It provides a quick, easy to understand visual image of market activity. Apply filters such as cash on cash return, cap rate, budget, rental income (traditional and Airbnb), property type, neighborhood, and status. All the basic investment data is included, such as rental income, expenses, cash flow, cap rate, etc. You can also click through to see your property’s neighborhood analytics from here. Narrow down your search by utilizing these filters and focus on properties that have the potential to generate optimal returns on investment.

Mashvisor also gives you heat map filters. These are the options to filter by cash on cash returns for either traditional rentals or Airbnb rentals, Airbnb versus traditional income, list price and Airbnb occupancy rates. Note: Heat map filters only come with the standard ($69.99 per month when paid quarterly) and professional ($99.99 per month when paid quarterly) plans.

Investment properties show current homes for sale. Traditional listings show the current rents for the properties that are listed. The Airbnb tab shows currently listed short term rentals on Airbnb sites.

You can also search using Mashvisor’s property finder. Click here for Mashvisor’s property finder search tool.

Mashvisor’s property finder tool offers a comprehensive search experience geared towards real estate investors. Users can set a variety of parameters such as location, miles range, budget, and rental strategy to pinpoint properties that match their investment goals. The tool further refines the search with filters for property type, number of bedrooms, and bathrooms. These targeted filters help users zero in on properties with the highest potential for optimal returns, streamlining the search process.

In addition to these basic search criteria, the property finder also provides estimated values and cash-on-cash returns for both long-term and short-term rental strategies. This multi-faceted information empowers investors to make well-informed decisions without the need for multiple platforms.

From here, you can click on individual properties that interest you as short-term rentals.

Benefits of Mashvisor’s Property Finder:

• Streamlined property search process
• Customizable filters to match your investment goals
• Efficiently identify properties with high-profit potential

2. Analyze Individual Properties

Clicking a property in the map brings up the individual property page. On the right side, it shows the property valuation analytics for either renting the property as a traditional rental home or Airbnb. Mashvisor provides you with detailed analytics to help you make informed decisions. Access property valuation data for both traditional and Airbnb rentals, giving you a comprehensive understanding of the potential return on investment. Additionally, explore neighborhood analytics to assess market conditions and evaluate the investment potential of the area.

Most sections on this profile page help you calculate different data, such as expenses, cash flow and cap rates, for different rent rates and mortgage calculations.

Mashvisor’s property profile page breaks down into multiple sections:

• Rental Strategy
• Extended Listing Strategy
• Expenses
• Mortgage calculator
• Investment Payback Balance
• Return on improvements
• Rental Comps and Insights

As you filter, the property finder search results pull up the best profiles matching your criteria AND having the highest cash on cash rates for either traditional rentals or short-term rentals. This gives you a very quick overview of the current market and helps find undervalued homes. According to Mashvisor, it “utilizes AI technologies and machine-learning algorithms to give you suggestions for the properties that match your needs the most.” We don’t know how accurate their AI (which is a hot word these days, so we can’t be sure it isn’t just marketing) and algorithms are, but at least it gives you a broad, bird’s-eye view of your market.

Mashvisor populates the rental analysis with their own rental data. However, if you find that their average rent is off, or if the occupancy rate is off, you can change those numbers. Mashvisor will then generate a new cash on cash rate.

Tip: Mashvisor, of course, claims their rental data is accurate. However, it always serves you well to cross-check this data with your additional sources. Being off by $100 on a rental estimate can throw your cash on cash rate off by a lot. Pull up your own data through available internet sources, make a spreadsheet and compare the rental rates.

As with any of these short-term rental services, such Airbnb, Roofstock, Mashvisor, etc., you get more accurate rental data the more you drill down on your competition. While Mashvisor gives basic info on the rental comps, you really need to go into each one and figure out what makes their occupancy rates and nightly rates higher or lower for properties in your area. It could be waterfront locations that make daily rates higher. Perhaps there’s better access to downtown, better transportation, etc. It pays to do the extra research on rent comps. You may undervalue or overvalue your property if you don’t.

