How to find the perfect investment property online ...

Hi all,

Firstly, thanks for all of you for you valuable insights. Although I am not a regular poster, I am a long term reader and have gained many valuable insights from post on both this forum and Somersoft before it.

I don't know if this is the best spot to post this question, but I am curious to know what online tools you all use to find investment properties that align with your investment strategies and meet your requirements. I personally find the major portals painful to use, as they are primarily geared towards the home purchasers who really wants to filter based on location, price and amenities of the property.

As an investor I am more interested in finding properties based on potential yield, rental desirability (proximity to schools, shops, etc.), price, potential for future capital gain (difficult) and potential for value-add (division, renovation, etc.).

I have looked at alternatives such as buyers agents, etc. but am keen to understand whether there are any reasonable online tools. I would welcome any suggestions.

 

I think most users here gravitate towards the major portals, could be that you just need to change up your approach.

You can work out gross yields on realestate.com.au... using the rental section, work out the average advertised yearly rent for the type of property you're targeting, then divide by the average sold price for those same types of properties, and you have the average gross yield for that area..

Rental desirability - realestate.com.au has a section that lists the vacancy rates for each suburb

Proximity to schools and amenities - google maps

Potential for value add / capital gain - If propertychat and somersoft aren't sufficient to teach you the fundamentals on asset selection, maybe try download a few podcasts, a lot of people best retain information when consumed aurally

These are the tools I use most when performing property research:

- realestate.com.au
- google maps / google earth
- council flood mapping
- rpdata / residex etc
- onthehouse.com.au
- commbank property app
- propertychat
- propertychat
- propertychat

 

Firstly understand property cycles (read the Trass book if you have not yet).
Once you have got your state narrowed down due to the cycle, find out your purchasing budget (talk to a broker).
Once you have your state and budget worked out, use realestate.com.au/invest to see what suburbs suit your budget and yield.

I put a list of them into an excel sheet with columns for
- suburb name
- dist to cbd
- price (for 3bd and 4bd houses since that is what I am interested in)
- yield (for 3bd and 4bd houses since that is what I am interested in)
- vacancy rate
- OO%
- Median household income

Then you pick a few adjoining suburbs, and for one at a time - use google maps to see the distance to CBD/beaches/trains/schools/parks and use a website to go through the last year of sold prices and look on the map to see which part of the suburb they are in since some suburbs have different priced parts which can be clearly visible when going through lots of past sales.
You also need to ask locals (can ask on this forum) which suburbs are low socio ecnomic housing suburbs to avoid. The edge of adjoining suburbs to these probably should also be avoided.
For vacancy rates, sqm reseearch.
After all of this, you should get a better feel for suburbs that suit your criteria.

Also I would recommend a couple of yardney books (rules of property & grow a portfolio in you spare time) so that you understand what criteria you should look for to maximise your investment return through understanding intrinsic value, buying below it, adding value, etc. Don't assume everything is spot on in the book (ie living of equity is not useful any more), but it does have a huge amount of helpful information. With that knowledge you can ask a BA if they know how to look for value add opportunities and if they help to project manage renovations.


> future capital gain

Long term growth drivers are:

Proximity
1. Proximity to the city
2. Proximity to the sea
3. Adjacent to a good suburb for ripple effect
4. Proximity (walking distance) to a train, shopping centre
5. Proximity to prestigious universities, schools, medical centres
6. Traffic congestion

Demographics
1. High OO
2. Family demographic
3. Socio-economic level of the population there
4. Crime rates

And zoning restrictions.​

Find something that suits a lot of those. Proximity to CBD being the biggest, and I think walking distance to train being next as population continues to grow so much in Australia to support the ageing population and high immigration to try and support it.


> potential for value-add (division, renovation, etc.).

You will need to learn about the zoning of the area you decide to purchase in. This is not so difficult, just a matter of actually looking for it.

 

Thanks Anthony and John,

I like your summary of the tools that you use. In fact I use many of them myself. I typically source properties through contacts or by trawling through domain/REA listings. Once I have found a prospective, I will run it through a series of due-diligence steps - financial, development risk, etc.

The key element that is missing for me in all of this though, is the ability to search for properties across Australia based on typical investment criteria.

Is anyone aware of any portals that provide something like this? For example, the ability to search based on anticipated yield?

 

Hi John, where on RE is the vacancy rates? I must have missed it but it would save jumping around sites.
I'm currently aware of sqm research but wasn't aware re had this info.
Thanks

 

Thanks Y-man. I wasn't aware of this site. Looks like a good option to find areas based on general criteria. It seems though, that we all have systems for finding properties that involve multiple steps and multiple sources.

The key piece that is missing for me is finding property listings that match my investment criteria. Will need to keep searching.

 

Yes and Yes. I use 3 or 4 paid and 3 or 4 free sites each week to stay abreast of everything. There is no perfect tool for everything/everyone. If it existed many of the best deals would not be as good as they are (ie arbitrage opportunities would be lessened) so I don't mind the inefficiencies in the marketplace. Finding really good deals is work - or so it turns out. You can take the time and develop a method that works for you or get help from someone who has developed one, either can work.

Maybe one day someone from the forum will design a super saas product? Ripehouse and Real estate investar are 2 of the niche products designed to help investors narrow the search by the numbers you might check them out. Jacob from Ripehouse is on this forum.

But the most common thing serious investors do is subscribe to either Pricefinder or Rp Data to at least get decent sales data history and genuine CMA in one place. That puts you ahead of 90% of investors who just buy on emotion or guessing.