Do any of you concentrate on only 1 or 2 Suburbs?

i would be interested to know how many if you only concentrate on only one or 2 suburbs?
Yesterday i was up on the Central Coast looking at the infamous Gorokan Drive a suburb in Lake Haven Central Coast NSW.

I met a guy who Was a property investor and I asked him about The street named d Gorokan Drive and he commented that street was his "cut off" point and only invests in Gorokan South and towards Kanwal, never ever in other suburbs.

"How do you expect to become a expert if your all over the place " he says.
"Plus I live here in Kanwal so I know the bad parts and good parts" he said.

Then it got me thinking , how many property investors are the same?
The benefits are you become an exoert on the area, the streets , the future etc.

 

I'm an expert in about 10 suburbs. As in, I know them back to front and have spent hours driving around and / or trawling Google Maps. Generally I focus my complete attention on about half of those, but I am always keeping an eye on about 10.

 

If you would have bought just a couple more on that street you would have the option of partying loud past midnight without issues

 

There are great benefits as you have stated. What if you don't want to invest where you live? Maybe its too volatile or other areas have better prospects.
The advantage of buying locally is you may know the market extremely well but the downside is exposure to only one market.
If your chosen market is going nowhere for a number of years your missing out on growth elsewhere as different cities have different cycles as we know.
At one point nearly a third or fourth of all resales in Qld of properties purchased in the last 5 years were for prices below their original asking price while Sydney has boomed.

 

There are other risks associated with concentration of assets for example:
Rezoning of adjacent land which allows unfavorable development which devalues your properties, upgrading of roads or rail lines etc The possible risks are endless but unlikely, what about people who may have owned several properties in their once blue chip streets in Chelmer prior to 2011?
Having large sums of money tied up in one asset is enough concentration risk for me without trying to buy up the entire street although I do acknowledge the benefits.

 

The eastern half of Melbourne is a big area so not too concentrated IMO unless your talking about only 1 or 2 suburbs or worse streets?

 

Must have been a little frustrating @wylie. Knowing that she's probably going to be better off ignoring them and going with you but at the same time nothing you can do bout it, and you lost a deal too. Well there's always another one round the corner, literally for you, in this case

 

[ Youngest son has just bought as a result of my searches, so will probably remove searches. I hate seeing something good and thinking "is that better than the one he bought?"[/QUOTE]

Yes good idea to remove. I hate when you spend ages on researching something you want to buy like aTV or some such thing around the house, then finally commit and go and buy it only to find it cheaper in the next store/catalogue the week after! Make a point of not looking at anything now after I have bought!

 

Hi Samten,

I think a small element of buyers remorse may also creep in there.

 

I don’t limit myself to a particular suburbs but there are definitely a handful of suburbs that I’ll check on every week and the suburbs I want to invest in I’ll have a look on real esate.com and Domain each day to see if they have any new listings etc. Currently I’m looking to purchase in one particular suburb but if I see a good deal come up in a nearby suburb I’ll be happy to go ahead with it. I guess I do limit myself to regions though since currently I’m not looking to purchase anything interstate.

 

I buy in the same general area. I know this is a somewhat flawed strategy as you increase your risk and limit your opportunities but I am able to buy with confidence in this area and hope my knowledge allows me to make money on the buy that i may miss out on in more diverse areas where i know less about.

I also do a lot of reno work, maintenance and property management myself so buying close to where i live does have some additional value.

 

Not necessarily there can be very different markets with in the same suburb, there can be similar markets in different suburbs

 

Possibly, but it doesn't alter the geographic risk associated with concentration of assests to unforeseen events.

 

I'm the same as most in here and limited to one region or handful of suburbs...

How does one look for investment opportunities in other capital cities??? I feel like i should be doing more (ie Brissy), but how to start?

 

Laziness has made me stick to my suburb. Fortunately, it has proven to be a good place to buy. I previously bought in Tasmania and regional NSW, but sold them. I also feel I should look further afield again, but I struggle to muster the enthusiasm.
Scott