Taylah, this is a good topic to bring up. I live in a Sydney suburb (outer ring) as well, and also find it very demanding to go out to physically look at properties at Rural towns, especially when you have kids.
I start by looking on RE websites, if I see something good I contact teh RE Agent with questions about the property, if it still sounds good we go and have a look at it. Most of the time they’re not as good as it seemed on the photographs, or you won’t get it for the price you thought, and then it’s driving all the way back home then. Very discouraging.
I find it’s hard to keep myself motivated and to not get discouraged after these long drives. You could fly to some places of course (extra costs and having to hire a car when you get there).
Finally we’ve found something, our offer got accepted, and we’re financing it right now. But it’s about 6 hours drive away and still not positive or even neutral cashflow, but better than anywhere else I’ve looked. How much farther do we have to go for CF+??? I really find it very hard to find CF+IPs when you live around Sydney.
May be I’m still looking in the wrong areas, but I don’t want to buy in places that have a less than 10,000 population.
I hope other people will have some good ideas for Taylah since I haven’t been of any help! Sorry Taylah.
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