Hey guys,
I'm looking to purchase 1-2 more investment properties this year and was wondering how you guys usually determine where to even start looking. Because I work part time only at the moment (although pretty much full time hours) I only have a limited amount of time to play with. In NSW alone there are thousands of suburbs and I'm thinking at this stage it would be to look at certain cities first (Sydney, Bathurst, Newcastle etc) and then narrowing it down to area (Western Sydney, Inner City etc) and then narrowing it down further to the suburb and then street. Do you think this is a good idea? If so is there a way of using internet resources to do that? What methods do you guys use in determining where your next property will be purchased? What resources are available in this area? I only know of SQM Research, Suburbview, domain, and that Genworth site. Any other ones that have been useful?
At this stage the goal is a good capital gain area, and I'm not worried if the place is at neutral or slightly negative cash flow. My budget is up to 500k (using 90%) per property.
There are quite a few systems out that based on postcode categories – one I used in the UK was Mosaic which enabled picking out similar demographic data from different suburbs in key towns – thus narrowing search areas for similar investment opportunities – in my case three bed Victorian terraces which I had some experience in renovating. In Australia I work with McCarthy Group who have some excellent tools for this.
I feel exactly the same way Dennis. I have been reading lots of information, read umpteen books and watched several videos and DVD's on property investing and am starting to feel like I have a much better idea of what I want to achieve and how to achieve it but have absolutely no idea how to find the starting point for what I want. There are so many suburbs to investigate and what makes it hard is that you don't know what you don't know.
Unless you start to come to grips with the idea of paying someone to help you with this information, I don't think anyone truly has the time to go through thousands of suburbs to find properties that fit your criteria without specialist help.
I am currently waiting to hear back from Real Wealth Australia, hoping to get offered one of their home study packages. I have looked at a few different offerings from different companies and investing gurus and I feel Helen from Real Wealth, her approach seems the most genuine and suits me the best.
I don't want to get to a point where I hit information overload and burn out and not achieve anything.
I already have 2 IP's that are about neutral, possibly cash flow positive now, but they are setup up a bit awkwardly. I wanted to avoid this with my next properties so hence the education.
Is there anyone out there who has a method to finding the right suburb(s) to invest in that suit your specific goals?
Agree with the above posts – it takes quite a bit of time to find appropriate suburbs, and even more to learn the suburb inside out.
You need to invest a lot of time in being dead certain of the demand for different dwelling types (eg 1 bedroom units vs 3 bedroom houses), the demand for different streets, and the demand for different construction types (eg brick, vs weatherboard, vs fibro).
If you are going to take on your own research it's really an all-in thing. Lots of time needs to go into spending every Saturday going through as many open for inspections as you can, and every other day researching from afar. The dilemma is understanding the market and getting into it before the time for buying into your proposed target suburb is no longer ripe.
Work backwards – work out what your end goal is and by when this must happen. This will help you understand how much time you have to allocate to the cause. Might be an idea to weigh up the cost of spending all your time on this, and how much petrol and such you'll spend racing around, versus the cost of hiring a professional to assist you.
Jacqui Middleton | Middleton Buyers Advocates
http://www.middletonbuyersadvocates.com.au
Email Me | Phone MeVIC Buyers' Agents for investors, home buyers & SMSFs.
There comes a time in your investing journey when you have to engage the services of fellow professionals.
Sure you can spend every minute of the day reading, re-searching and viewing various properties however you have to decide what time is worth and how much you potentially could loose by missing opportunities,
Often I say to potential clients they could go and research every lender, ring up their credit departments try and ascertain the right structure to suit their current situation check out mortgage insurers policy etc etc however in the main most don't have the time or the ability to do so. Most accept this and use our services.
Sourcing a property requires a similar skill set and one i would personally suggest using someone who does this for clients.
Remember use someone who has done it once or twice before and built their own portfolio and not doing it solely to feather own nest.
Cheers
Yours in Finance
Richard Taylor | Australia's leading private lender
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