Tools of the trade for investing - Suggestions?

Any suggestions from the seasoned investors out there about what tools to use when buying, selling or managing your property/properties?

Being a novice I generally use realestate.com.au to check out recent sale prices and other listing prices, onthehouse.com.au to get the last sale price and for property management.......... NetBank and a WordDoc!

TC

 

Buying I use group subscription to Pricefinder (or you could use RPData) for detailed property/street or suburb information. I don't sell or manage myself so can't comment.
I use Libre Office spreadsheet to record all IP income and expenses for tax time.

 

I occasionally use RP Data at work (just for ownership info and rough price guide) but haven't used Pricefinder before, which do you prefer?

 

One of the best 'tools' I have found is investing in books specifically around negotiation tactics and the like. From personal experience I know It can make a huge difference in the outcome and as you gain more experience, it will become second nature. Just my opinion.

 

Which books would you recommend?

 

@Tim & Chrissy Well some of the ones I have studied are:

Secrets of Power Negotiating - inside secrets from master negotiator, by Roger Dawson

Negotiating Secrets, by David Brown

A property investor's guide to negotiating, by John Potter

The negotiation book, By Stave Gates

Trump Style negotiation, by George Ross

 

Number 3 looks like a good one to start with. Might starting dropping hints to the wife for Chrissy

 

onthehouse.com.au has recently changed and isn't as good as it used to be.
There is a thread with a list of useful websites somewhere around here.

 

do you mean this one?
What websites/resources do you use for DD?

 

That is not the exact one I had in mind - but full marks for effort!

 

GOOGLE and realestate.com.... are two online tools that I use but the best tool is hitting the ground and visiting the area you are interested in.

When negotiating the best thing that works for me is communicating with the agent and try and develop a relationship.

 

The wife and I enjoy hitting the ground and going through the open homes. The only issue we have is that our 2, 4, 6 & 8 year old love the open homes/display homes for all of 30 minutes and then they've had enough!

I can normally develop a good rapport with the agents, I just don't like the ones who put me through the ringer when negotiating (I do like those ones when I comes time to sell though!)

 

Pricefinder and RPData are basically the same. I have used both and I actually prefer RPData's search features over pricefinder. Some people on this forum have stated pricefinder updates slightly faster than RPData however I haven't noticed this myself. Using pricefinder at the moment only because it was cheaper than RPData. End of the day either of them are great tools when playing this investment game of ours.

 

Nailed it! By far the most important skill in any form of business.
Reading can give you a foundation but like anything without application it is somewhat useless. If your work does not encompass negotiation you can still practice it, you will be surprised how much in this world is open to negotiation. Next time you go to buy some clothes, see if you can get them to knock of even $5, in most cases the answer will be NO, but just keep plugging away. You may not be able to get a discount but you may and you also get the experience.

Another thing you can do is start making offers on homes well below asking price. The agent will always answer no but get it in writing and they must present it to the client and it gets negotiations started. This has two key benefits, one (and key here is ensuring you have the finances) is you may actually get an absolute steal on a property but two you will acquire critical negotiation skills. For safety throw in a subject to due diligence clause and if they do accept and your not comfortable then you can pull out "failed due diligence" (Note - This needs to be done in a correct legal way but it is possible).
I was speaking to Steve McKnight at a seminar about this and he said early in his career that is all he would do, sometimes making 100 offers in a week!!! He built his fortune and continues to do so because he is a master negotiater more than anything else.

 

Agree 100% with you and its a fact what your saying. You WILL get great deals and manufacturing equity from day 1 if you use various tactics and be tenacious. Also reduces your risk in the deal immediately.

Great points and post @albanga!!

 

This is good stuff.
The more examples of negotiations or why people might say certain things, the better you will be able to put it into practice.
And you can put it into practice, by calling and talking with agents in person, even if you aren't necessarily going to buy off them at that time.

 

Agree with you @Azazel

In the past I have even recorded myself on video in a made up scenario to see how I present both verbally and physically. I found it very useful.

 

That sounds like a good way to practice.
I used to write the same list of questions, then ring several different agents in a row and note down the answers to all of the questions. But I do remember getting thrown occasionally when I got a grizzled veteran who smelled a rookie

 

hehe happened to me many times so I feel ya. I also had to overcome my stutter. I had a bad stutter when I was a child and went for speech therapy lessons. Most of it got resolved by its self but it came back during my early days of negotiating which shattered my confidence. I finally realised what the anxiety was and worked on it like there's no tomorrow until it was never an issue again.

 

My weapon of choice is, a calculator.