Hi Ladies & Gents,
I've been using realestate.com to look at properties that fits in my price range, and then I look in the same area to check how much rents go for in a similar type of property.
My price range right now is quite low (low income, not much of a deposit yet), < 100k for property. I live in Sydney and it seems prices in the <100k area are all a fair distance out of Sydney. so I'm not in a position to pound the pavements for areas that are far away.
I'm jut thinking that my method of finding properties on realestate.com is a real inefficient way of finding properties. How does everybody else do it?
There are also other things I'm not sure how do I check, and I don't always want to take real estate agent's word for it.
Things like Vacancy rates, population growth of area, DA approvals in the area, or major developments in the area, how would I go about finding out?
Any help would be appreciated,
using the census details and crime statistics from the net is a good start.
yellow pages tells you a lot about an area, from the comfort of your own home.
Also I expect asking others on this website about an area would get some form of response.
100k for sydney. I think you need to go maybe 300k-700k north or west to find something in that price bracket.
You also dont say whether your chasing +ve or -ve geared investments.
Thanks billythefish,
I'll use census details, does it matter if the stats are 2-3 years out of date, or they still provide a good enough indication?
For Yellow Pages: What kinda of info would that reveal??
I'm going for +ve cashflow or +ve geard properties, and I'm not restricting myself to any particular area.
Also look in rural Victoria, but I'm not sure the cap growth will all that exciting.
Try to look for towns that are experiencing a rise in population, and have a population of at least 5,000.
Unfortunately, in tat price bracket, you'll find a lot of places are going backwards; that's why they're so cheap.
You may be better to go up to say $150k, cop a small neg cashflow initially for the sake of better cap growth.
Amsjerm
I have a small studio in Traralgon Victoria that I use for when I'm staying there for work. Whilst staying, I am doing some work to it, ie carpet (done), vinyl (done), tiles (kitchen and bathroom), replacing timber panelling with plaster and painting and perhaps some cosmetic work on the kitchen (doors and benches).
I really only bought it for me but will be selling up before I leave this posting. It will be worth about $75-79K when I'm done. Expected rent is $85-90 pw (should rise with Body Corp increase this year). I may even rent back for a period so I can just walk out when I'm done, which I expect to be in early to mid '09. Body Corp is $500 pa and rates $250 pa (from memory). It's not the prettiest part of town but it serves it's purpose for what I need.
Traralgon is the largest township in Gippsland Victoria, with approx 27,000 people. The main industries include power production (55% of Victoria's base-load electricity supply), coal mining, forestry and plantations, one of Australia's largest pulp paper mills also. The state Government also announced a $1 Billion investment into the power industry for a new plant at Loy Yang, just out of Traralgon, extra mining licences and a coal to diesel plant.
The Victorian Government also announced the route of the new Traralgon by-pass, that will restrict land release in the area and create a shortage of available land, that should push prices up quite substantially.
I also have a couple of USA properties, if you are that way inclined. I have just taken over the titles of two properties that I held the first mortgage over. The owners surrendered the properties in lieu of foreclosure. They are both duplexes in Rochester NY, just rehabbed (I need to spend about $4K due to a couple of code violations since new laws were introduced), fetching and potentially fetching $425 per month each unit (times four is around $1,700/mth ($20,400 pa)). I only took over last week, so I still need to calculate the taxes and where they are with pro-rata payments. They also have clean titles to keep the liens at bay. The comparison properties put their value at around $60K each (USD), which I will be putting them on the MLS (multi-listing service) for. I will discount considerably for a quick sale, so I can return the funds to Australia.
If you are only starting out however, I suggest you steer clear of the US market, especially at the moment.
Anyway, above are a couple of 'real' examples of what's out there. If you can raise the funds, some inner Melbourne suburbs are going nuts at the moment!!!
Cheers…Peter
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