518: How Safe is Your Neighborhood?

SHOW NOTES FOR EPISODE 518: HOW SAFE IS YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD?

Investing in high crime areas is not a smart real estate practice.  In fact, it can completely eliminate any potential cash flow for your rental property.  In today’s podcast, Bill shares free resources to help you determine just how safe your rental property neighborhood truly is.

Tip of the Week: Know the Rules and Regulations

There are plenty of regulations that investors uncover after being in the business for a while.  For example, you may be considering turning a basement into a second rental unit.  Little do you know that’s illegal in the state you own your property in.

You need to pay close attention to zoning laws, as they tend to differ in each local market.  For example, you want to think twice about converting the first floor of a building you buy into a co-working space because local zoning laws may prohibit it.

You never want to assume you can add another room or second story to a building.  Always verify first.

Even if you’re able to obtain a permit, you want to understand the degree of work required to get a permit before you start the process.

How Safe is Your Neighborhood?

Looking to cruise crime statistics before relocating or wanting to find safety initiatives nearby? We researched dozens of online neighborhood safety tools and narrowed them down to these top picks—all of which are free.

Neighborhood safety websites and apps can help create community-based safety networks. Whether you’re trying to track down a lost pet or solve missing-package mysteries, you have people on your side.

The tools we cover in this article have large crime-tracking components, but crime monitoring is just one piece of community safety. Learn more about community-building in our piece about staying safe in your neighborhood.

Check your intentions and impacts

Remember that community safety efforts come with social responsibility. Make sure you’re not spreading disinformation, and be careful not to racially profile or stereotype people you don’t recognize in your neighborhood

Think critically about how you use neighborhood safety tools. Are you using them to build or divide your community? When you find problems, are you helping fuel solutions?

AreaVibes

At a glance

AreaVibes helps you find the best place to live based on the factors you deem important.

How it works

Enter a state, city, neighborhood, or address into the AreaVibes search box, and the website instantly plots the location on a map and provides you with its livability score between one and 100.

The site also maps and ranks nearby areas according to their scores and compares your area’s livability score to state and national averages. AreaVibes also assigns locations a letter grade from F to A+ for each of seven livability factors, one of which is crime.

Unique feature

AreaVibes’ custom search function sets it apart from similar tools, allowing you to sort locations by livability factors such as crime, amenities, education, and housing.

If crime is most important to you, AreaVibes is a great way to quickly and easily compare the crime activity in several cities at once. It breaks crimes down by type, number of reported incidents, and crimes per 100,000 people.

The site also provides statistics about the area’s crime trends and shows how it compares to state and national crime statistics.

Cost

AreaVibes is free to use.

The Neighbors App

At a glance

The Neighbors App by Ring is one of the newest neighborhood tools on the scene. Created by Ring (known for their doorbell cameras and Ring Alarm home security system), the app aims to be an online neighborhood watch program.

How it works

You don’t have to be a Ring customer to use the free app. It uses reports by people in your neighborhood and local law enforcement to alert you to suspicious activities and crime events in your area. You can also anonymously contribute your own tips.

In addition to its neighborhood safety functions, you can submit or look for information on lost pets.

Unique feature

The unique feature for this app is more of a warning. Educate yourself on your privacy rights and Ring’s history with police partnerships before deciding if Neighbors is for you. Ring definitely has its privacy pros and cons to weigh, but its reputation for quality products also precedes it.

Cost

The Ring app is free of cost.

NeighborhoodScout

At a glance

NeighborhoodScout provides crime statistics and other important local data to help you decide if a neighborhood is right for you.

How it works

NeighborhoodScout helps you compare neighborhoods based on overall crime rate, violent crime rate, and property crime rate.

You can measure your neighborhood rates against those in other cities, as well as the state and national averages. Users can also outline a specific crime search area, whether by the distance around a city or by miles from an address.

Plus, NeighborhoodScout can tell you what the chances are of becoming a crime victim in your neighborhood—and compare that with the odds throughout the entire city and state.

Unique feature

NeighborhoodScout allows you to create a custom search for your new neighborhood. You simply identify a community that meets your qualifications, and it will find comparable neighborhoods in any state you choose.

Cost

While most of the information on NeighborhoodScout is free, the site charges a fee for detailed data and reports.

Family Watchdog

At a glance

Family Watchdog maps the addresses of registered sex offenders in your neighborhood.

How it works

Type a location or address into the website’s search box, and Family Watchdog generates a map pinpointing the address of nearby registered sex offenders.

Color-coded icons correspond to various sex crimes, including crimes against children, sexual battery, and rape. Click the icon and you’ll see a picture of the offender, learn their aliases, and find out what sex crime they’ve been convicted of.

If you’re looking for a specific individual, you can search for them by name.

Unique feature

Through the website, you can sign up for alerts whenever a registered sex offender moves in or out of your neighborhood. In addition to detailed information about offenders, this online tool offers personal safety tips, facts about sexual abuse, and a comprehensive blog and newsletter.

Cost

Family Watchdog is a free service, but you’ll be sent off-site to a subscription service if you want detailed background reports about any offenders.

CityProtect

At a glance

CityProtect maps crime data from more than 1,000 participating law enforcement agencies.

CrimeReports is now CityProtect

If you’re searching for CrimeReports, it’s now known as CityProtect.

How it works

Search CityProtect by region, address, zip code, or law enforcement agency to see a map with icons identifying recent police activity.

You can narrow down the search area to a specific neighborhood to reveal icons that signify different types of crime. When you click on an icon, you get a range of details about the incident, including type, location, date, and time.

Filters allow you to narrow your crime search by date range, day of the week, time of day, and incident type. With CityProtect, you can also sign up for periodic crime alerts, submit a tip, and register your home security camera.

Unique feature

If you zoom out of your neighborhood, CityProtect will show you crime incident trends, which are easy-to-read graphs showing the number of crimes that have occurred in an area over the last fifteen days.

Cost

CityProtect is free to use.

SpotCrime

At a glance

SpotCrime maps crimes and delivers crime alerts via email, Facebook, Twitter, and several other platforms.

How it works

SpotCrime gathers data from law enforcement agencies, news reports, and user tips to visually represent crime stats.

Crimes are represented by icons that make it easy to see what type of activity takes place in your neighborhood. When you click on an icon, you get the crime title, when and where it took place, and a link that directs you to the source where the data came from.

The source is usually the law enforcement agency that handled the incident. You can also search SpotCrime by state and follow links to a city’s crime maps, most-wanted page, and daily crime reports.

Unique feature

SpotCrime isn’t as robust as some of the other sites on our list, but we appreciate how user friendly and highly visual it is, giving the viewer a quick look at crime in their neighborhood. Plus, it allows users to report a crime or tip anonymously.

Cost

SpotCrime is free.

Other Methods

Drive the neighborhood

• Look at how things are kept (pride of ownership, cars on lawns)
• Check the local parks different hours of the day
• Liquor stores, people hanging out
• Visit local police precinct
  • Tell them the address
  • Get their opinion on how safe the neighborhood is

Well that’s it!

Reference:

https://www.safewise.com/blog/confirm-safety-neighboorhood-online-tools/

 

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