If every deal you look at won't pencil, you're looking in the wrong market
The Emerging Market Finder is two short videos and the exact AI prompt I use to find cities where rents are turning up, before the competition shows up.
I call the Recovery phase of the market cycle the millionaire maker. Rents start rising for the first time after years of going flat or down.
Get instant access$27 · 2 videos + the AI prompt · 30-day money-back guarantee
You found a listing, ran the numbers, and it didn't work. So you found another one, and that one didn't work either.
The price is too high for the rents, and the only way it works is if you fudge the spreadsheet. After twenty of those, you start wondering if you're the problem.
You're fishing in a market the smart money got to years ago. What's left are the scraps.
Every market moves through four phases. The money gets made by buying in Recovery, when the jobs come back, concessions go away and rents tick up for the first time. Every dollar of rent you add raises the building's value 10 to 15 times that amount, so rising rents do the heavy lifting.
Timing matters more than most people think. Buy in Orlando from 2000 to 2006 and your property went up over 130%. Buy in the same city from 2007 to 2012 and you lost almost half.
I used to find these markets by hand, Googling and calling economic development offices. These days one prompt does the first pass. When I ran it, it took 3 minutes and 34 seconds and handed back a list of cities, the phase each one is in, and source links to check.
AI does the digging. You verify it.
Set your radius
Metros of a million people or more, within a two to three hour drive or flight of home.
Run the prompt
Paste it into ChatGPT. It comes back with the cities in Recovery or Expansion, their job growth, who's moving in, and links to the sources.
Check it with the city
Every city has an economic development council. Their website, or one phone call, tells you why the growth is happening.
Pick two markets and your pitch
Four answers turn into a paragraph you can say to any investor who asks why you picked that city.
What you'll know by the end
- The one signal that tells you a city just hit Recovery. Everything else just backs it up.
- The building permit spike that warns you a market is about to flood with new supply, and why that's when I'd rather sell than buy.
- Why a town of 25,000 that lands a $5 billion plant can still crush you three years later.
- The four questions to answer about any city before you put a dime of investor money into it.
- What to say when you call the economic development council, word for word. They'll talk your ear off.
- How to answer "why that city?" with facts an investor can Google for themselves.
If you can copy, paste and Google, you can do this.
They picked the market first, then bought the building
These are students from my coaching program, the Jones Inner Circle. They pick markets with the same method you're getting here.
Max
37 units at 12% cash on cash
Max bought a 37-unit building in an emerging market. Then he added 92 more units in the next 6 months.
Karl
From 8 units to 160, all in El Paso
Karl bought 8 units in his first 3 months and added 29 more two months later. He closed on 123 more before the year was out.
Nick
A 257-unit first deal
Nick came from single-family. His first apartment purchase was 257 units in Houston, a $50 million acquisition, and he earned a 2% acquisition fee on it.
Shawn
From 24 units to 256
Shawn's first deal was 24 units in an emerging market. He's grown to 256 units since.
Why I teach it this way
I'm Hugh Jones. I own 338 apartment units, and I've picked my markets this way since 2008, first by hand and now with this prompt.
Hugh
Years of research by hand, now one prompt
The wrong market can cost you years. Finding the right one costs less than dinner out.
Fill in the secure checkout below. You'll get both videos and the prompt right away.
Run the prompt. If it doesn't help, get your $27 back.
Watch both videos and run the prompt for your own area. If you don't walk away knowing where you'd buy and why, reach out inside 30 days and I'll send your $27 back. You don't have to explain yourself.
Questions
Do I need to pay for ChatGPT?
No. The free version works. The paid version is $20 a month if you want it.
How long does this take?
The two videos run about 20 minutes together, and the prompt takes a few minutes to answer. Checking the results with each city takes as long as you want to dig.
What if I already live in a big city?
If your metro has a million people or more, make it one of your two markets, whatever phase it's in. Being able to see the properties and meet your team face to face is a big edge. Pick your second market in Recovery if you can.
Is this a subscription?
No. It's $27 once.
Stop fighting over the scraps
Get to the market before the competition shows up, and start looking at deals where the numbers have a shot.
Get instant accessP.S. Run the prompt today and in a few minutes you'll have a list of cities near you that are turning up, with the sources to back it. It's $27, and the 30-day guarantee covers it.