There are plenty of free spreadsheets around which will help you calculate the net yield (just search the forum for spreadsheet), alternately you can use software such as PIA for a full detailed analysis, although this will cost you a few hundred dollars.

Anyone who’s read any of Margaret Lomas’ books will know she is a huge advocate of buying a property site unseen. She believes it stops you from making an investment based on emotions rather than research.

Not sure if i could do it myself, but then how do you buy in different states? Go on ip junkets around the country?

Anyone else with good/bad stories?

Hi GOM,

What do you mean by "stabilise the current property price"?

Would it not be fair to say the property prices have stabalised in the past 12 months… especially in the higher end of the market?

Cheers.

Do the valuers purposely value the property below market value, or are they simply being cautious?

Do you think it would help if you provided the valuer with recent sales history and also politely mentioned you are going to get an independent valuation to compare.  Would this entice the valuer to be more accurate, or simply aggravate him/her and probably get an even lower valuation? 

I have been told a valuer walks into a property with general "instructions" from the bank on how to value a property.  So the same valuer could provide different valuations for the same property, depending which bank the valuer is acting for.  Does anyone know if this is true?