One of the biggest advantages of the preconstruction investment is that you have the opportunity to decide what kind of construction you should do. One way to decide how to make apreconstruction investment is to look at building trends, the local real estate market, and the amount of money you plan to invest. But how do you find and evaluate trends before you kick off your preconstruction investment?

There are three important words for you to remember as you’re investigating trends to help decide where your preconstruction investment dollars should be spent, and how to best use the preconstruction investment money. Those words are local, national and global. Having at least a basic understanding of how to find trends in all three of those markets will help you make the most of your preconstruction investment dollars.

The local market is at once the easiest and most difficult to analyze. It’s easy because you may know enough about your local market to have a good grasp of local trends. Knowing local trends is vital in deciding how to spend your preconstruction investment.

You can start at your local real estate offices and pick up local and regional newspapers. Take a look at what’s offered in the “for rent” and “for sale” advertising areas. Next, figure out what that information means. For example, if half of all rental ads are for duplexes, it may mean that most people in the area simply aren’t looking to rent duplexes. That’s a pretty good sign that it’s going to be difficult to keep a duplex rented, and that your preconstruction investment may get you better returns in single family houses or apartments.

Your local real estate agents will likely be very helpful, especially if they figure you might be in the market for an agent to market or manage your property after your preconstruction investment becomes a real house waiting for occupants.

It’s sometimes difficult to get a true picture of your local market, simply because you have preconceived notions about the properties most in demand and how your preconstruction investment can best be spent. Take a step back as you evaluate the local market, differentiating between what’s really in demand and what you expect to be in demand.

If you’re not necessarily looking to make your preconstruction investment in your area, you’re gong to need some help evaluating area markets. Again, newspapers and real estate agents from those areas can be a good place to start. You can also look at some official information sites to help you decide how your preconstruction investment should be spent.

The U.S. Census Bureau offers some good information online. When using this to determine your preconstruction investment plans, keep in mind that trends won’t really be evident in this type of information for several months. The beauty of the Census site is that you can go back over information for the past year or more, giving you a better look at long-term trends and patterns before you make preconstruction investments. You can choose to look at single family, one and two-family, or multi-family (up to four) unit homes. You can also look at housing starts and completions.

The Census also gives some information about foreign investments to help with your global analysis. This becomes more difficult, but you’ll find that there are lots of areas that your preconstruction investment would be well spent outside the US. Look for more information about new home starts (domestic and foreign) from the Census Bureau at http://www.census.gov/indicator/www/newresconst.pdf#search='new%20home%20starts%202005'