In essence, the profile page is a collection of spreadsheets in a more user-friendly presentation. This supplements your understanding of the market. But, one advantage that will really help you focus on where to buy a short-term rental are the previous mentioned heat maps.

Benefits of Analyzing Individual Properties with Mashvisor:

• Evaluate the profitability of specific properties
• Compare traditional vs. Airbnb rental options
• Assess the investment potential of specific neighborhoods

3. Save and Compare Properties

Mashvisor allows you to save properties of interest by using the heart-shaped icon. This feature enables you to keep track of properties that catch your attention and revisit them later for further analysis. Additionally, you can compare up to four properties across different markets, facilitating a side-by-side comparison of key metrics such as cap rate and cash on cash return. This feature empowers you to make data-driven decisions by easily identifying the most lucrative investment opportunities.

Benefits of Saving and Comparing Properties with Mashvisor:

• Organize and store potential investment options
• Easily compare multiple properties to identify the best investment opportunity

4. Supplement Mashvisor with Additional Research

While Mashvisor provides valuable data and insights, it’s important to supplement it with additional research to ensure comprehensive decision-making. Reach out to real estate agents, leverage platforms like hotpads or  Craigslist for market insights, track market trends, and stay updated with the latest news in the industry. Utilizing multiple sources of information will help you gain a holistic understanding of the market and make well-informed investment decisions.

Benefits of Supplementing Mashvisor with Additional Research:

• Obtain local market expertise from real estate agents
• Gain insights from the community through platforms like Craigslist
• Stay up-to-date with market trends and industry news

By leveraging Mashvisor’s powerful property finder, analyzing individual properties, saving and comparing properties, and supplementing it with additional research, you can maximize your real estate investment potential and make informed decisions with confidence.

5. Limitations of Mashvisor

While Mashvisor offers a range of valuable features, it is important to be aware of its limitations. One significant drawback is the inability to export property data to a CSV or spreadsheet. This limitation can present challenges, particularly for investors managing a significant number of potential properties. In fact, this might verge on deal breaker or significant obstacle. Every investor is (or should be) using a spreadsheet or other software tracker to maintain their investments. Excel and Google Sheets integration should be table stakes for any investment software in 2023.

However, it is worth noting that Mashvisor does provide the option to export data to PDF and share properties via email, which can still be useful for organizing and sharing information.

Also, in the neighborhood maps page, Mashvisor allows exporting for neighborhood listings. If you can keep track of your saved properties and use this export function, this may be a workaround to getting all your properties in an Excel, Google Sheets or CSV format.

Once you have identified a list of saved property profiles, you can use Mashvisor’s contact agent button to contact them for more information.

It is also important to consider that the export feature is available only in the standard and professional plans. Each plan has different restrictions on the number of exports per month. This limitation can impact investors who require frequent data exports for more extensive analysis or comparison.

Despite these limitations, Mashvisor remains a powerful tool for real estate investors looking for accurate rental data, analytics, and property insights. While the inability to export to a CSV or spreadsheet may be a drawback for some investors, the platform’s other features and benefits may outweigh this limitation, depending on individual investment needs and preferences.

Investors who require extensive export capabilities may need to consider alternative options or supplement Mashvisor with additional tools or methods to effectively manage and analyze larger portfolios of potential properties.

Mashvisor Price and Free Trial Details

Is Mashvisor Worth It?

Mashvisor is an effective tool for finding and analyzing short-term rental properties. Its precise rental data and user-friendly interface make it a convenient option for investors. However, consider its limitations and conduct further research to make well-informed investment decisions. For instance, it can’t be ignored. AirDNA definitely is the leader for short-term rental analytics. Yet, there isn’t just one service that gives you all the answers.

Of course, the better data you can find, the more accurate your investment projections. Services such as Mashvisor help a lot. However, don’t forget old-fashioned methods such as contacting and talking to agents, Craigslst, Google trends and even reading the news. These can all help you make better informed investment decisions on your next short-term rental.

Overall, at $29.99 per month, Mashvisor is worth considering. You could make that $30 back on your first couple nights renting out your short-term rental, so it seems worth it.